155 Is Stranger Things for children? We ask Alice!

The debate has been raging over the past week. Does presenting evil or immoral material in literature or movies cause people to be desensitized to it, or even to seek it out? Did we say the past week? We’re sorry, we meant to say that this debate has been raging over the past 160 years, ever since Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, help create a new genre called children’s literature. Carroll wrote stories which would later collectively be called Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with a sequel called Through the Looking Glass. Carroll, writing under his real name of Dodgson, also wrote essays on the dangers of publishing literature which might lead readers into sin; being an Anglican deacon with a great love for the innocence of children made him particularly sensitive to this. Of course, there are those who believe that even Carroll’s stories of Alice are dangerous to children, but wasn’t that always the point of children's stories (a.k.a. fairy tales?) Weren’t fairy tales meant to warn people of danger? And what danger could possibly be had from reading about falling “upside down” into a dark underground hole where nothing is as it seems? Listen as we discuss the potential pitfalls of presenting stories aimed towards children, and please tell us what you think in the comments. — Streamed December 5, 2025