@ravenonthill Yes, and the USA is any less of a theocracy how, exactly? (Look at all the flag shagging, prayer of alegience, etc: it *reeks* of theocracy, only the unadmitted faith is Mammonism. The dominionists would like to replace that with Christianity-In-Name-Only but are facing an uphill struggle ...)

@cstross

I like that description.

I just finished reading a 400 page fantasy novel where the female MC hated a male character for an undisclosed reason until the last 50 pages when she explains to him - and the reader - and he apologizes.

For 350 pages I was muttering, "What's the issue here? Get it out in the open".

@cstross I'm not sure of that last point.
My impression of the rom-com genre is that it largely depends on a misunderstanding that could be cleared up by a 30-second discussion, which the protagonists steadfastly refuse to have until forced into it near the end of the story.

@cstross You've just described 90% of the episodes of the tv show 7th Heaven. They all depended on one member of the family concealing important information from another member for no good reason.

@[email protected] I think these 'stupidity dependent' misunderstandings are tempting partly because they are easy, but also because they are easy to justify as 'realistic' because we have all seen people being stupid in relationships. But they fundamentally aren't satisfying because we can see how easily the conflict could be resolved from the outside, sort of a deus ex machina in reverse.