Uh oh...am I in trouble now?!?! My apologies, I did not intend to sound harsh or flammatory; and it's not an issue of immense concern to me that I feel the need to delve further. I know they are young, I know they are part of a hip crowd, and I know they were just entertaining the audience. It just seemed an incongruous statement from someone who by all intents and purposes *did* know the story very well, and summed it up by saying "it was all the 'shrooms', man!" I guess it's still cute to joke about hallucinations.
I guess it hit a nerve because I heard so many of my fellow anthro students say the same thing about all the 'great' stories..."they took some heavy duty drugs, man, that's why they came up with those things." And there I was, as drug free as all get out and I could be just as imaginative and wild in my concepts of fantasy stories WITHOUT the drugs. I had an anthro friend of mine tell me that they only way we could understand a culture was by taking drugs...and my response was, well then what the hell was I needing all those damn books for? And why should I even try to understand if I am not on some kind of drug induced high? It was EXTREMELY faulty logic to me.
I am sorry if I offended, though. Dom did a very nice job as Merry, and I don't doubt that they love the story as much if not more than the fans. After having gone through all that they did to produce the story, how much of the love can you NOT express???
best,
Alkhin