[Intrepid Homoludens]

I absolutely found it underhandedly acerbic, scathing, soap-box-hoarding, disdainful, and merciless. I want more. Adding to Fairygdmther's criticism, it's this kind of severity that discomforts some 'sensitive' minds, for better or worse. So what? Why should you appease just one type of demographic? That you may be distancing a particular audience has more to do with their self-perceptions and decisions rather than what you present to them. There are other audiences that would appreciate this kind of parable, even if it is spiced to render it unpalatable in places. Pragmatically, you can't be both a good [fiction] writer and an apologist at the same time.

This is why I love writers like Florence King, Dorothy Parker, and Fran Leibowitz.

And Dom, nice is a dirty word, one of the best. I never use it unless I need something particularly penetrating on someone: "Oh, that's.....nice." It's brilliantly wicked.