If we want our children to grow up smart, why do we send them mixed messages in cartoons saying that the villain is a genius and the hero beats them with brawn?
Asimov wrote an excellent essay on this very topic. In it, he spoke on the troubling history of the Sword and Sorcery genre, where a simple-minded, muscle-bound hero often would slay a crafty wizard. The essay, I believe, is called simply “Sword and Sorcery,” and can be found in the collection titled MAGIC, which includes some of his fantasy stories and essays about fantasy.
Alas, Reddit, I couldn’t find a copy of it on the internet for you to peruse.
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