Greeting Card Street: Fantasy

[penthius]

The greeting card street has expanded past control, which is a bit of a problem in the rest of book-town. Sure, it's all in response to market demand, and the tourists love it, they just absolutely love being able to wander a street filled with houses built of cards, and being able to see the card characters pouring each other tea and telling each other that they don't know what they'd do without close friends like you, and then the tourists go and buy the card to take home with them, maybe to put in an album, maybe to show their friends as a "you won't believe what I saw," or maybe to actually send as a card to their friends and family, as appropriate. The problem is that the whole town was designed to respond to demand, although with a few reserves in case of genres going extinct and being unable to reproduce once conditions improve. New genres rise up all the time and expand into deserted neighborhoods--you don't want to visit the urban fantasy section, that's all I'm saying. We insist that the tourists take someone with them from the police procedural section (and *not* one of the villains!) if they go to visit there. It’s almost as bad as the serial killer non-fiction, truth tho tell, at least in terms of minor characters (like the tourists) getting damaged without any warning or foreshadowing that can be easily detected and avoided by our experienced guides. But where was I? Oh, yes, greeting cards.

Inspiration: Googling "greetings to the great king" -> greeting cards in Great Portland Street
Story potential: Low.
Notes: Eh. Fforde does it better.