Great Britain -- Social conditions; Moral conditions; Social problems
When we pass to the next cultural level of entertainment--the better
music-hall, the metropolitan type of theatre, the concert, the novel,
etc.--we have a vast provision of entertainment which amuses or
interests without cultural prejudice; rising at times to a positive
measure of artistic education or intellectual stimulation. Two things
only need be noticed here. The first is the stupidity of the kind of
censorship which we tolerate; of which little need be said, since it
is generally recognised. The amateur moral censorship of art reaches
the culmination of its absurdity in our dramatic inquisition. The
dramatist may deal with sex-passion as pruriently and provokingly as
he likes, provided he leaves enough to the spectator's facile
imagination; but he must not attempt to raise love as an intellectual
issue. Our people may feel love: they must not think about it as a
serious problem.
The other, and more needed observation, regards the novel. There are
novels of fine artistic value, like those of Phillpotts: novels of
great intellectual use, like those of Wells: and novels of a general
and more subtle educational value, like those of Meredith. There are
novels which, like the melodrama, counteract education by their low
standard of art and intelligence, and there are novels--the great
majority--which entertain without prejudice. Since we have as much
right to be entertained as to be instructed, novel-reading is a normal
part of a normal life. Seeing, however, that a very large proportion
of the community read nothing but novels, it has been felt that the
novel might be used as a vehicle of instruction, and the didactic or
historical novel has become an institution. Many believe that they are
being educated when they read this literature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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