Q&A: Literature and Movies
Literature and Movies
Question
I saw in one of the questions that the Rabbi encouraged reading good literature, and I wanted to ask the Rabbi something that has been bothering me for a long time: 1. After all, in every book what interests us is the plot—someone dies, someone gets their heart broken, or some other trouble happens, and in the end he gets through it. If there were nothing like that in the story, and it just talked about the life of a normal person who gets up in the morning, goes to work, etc., without any bad turn in his life, we wouldn’t read the book. And the same goes for movies. So if that’s the case, we’re basically enjoying evil. 2. Isn’t it a bit strange that in our free time, our pleasures are to read about or watch someone else’s life?
Answer
That’s a very simplistic description. There are works that deal with the ordinary person. A good writer can make a good book even out of mundane life.
But even if not, so what? The enjoyment is not from the evil but from its literary depiction. And even if the enjoyment were from the evil—I don’t see anything wrong with that.