Modern Age - Winter 2017 - 79

LITERATURE AND MORALITY

to standards imposed upon it from without, lest it sweep away
social order in a tide of romantic emotion.

I

n order to approach a resolution of such doubts regarding the
moral soundness of literary art, it is important to establish a
few distinctions among propositions that all too easily coalesce.
There is, first, the distinction between the intrinsic moral worth
of a work of literature and the effect it may have, which is likely
to vary from reader to reader or, in the case of a dramatic presentation, from audience to audience. The effect upon the viewer,
however, is a consideration discrete from the intrinsic status of
a purported image of a pagan goddess. The system of ratings
that prevails in the American film industry, as well as in television
and electronic games, is an acknowledgment (perhaps dubious)
of the differential effect of media representations on audiences
of different ages. It is not so long ago, however, that some works
of fiction-even works regarded by some critics as masterpieces,
like Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Joyce's Ulysses-were
regarded as unsuitable for any and all readers. It may be difficult
to predict the effect of a given work on a particular individual. I
once knew a lady who averred with an air of grievance that she
could make no sense at all out of Ulysses, much less find the "good
parts."
There is also a distinction to be made between the moral
character of the writer or artist, his intention, and the effect and
nature of his work. Plato and Keats both see the artist as a man
whose character dissolves under the pressure of his inspiration
and in some measure leads his readers with him. But it must be
borne in mind that any work of imaginative literature is a fiction:
we cannot reasonably hold the author to strict account for what
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Modern Age - Winter 2017

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