From: Patsloane-AT-aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 17:07:58 EDT
Subject: Re: PLC: Literary Saints


In a message dated 8/15/00 12:44:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
dlangsto-AT-mcla.mass.edu writes:

> ..and?  Every work of art has an ethical dimension, but that doesn't make
>  every work of art an adequate model for how to think ethically.  For
>  example, do you find the pleasure/pain economy of _De Profundis_ an
>  adequate basis for conducting one's life?  Would you recommend it as an
>  ethical model to your children or students?  
By your reasoning, Dante shouldn't have written the Inferno, because all 
those sinners in hell don't give children and students good role models for 
ethical behavior.

I'd guess you see an ethical dimension in showing how to behave, but no 
ethical dimension in showing how _not_ to behave. So we toss Picture of 
Dorian Gray, De Profundis, the Inferno, Saint Augustine's Confessions, Crime 
and Punishment, and any other text that shows sinful or wicked people, or 
deals with, so to speak, the wages of sin.

It's an interesting way of thinking, though I don't think I actually share 
your views.  Wouldn't it get a little boring to have nothing but stories 
about good people who did good things and were never tempted to do bad 
things?  Did you mean this recommendation only for children and students, or 
for adults as well? 

pat


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