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Full Idea
Our responses to literature should show that we grasp whatever counts as morally important within the narrative, but not necessarily that we judge and feel in the way deemed appropriate by the work.
Gist of Idea
We should understand what is morally important in a story, without having to endorse it
Source
Eileen John (Artistic Value and Opportunistic Moralism [2006], 'Accommodating')
Book Ref
'Aesthetics and the Phil of Art (debates)', ed/tr. Kieran,Matthew [Blackwell 2004], p.338
A Reaction
She gives as an example a story by Hemingway which places a high value on the courageous hunting of big game. A second example is the total amorality of a Highsmith novel. This idea seems exactly right to me.
| 22692 | A work can be morally and artistically excellent, despite rejecting moral truth [John,E] |
| 22693 | The works we value most are in sympathy with our own moral views [John,E] |
| 22694 | We should understand what is morally important in a story, without having to endorse it [John,E] |
| 22695 | We value morality in art because that is what we care about - but it is a contingent fact [John,E] |