Letters, Jul. 3, 1995

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AMERICA'S CULTURAL REVULSION

"Are movies and music poisoning America's soul? Probably, but not without the millions who plunk down billions for this schlock." Patrice K. Yeatter Duvall, Washington CONGRATULATIONS FOR ADDRESSING THE violence in the media issue [Cover Stories, June 12] with a degree of responsible depth. You not only suggested viable solutions but also respected the intellect of your readership. It's disturbing that more politicians don't exercise the same qualities. Fred Moffett Orange, California

DESPITE HOLLYWOOD'S SELF-RIGHTEOUS indignation at supposed threats to the First Amendment, let's not lose sight of the sole reason film producers turn out gory movies and vitriolic lyrics: money. To expect entertainment moguls to stop peddling lucrative scum is just about as realistic as to expect hyenas to become vegetarians. R. Alex Kaseberg La Jolla, California AOL: ThorDoggie

BOB DOLE'S ATTACK ON HOLLYWOOD IS laughable. In my lifetime, Washington has contributed more to the moral decay of America than Hollywood has. Hollywood at least is fiction; Washington is real life. Scott Sundback Saegertown, Pennsylvania Via America Online

YOU GOT IT BACKWARD! THE AMERICAN soul killed music and movies when it abandoned the Good, the True and the Beautiful as ideals. There is enough guilt to go around. Artists, producers, publishers, liberals, conservatives, politicians and businessmen are all guilty, but mostly it is the populace. We want the junk. Nyal Williams Muncie, Indiana

IF THE ARTS ARE REFLECTIONS OF A society, then sick arts are the products of a sick society. Censoring these products is nothing more than treating symptoms and neglecting the disease. The remedy for such an ailment is education that sharpens the critical mind and nurtures discriminating taste. A nation with such educated citizens is usually immune to cultural pollution. Hardja Susilo Honolulu

THE NOTION THAT MUSIC AND CINEMA are responsible for the meltdown of U.S. society is utter nonsense; moreover, this red herring is perpetuated by venal politicians to pre-empt any serious examination of sensitive issues. America is ailing and in denial. Chief among the many ills exacerbating our sick spirit is bogus puritanism. Ill-minded men wed to this pernicious folly inhibit us from ordaining reasonable policies regarding sex, drugs, violent crime, taxes, the military and foreign policy. Tully Atkinson San Clemente, California

THE ISSUE OF DEPICTED EVIL IS CERTAINLY not as cut-and-dried as both sides of the argument make it out to be. Art reflects society, to be sure, and ours is a troubled society. But art is an imaginative instrument, and the imagination that fuels our actions can help us overcome society's troubles. What raises a product of entertainment to the level of a work of art is in part the strength of its treatment of human action, good and evil. Great art uses descriptive and prescriptive means to depict morality. Pure depiction in art has no force; pure prescription in art has too much. At the crossroads of the two is where the path to virtue begins. Eric David Los Angeles

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