Let it be said: entertainment and amusements are not, in themselves, bad things. In our culture, it is true, we have gone overboard. A book I've mentioned before called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman deals with this topic as it relates to television. In general, he would say, people at the time the book was published, 1985, spent way too much time entertaining themselves while letting certain vital parts of their lives slide. I would love to know what Postman (now deceased) would say about the world of today. The process of "amusing ourselves to death" has accelerated.
Having said that, entertainment (as I say) at its heart is a good, in fact God-ordained, thing. Like sex, it can be abused, but it is not bad in itself. A book that illustrates the looniness of trying to eliminate entertainment altogether is Hard Times by Charles Dickens. In it Mr. Gradgrind runs a school that purports to deal strictly in "facts." Gradgrind even opposes flowered wallpaper since "flowers don't live on walls." His son and daughter, meanwhile, are fed up with their father's philosophy and sneak off to see a circus. (All this I learned from a BBC production of Hard Times we were watching the other night. I once tried to get into the book but found it depressing, as I recall. The BBC production was depressing as well, come to think of it...)
In any case, in Hard Times Dickens seemed to be making the point that the people that worked in the awful factories of 19th century England, like the children of Gradgrind, needed circuses to maintain a semblance of sanity. One could make the case that in our dizzying world, we too need to be entertained. I know I certainly feel that way. (A regular question around our household is, "Is there anything funny on?") Life in its complexities can wear us down and wholesome distractions can be a blessing.
The problem, as we know, is that today's world is rife with entertainment that is anything but wholesome. For starters, professional wrestling, pornography, most reality TV, and violent video games spring to mind. Writers have the opportunity either to improve the situation by writing worthy and nourishing novels, scripts, op-ed pieces, magazine features, blog entries, etc.--or to make it worse by adding to the drek. A scripture with a million applications also applies here: "as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all people..." Writing that heals and uplifts while it entertains can be of service in God's kingdom as much as a donation to World Vision or quality time with the family.
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