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Leslie A. Fiedler, summarizing an article in "CEA Critic," May 1974, said, "Popular Literature--sentimental, horror, pornographic--titillates the emotions, releasing the reader from rationality and allowing him a moment of ecstasy. To define a true majority literature [i.e., low cultural--P.B.] we should evaluate a work not by ethics or aesthetics, but by the ecstasy it produces." Comment by P.B.: If a literature of refined cultural taste, mature intellectual statements, and civilized courtesy is to be rejected because it admires self-control, then we surely shall move backwards.

-- Notebooks Category 14: The Arts in Culture > Chapter 4 : Reflections On Specific Arts > # 69