But for those to whom the whole
problem is external and distant, these other faculties do not easily
come into play. In order that the faint image of the affair shall mean
something to them, they must be allowed to exercise the love of
struggle, suspense, and victory.
Miss Patterson [Footnote: _Op. cit._, pp. 6-7.] insists that
"suspense... constitutes the difference between the masterpieces in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the pictures at the Rivoli or the
Rialto Theatres." Had she made it clear that the masterpieces lack
either an easy mode of identification or a theme popular for this
generation, she would be wholly right in saying that this "explains
why the people straggle into the Metropolitan by twos and threes and
struggle into the Rialto and Rivoli by hundreds. The twos and threes
look at a picture in the Art Museum for less than ten minutes--unless
they chance to be art students, critics, or connoisseurs. The hundreds
in the Rivoli or the Rialto look at the picture for more than an hour.
As far as beauty is concerned there can be no comparison of the merits
of the two pictures. Yet the motion picture draws more people and
holds them at attention longer than do the masterpieces, not through
any intrinsic merit of its own, but because it depicts unfolding
events, the outcome of which the audience is breathlessly waiting. It
possesses the element of struggle, which never fails to arouse
suspense.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178