"The Help" movie

newccuser
Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:37:46 +0000

I don’t complain about the book’s topic. It’s the shallow characters, banal prose, and predictable plot that rub me as being no greater “literature” than James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks.

Everybody else has their right to enjoy the book (just like I have my right to dislike it). Perhaps I just enjoy playing devil’s advocate and automatically rebel against anything mainstream. I for one am happy to see it hit the big screen - I feel that’s probably where it belongs better anyways. By that, I mean as something suitable for mass consumption; as something that an audience can passively (as opposed to critically) enjoy, then forget about as soon as it’s over. That’s what differentiates “The Help” from true literature - it’s something that’s perfectly fine for a money-maker, but nobody will remember it in a decade or two, whereas true literature such as Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” will remain just that, beloved for posterity.