Fictions and Morals in a Time of Pandemic and Protest Inside the Text

In the last couple episodes, we’ve established some of the the ways fiction functions morally as well as how various thinkers have argued it OUGHT to function. But we were left wondering about what the upshot of fiction’s moral functioning is. Why does fiction work on the moral level? 

In this final episode in a series about the moral function of fiction: several notes reflecting on Black Lives Matter protests, Star Wars, evangelicalism, “these unprecedented times,” and the workings of ideology.

Find a full transcript at insidethetext.wordpress.com

REFERENCES & CLIPS:


Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
“Trump threatens to deploy military against protesters” The Guardian, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btjk0_WRIQ4
“Protecting Our Kids from Harmful Entertainment,” Carol Cuppy, Focus on the Family
“‘Magic’ in Movies and Entertainment,” Focus on the Family
“Does Violence in Movies Matter?” Matt Kaufman, Boundless.org (a ministry of Focus on the Family)
“Pepsi Pulls Ad Accused of Trivializing Black Lives Matter,” Daniel Victor, New York Times
“Every Covid-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same,” Microsoft Sam, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM3J9jDoaTA (used with permission)
Ideology: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton