The Problem of Leisure by Henry Durant

Author:Henry Durant [Durant, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367133078
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

A century ago, even if collier youths could not read, did not know who Jesus Christ was and had never heard of Queen Victoria, nevertheless they knew all the exploits of Dick Turpin and could detail the prison-breaking escapades of Jack Sheppard.1 Similarly, to-day their environment offers no incentive to find exciting the everyday facts around them3 or to seek knowledge by difficult and arduous paths. Whereas previously, in a search for something different, something outside of their own drab existence, yet something which could be easily assimilated, they delighted in the exploits of those who have been brave enough or strong enough to defy law and order, they now have recourse to the cinema, where all that is denied to them can be enjoyed vicariously. It is at once their nurse and comfort, their guide and entertainer. There is more than humour in the remark which the New Yorker recently put into the mouth of a young girl. “I never read any books now. If they’re any good they make the grade for the movies.”

1 The Cinema, National Council of Public Morals (London, 1917), p. 275.

2 The value of the cinema as a method of imparting information to students of all ages is now being realized. Unfortunately, Great Britain is lagging behind in the provision of projectors in schools. Less than 1,000 schools are so equipped in this country, while in the United States more than 20,000 schools have their own apparatus for showing films.

1 “But it is to be especially remarked that, among all those who had never even heard such names as St. Paul, Moses, or Solomon, there was a general knowledge of the character and course of life of Dick Turpin, the highwayman, and more particularly of Jack Sheppard, the robber and prison breaker.” Second Report of the Commissioners on Child Labour, vol. xiii. (1843), p. 170.

2 Survey of Merseyside, vol. iii. p. 219.

3 The one exception is the surprising knowledge of mechanical gadgets and machines which is often displayed by such youths.

As regards the impact made on the general mass of the people by the cinema it is sufficient to quote from the President’s Research Committee:1

“Although the motion pictures is primarily an agency for amusement it is no less important as an influence in shaping attitudes and social values. The fact that it is enjoyed as entertainment may even enhance its importance in this respect. Any discussion of this topic must start with a realization that for the vast audience the pictures and ‘filmland’ have tremendous vitality. Pictures and actors are regarded with a seriousness that is likely to escape the casual observer who uses formal criteria of judgment. Editors of popular motion picture magazines are deluged with letters from motion picture patrons, unburdening themselves of an infinite variety of feelings and attitudes, deeply personal, which form around the lives and activities of those inhabiting the screen world. One editor receives over 80,000 such letters a year. These are filled with self-revelations which indicate, sometimes

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