The photoplay; a psychological study (1916)

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THE PHOTOPLAY spoken, for instance, of the action wMch tlie plot of the story or its social background may- start in our soul. The suffering of the poor, the injustice by which the weak may be forced into the path of crime, and a hundred other social motives may be impressed on us by the photoplay; thoughts about human society, about laws and reforms, about human differ- ences and human fates, may fill our mind. Yet this is not one of the characteristic func- tions of the moving pictures. It is a side effect which may set in just as it may result from reading the newspapers or from hear- ing of practical affairs in life. But in all our discussions we have also left out another mental process, namely, esthetic emotion. We did speak about the emotions which the plot of the play stirs up. We discussed the feelings in which we sympathize with the characters of the scene, in which we share their suffering and their joy; and we also spoke about that other group of emotions by which we take a mental attitude toward the behaviour of the persons in the play. But there is surely a third group of feelings and emotions which we have not yet considered, namely, those of our joy in the play, our 134