Picked up some items at Walmart today including a hammer and, on a whim, the uncut version of the movie Psycho released this year to mark the original version’s 60th anniversary.
At self-checkout the machine made me get the authorization of an attendant who could verify my age. I assumed it was because I was buying a hammer, a potentially lethal weapon. It was because the movie is R-rated. I remarked to the attendant, “you can’t kill anyone with a movie.”
Censors and strict moralists might disagree with me. Is art responsible for its effect on human behavior? It’s a question at the heart of my essay on realist drama that is being edited now by a magazine.