Factor Werther

In the eighteenth century, critics thought reading novels would corrupt girls’ morals. In the nineteenth century, mystery fiction was suspected of causing crime. In the twentieth century, the pulp-fiction panic had to do with comic books and juvenile delinquency. Walter Ong would argue that Mickey Mouse was evidence of creeping secularism and Superman of rampant fascism. In the nineteen-fifties, there would be hearings in Congress after Fredric Wertham, a New York psychiatrist, published a polemic blaming comics for everything from truancy to murder.

BATMAN’S GUN.

Goethe teve um problema similar quando o clássico Werther foi acusado de incitar ao suicídio. Hoje os jogos de computador são o bode expiatório de eleição para esta tendência.