That’s mass market pabulum. Art is supposed to disturb. Angels aren’t interesting. Dickens and Dostoevsky would have these sorts of characters...angelic, innocent young women...and they are a bore. There’s no concept of ‘accuracy’ in fiction only consistency within a given work. The point isn’t to be accurate but to be vivid. If you want the analog of the ‘Filthy Rich’ depictions just look at how negatively poor and middle class people are depicted in ‘Winesberg, Ohio’ and the Spoon River anthology from about Fitzgerald’s time. It’s not so much Class based as Freudian...seemingly well adjusted people/communities have a seedy underbelly.
—— Dostoevsky would have these sorts of characters...angelic, innocent young women...and they are a bore. ——
Huh? Doestoevsky is the only novelist who matters. His understanding of human nature is profound.
So those comprising the mass market can't find things interesting? Re: "Wholesome and well adjusted people aren’t interesting"
Art is supposed to disturb
No...art can also inspire, comfort, strengthen, elate, amuse, etc.
It's a myth that art is only supposed to disturb although left-leaning artists tend to think so.
And I guess "depressing" must not fall under the same category as "disturbing" to you? Re: "No great novel is depressing."
“Art is supposed to disturb.”
That’s how those infected with liberalism think. At least Banksy, the serial vandal in London had a nice turn of phrase about it: “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” I much prefer how Boris Pasternak put it in Dr. Zhivago:
“...he made a note reaffirming his belief that art always served beauty, and beauty is delight in form, and form is the key to organizing life, since no living thing can exist without it, so that every work of art, including tragedy, expresses the joy of existence. And his own ideas and notes also brought him joy, a tragic joy, a joy full of tears that exhausted him and made his head ache.”
Conservatives believe art might disturb, but rather should elevate, raise up, inspire, and delight. Art should be about the good, true and the beautiful. That changed in the modern era: http://www.atlassociety.org/why_art_became_ugly