Don't Insult My Hallmark

             'Tis the season to be jolly and watch those Christmas movies on tv! I don't know about you, but I love settling in with a big cup of hot cocoa and a warm, fuzzy blanket, turning to the Hallmark channel, and being able to predict the plot-line of the story of my nightly movie within the first five minutes. I find these movies absolutely perfect and adore watching them. Therefore, when I read Aristotle's "The Poetics" I was saddened to learn these movies were not good movies!


              I believe Aristotle would dislike my Hallmark movie for multiple reasons. One being, "Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thinking than history". I highly doubt a movie that can be figured out within the first five minutes is classified under "philosophical and higher thinking", but within that simplicity lies a certain charm that some, like me, enjoy. In fact, Aristotle says, "an action which is one and continuous in the sense above defined, I call Simple, when the change of fortune takes place without Reversal of the Situation and without Recognition." In movies such as 12 Men of Christmas, the plot line never veers round to its opposite and the characters never go from ignorance to knowledge. These two criteria, reversal and recognition are key to a great story.


            My big issue arises when Aristotle says, "The change in fortune should be not from bad to good, but reversely, from good to bad." This statement slashes out the majority, if not all, quintessential chick flick movies. Therefore, Aristotle, I will have to disagree with your claims of what makes a good story. I believe that Aristotle miscalculates the audiences' need for a complex plot. He calls my fellow audience members dumber than those who find joy in tragedies. "Being the unrefined, it is evidently the lower of the two". 


          My question to Aristotle and my fellow bloggers is: How exactly does it make me less of an intellectual individual to like the happy ending? What justifies Aristotle in his ability to judge the intelligence of the audience to certain "unrefined" movies?