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When Emma fell into adultery, "she recalled the heroines of the books she had read, and the lyrical host of those adulterous wives began to sing in her memory. … She took her place among this category of amorous women she had so envied."

Of course, advertising-based entertainment loves to cultivate pouty thoughts of dissatisfaction and "I deserve better"—that is, "You can get even for your stupid life by whipping out the Visa card." "Further, Emma felt the gratification of revenge. Had she not suffered enough!" What she had suffered, mostly, was boredom.

No matter what forms of entertainment we indulge in, print or electronic, highbrow or low, we need to be alert to the seductive power of fantasy. Caressing imaginary images and then attempting to deal with real flesh-and-blood people is the equivalent of drinking a pint of Scotch before climbing into the driver's seat.

Reality is God's home address; nowhere else can bad things actually be changed for the better and, in the end, be redemptive. It's there you can hear a melody and take up a guitar or keyboard and actually play it—or get up and dance.

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July 12 1999, Vol. 43, No. 8