Muddled as thinking about critical values must be -- "ambiguity" is exactly
the same word with which I would have begun my own answer.
And I think humanity is sharply divided on this issue.
For some strange reason (well -- perhaps it's not so strange) neither my wife
nor any of my earlier female companions had very much tolerance for ambiguity
in dramatic story telling -- and I think most of humanity feels the same way.
There are the good guys -- there are the bad guys -- and a certain pleasure
comes from watching the one eventually triumph over the other.
While I love the ambiguity of deeply flawed, failed heroes and attractive,
all-too-human villains -- to the point, where it's difficult to even make such
a distinction.
(I remember how one of my college dates, a sweet, young, Midwestern country
girl, had to leave the theater when one of Ingmar Bergman's heroes was bashing
out the brains of a little boy - a moment that I found exhilarating)
That's why I had such hopes for "Unforgiven" -- but alas, Clint the
director/storyteller is not in the same league as those directors who made him
a star as the nameless cowboy or Dirty Harry.
********************
Ambiguity is the answer. Plus an arresting and highly visual use of language.
Great literature explores the complexities and contradictions of the human
psyche in action through strongly visualized and explicit narratives. That's
my off the cuff definition. Muddled, I'm sure. But if anything, great
literature is great muddlering.
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