Tola, I see what you mean and I do believe the story writer has an obligation in a way.I can give you an example that shocked me when I was younger. Luc Besson who directed the movie “The Big Blue” which was a big phenomenon in France, also wrote afterward the movie “Nikita”. When I saw the movie, I couldn’t speak right after.I didn’t like the fact that Besson idealized a killer by making her likeable and it really bothered me a lot. Because of all the young people who liked his movies, I believed that he had an obligation not to send this kind of message that a killer can be a nice person. I was extremely disappointed and upset.
Now this is a difficult subject because a movie like “Man of Fire” is a great movie but has also a likeable killer as main character.The difference is that he does get some kind of retaliation at the end.
The problem one will encounter is “what is a positive message?” or “what is immoral behavior?” Depending on the culture or upbringing, not everyone will have the same idea of immoral behavior.Then you start going into the censure issues.
So in sum, I think the pressure should be on the writer to write a story promoting a positive message because of the influence he/she could have on others, but from himself, not from society.

Every artist has an obligation to teach. No matter your form of art or genre, there must something other than just mere entertainment. Honestly, I can’t remember a movie that doesn’t has something positive about it.

The Heat, The Bandits, The Getaway all had redemptive/repentance/regret kinda stuff at the end.

@jef don’t know if you’ve seen No Country For Old Men by the Cohen Brothers. I didn’t quite get any clear moral lessons, like the film was a little weird.

I would love to mention characters like The Joker in Dark Knight. Lovable villains but they still end up like villains.

In all, as much as an artist tries to entertain, s/he shouldn’t miss out on the ‘didactic’ side of arts.

Every artist has an obligation to teach. No matter your form of art or genre, there must something other than just mere entertainment. Honestly, I can’t remember a movie that doesn’t has something positive about it.

The Heat, The Bandits, The Getaway all had redemptive/repentance/regret kinda stuff at the end.

@jef don’t know if you’ve seen No Country For Old Men by the Cohen Brothers. I didn’t quite get any clear moral lessons, like the film was a little weird.

I would love to mention characters like The Joker in Dark Knight. Lovable villains but they still end up like villains.

In all, as much as an artist tries to entertain, s/he shouldn’t miss out on the ‘didactic’ side of arts.

If it’s a real life experience, why not? Afterall, some people don’t serve the punishment for their evil deeds here on earth. E.g is Nigerian politicians. They always live their lives to the fullest and die natural deaths with all our monies stuffed in their foreign accounts.
Finally, I don’t think there’s a perfect life and that can never make me change my belief that they must still serve their punishment in the afterworld.

Jaywriter, I don’t think a writer has an obligation to pass a message. Writing is first and foremost an expression. An expression of feelings, opinions and beliefs. Passing a message is just a by product. A writer can damn well write anything he pleases. Writing is first for the writer.

@Tola, you know its totally different.

@Kaycee I feel every artist, writers included, have that as an obligation.

Henrik Ibsen, James Ene Henshaw, Athol Fugard, Arthur Miller, Shakespeare, Tewfik Al Hakim… They all educated their generations.

For me, every artist has to educate, and educate good morals not musketeering morals oh.

I won’t say a writer has an OBLIGATION per se….but the issue is the CONSEQUENCES. One can never tell how his/her work will impact the world, so it is pertinent for a Writer to think about the aftermath. It’s not really a matter of the world not being a perfect place, like @kaycee said. The truth is that Readers read to escape the harsh realities of life. So, If they find that their escape is no different from the World, why read/watch? They usually expect at least some form of retribution for evil in stories, except these stories are nothing but recounts of past happenings.
But then again, it also depends on the aim of the work as well; if it is to be used as a Political Statement or something, well….

But don’t look at me. I am a Horror writer. Sometimes my ghosts and monsters may not be killed. After all, evil never dies, it only sleeps…

@Kaycee, it can be the same thing, unless you are saying the people will not be influenced by the writer’s story.

@Raymond, once you say that it is pertinent for the writer to think about the consequences of his work, the issue of obligation has already entered the discussion… even if it just the obligation to think about those consequences (rather than to write or not to write). It is really a variant of the free speech debate…

But really, my question wasn’t really whether the writer should write or not. It was: can such works can ever be considered as good writing? For example, included along with works by Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, etc.

While i will say it is good to bring out a positive moral angle to a storyline,i will strenously suscribe to the fact that writers should be limited to this.Every writer is entitled to express his thoughts in his own manner in so far as they do not run foul of defamatory laws.This will necesarily lead us to the great debate were some writers believe in arts for arts sake and others subscribe to the school of arts for life sake.Both sides have convincing arguments to support their point and it will really be highhandedness for anybody to tag as wrong as of the above stated situations.This brings to mind how many persons vilified Micheal Henchard for “extremely been punished” in THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE!Again, we enjoy the variety in writing:Comedy,tragedy or Tragicomedy.We cannot say one is better than the other but eveything depends on the perception of the writer which brings into focus the reality of life that our thoughts vary as our faces are different!