Do you think we should be careful what we read, watch or listen to near Christmas or other Holy days?

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I’ve just received my first Christmas present. It is Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”. I’ve seen the movie about her life and while is not the type of movie most people would like I really loved it. But considering her idiosyncratic point of view on life I wonder if this book would take me to spiritual journeys I shouldn’t necessarily travel around this great Christian celebration. And I don’t want to look in it and find out how the book is because I want it to be a surprise.
Has anyone read it? What do you think of it?
I usually don’t censor myself in reading/watching in sync with the Holy days but I am thinking… maybe I should?
 
I never heard of “The Bell Jar” or the author. However if it is something that may lead you down a potentially dangerous path, then it should be avoided at all times, and not just around Holy days. We are called to holiness every day and not just around the feast days of the Church.

I do understand the desire to “live better” during special times of the year such as Advent and Lent, however these are also supposed to be times of spiritual training and reflection to strengthen us so that we can continue living that way throughout the entire year.
 
If something is going to lead you away from God, then you should avoid it, Christmas, Holy day, or ordinary day.

I personally just thought “The Bell Jar” was a memoir about a young person’s mental breakdown. Part of her breakdown seemed to have been caused by the fact that she wasn’t ready for/ didn’t want to get involved in some of the immoral activities her peers were doing. I didn’t feel it had any effect on my morals or religious belief one way or the other. It perhaps provided me with some (name removed by moderator)ut on Sylvia Plath’s mindset so I could better understand her poetry and life. That’s about it.
 
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You are right to caution. Although I have never read the Bell Jar, I do vaguely understand that it’s about a young woman who goes to New York and battles sever depression. The author actually committed suicide shortly after it was published.

In any event, the Church has always taught the need to stay away from books that will threaten one’s Catholic faith. It should even be seen as a good thing to prevent distribution of books contrary to Catholic teaching and which could be spiritually harmful. It’s one thing to read bad books in order to “know thine enemy”, but that’s about it. Even then, one should prepare spiritually with prayers and fasts.

In his encyclical letter, Mirari Vos, Pope Gregory XVI minces no words about Church Tradition and teaching in regards to bad books:
15. Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again?
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16. The Church has always taken action to destroy the plague of bad books. This was true even in apostolic times for we read that the apostles themselves burned a large number of books.[23] It may be enough to consult the laws of the fifth Council of the Lateran on this matter and the Constitution which Leo X published afterwards lest “that which has been discovered advantageous for the increase of the faith and the spread of useful arts be converted to the contrary use and work harm for the salvation of the faithful.”[24] This also was of great concern to the fathers of Trent, who applied a remedy against this great evil by publishing that wholesome decree concerning the Index of books which contain false doctrine.[25] “We must fight valiantly,” Clement XIII says in an encyclical letter about the banning of bad books, “as much as the matter itself demands and must exterminate the deadly poison of so many books; for never will the material for error be withdrawn, unless the criminal sources of depravity perish in flames.”[26] Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven, throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this See. They are even so depraved as to affirm that it is contrary to the principles of law, and they deny the Church the right to decree and to maintain it.
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God bless.
 
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I liked the book enough but I never read it to the end (I think I got about 90% through it). I liked the book a lot at the beginning and found the main character charming in her own way. After a while she started to annoy me though so I put it down and never picked it back up.

It’s a story about a troubled young girl. You could always read it after the Christmas season, or not read it at all if it troubles you.
 
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I don’t worry about being troubled just that I will probably be thinking of earthly matters and get sad in a contemplative way. I usually like this state but maybe I owe to God to try and think of His birth right now and be joyful.
Thanks I will postpone it until after the Feast of St. John the Baptist.
 
Thank you for both posts. I often wondered what exactly did the Church say about censorship.
 
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