Last week, I started reading Dangerous Liaisons. Between that and the Decameron I'm remembering why I used to love such books.

They mastered the art of suggestion.

These novels are dripping with sexual acts yet the word sex is not mentioned once. The creativity of the author in weaving the appropriate words in with the beautifully amusing and intelligent characters makes me smile each time. I love these people. I admire this author. Not just for his ingenuity and wit but for not assuming that his or her readers are dumb.

I have the same problem with movies. What bothers me about recent movies is not as much their lack of creativity as their assumption that the audience is stupid. Characters have no depth, plots are rarely complicated and just about anyone can figure out the ending of most current movies.

I don't mean to imply that I want movies to have open endings. On the contrary, I enjoy when the story has an ending. I don't need every single knot tied but I don't like the ending left to the moviegoer's imagination, either. But the recent movies are so shallow that just viewing the preview is enough to get the entire plot. There are no surprises.

I'm offended by the implications of the recent movies and novels. Either the authors and moviemakers are dumb or they think that the population is. The characters are so unbelievably one-sided. No good characteristics on the bad guy and nothing bad about the good guy. It's so sad.

If the characters aren't going to be totally realistic, like in The Taste of Others, then I want them to be witty. I want them fun and interesting. I want them unpredictable. I want them to be worth my time.

I know it takes longer to read novels that dance around the issues. You need to pay attention to the words, you need to read between the lines. But that's what makes the reading so much more rewarding. You can read it once and then strip the layers and discover another level of meaning, like in Shakespeare. These novels are fun to read on the surface but they offer so much more to the person who's looking for it.

Especially since these deliciously wicked people are so much fun.

Sometimes what you don't say can mean so much more than what you do.

Previously? No More.