Instead, success can only be determined by the artist. This does not mean that all art can be considered good art; I think that most real artists can admit that there are times when they are less successful at reaching their goals and fulfilling their visions than others. I also think that one of the measures of an amateur artists -- one who will never really be "good" -- is that they cannot clearly define what their intentions were.
My expectations of being slightly bored for the explanations as to why art and fiction is the way James says it is was, unfortunately, somewhat fulfilled -- I am not sure it is possible to discuss the technical details of an art form without making it at least slightly boring. Still, I found the ideas that James had on the subject interesting and valid, and the way he presented them was….

The nineteenth- (and early twentieth- ) century author and critic Henry James had a very different approach to understanding and explaining fiction as it was to be understood in both a scholarly and an artistic sense. Fiction and its authors have to take themselves with a certain sense of seriousness of purpose, in James' view, but with this cam a certain detachment (James 1884). True fiction, or at least good fiction, has a definite sense of context in the wider world, and with this comes a certain removal of the author's importance -- the seriousness and historical trajectory of great works of fiction transport the fiction itself beyond the control of the author, making it a part of the entire cultural and social tapestry (James 1884).

In reality, the boundless array of texts and fragments that constitute the world's body of fiction realize their full creation and potential somewhere between these….

Fiction's Come a Long Way, aby
The development of fiction from its nascent stages until today's contemporary works is a storied one. Many features mark contemporary fiction and differentiate it from the classics of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries: For one, modern writers use different perspectives to narrate: In some works, the narrator switches from third-person omniscient to first person, and in some contemporary works, even the challenging second-person. Experimentation in styles also marks contemporary fiction: Nabokov, perhaps fiction's greatest ever stylist, has written one novel penned to ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and another as literary criticism on a purposefully mediocre poem. (Nabokov: Lolita and Pale Fire).

ut one of the most pronounced shifts in fiction over these centuries has been the move from stuffy, high art to a fixation on and immersion in pop culture. George Eliot, for instance, in "Daniel Deronda," interspersed a very staid narrative with….

French omantic painter, Eugene Delacroix, is well-known from this period. Delacroix often took his subjects from literature but added much more by using color to create an effect of pure energy and emotion that he compared to music. He also showed that paintings can be done about present-day historical events, not just those in the past (Wood, 217). He was at home with styles such as pen, watercolor, pastel, and oil. He was also skillful in lithography, a new graphic process popular with the omantics. His illustrations of a French edition of Goethe's "Faust" and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" still stand as the finest examples in that medium.

Delacroix' painting "Massacre at Chios" is precisely detailed, but the action is so violent and the composition so dynamic that the effect is very disturbing (Janson, 678). With great vividness of color and strong emotion he pictured an incident in which 20,000 Greeks were killed….

The medium with which the artist works is also unique in that they are outfits that can and should be worn. The sound suits are designed to be wearable, imparting a grounded character to the exhibit. Instead of taking the suits too seriously, the viewer can imagine them as costumes in which the serious self is left behind in favor of the inner child. Like a mascot at a team game or a Disney character, the sound suits can also be conceived as disguises that obscure the mundane human being inside. No one things of Big Bird as a person in a bird suit, because to do so would ruin the spell. In the same way, one of Nick Cave's sound suits is to be seen and experienced at face value.
Because the costumes are disguises and masks, the viewer is also asked to contemplate the role of such objects….

The reason for this becomes profoundly, sadly clear at the end of the novel where all is revealed, not simply the back-story of the painting. All information and details about art pale in comparison to the stunning revelation provided by Cesar that Julia's beloved old guardian was actually bubbling and seething with resentment against Alvaro's reinsertion into Julia's life. The man had ruined, Cesar said, two years of Julia's life, and Alvaro had characterized Cesar's presence in Julia's life as "unhealthy and obsessive" (273). Although the reader is unlikely to admire Alvaro with the same intensity that Julia once did, Cesar's feelings about his old ward seem equally intense, unhealthy, and obsessive as the feelings she once harbored for her old flame.

Soon it becomes clear that the old truth about many mystery novels holds true in the Flanders Panel -- one of the more sympathetic and unlikely killers is in….

4)

Both the Lovely Bones and Belle Prater's Boy could be very effective in teaching a Social Sciences course on the loss of a family member, and the effect that this has both on the family and the larger community. The sense of identity for the adolescent characters in these books is an essential element and conflict in the story. Family, especially at this age and developmental stage, is essential to the concept of the self. These books both explore the ways in which identity can be disrupted by familial dysfunction, and suggest real ways in which to overcome such disruptions -- as well as the effects of failing to do so.

5)

One of the primary ways that Ruth White achieves a sense of verisimilitude in Belle Prater's Boy is through the use of dialect. There are many mundane events that take place that also lend the story a sense of reality;….

Art
Five years from now, you chat with a friend about your favorite humanities class (this one, naturally). What were your favorite artworks encountered throughout the course that you will share with them? Why?

"The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali.

This is a painting by Catalonian-Spanish surrealist Dali. I could choose anything that Dali does to describe my favorite artwork, because I greatly admire his ability to create imagery and symbolism that blends nature with the supernatural. This painting is like a dream. There are elements of reality inside the painting, such as the watches and clocks, the landscape in the background, and the tree. However, there are also elements of the painting that are clearly unreal, such as the clocks melting. Dali is not too concerned about the accuracy of representation, as the perspective of the painting is wrong in terms of depth of field. However, the artist is not trying….

Fiction
"The Fall of The House of Usher" is a very interesting story. It talks of a man who received a letter from his friend Roderick Usher asking him to visit. The letter talks of the torture and torment Roderick was going through and is a plea for help. In the letter, Roderick explains his distress over his mental illness and the state that he is suffering from. The man was a good friend to Roderick when they were young boys and so he decides to visit his friend. He decides to visit Roderick despite the fact that they had grown apart over the years, and had not communicated for a while. On arrival, he describes the house as "mansion of gloom" that aroused mixed feelings of joy and sadness (Poe p. 5). The narrator finds his friend in very bad shape. He suffers from severe mental disorder. He also has….

These images reinforce the serene environment the poet experiences. ith "Friends," the sanctuary is emotional while "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is a more physical experience bust just as powerful. Both experiences reinforce the notion that art is more than art because it touches the human soul and provides solace and refuge from the wear and tear of the world.
Friends" and "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" are poems of escapism in that they take the poet and the reader away from the world. Yeats' demonstrates how art is constructive for the creator and the audience because it provides something intangible that is satisfying.

orks Cited

Yeats, .B. "Friends." Bartleby Online http://www.bartleby.com/147/25.html. Site Accessed December 08, 2008.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree." Literature, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, & Drama. 4th Compact Ed. Kennedy, X.J., et al. eds. New York: Pearson Longman. 2005..

In this story, we find this terror, especially at the end of the story when Fortunato sobers up. Montresor tells us that the cry he hears as he places the final bricks in the wall is "not the cry of a drunk man" (Poe 94). The drunk man and the crazy man are pitted against once another in this tale and there is nothing Fortunato can do when he realizes what has happened. The real terror emerges as Montresor follows through on his plan to the last detail without any hesitation.
Edgar Allan Poe allows us to realize how close to life terror actually becomes. His life was no ideal life but rather a playground for terror and death of all sorts. A young boy abandoned by both parents becomes an adult to witness death take his loved ones at much too early an age. By taking his life experiences….

The boys play in the neighborhood streets until their skin "glowed" (382) and their "shouts echoed in the silent street" (382). Here we see a glimpse of Ireland that is not fantastic or glamorous. It is just the kind of setting a young boy needs to be consumed with a mysterious girl. hen the narrator finally makes it to the bazaar, he is met with disappointment, which forces him to be honest and realize Mangan is simply a fantasy that will let him down as well. He also realizes he is a "creature driven and derided by vanity" (386). Like Gabriel, he realizes not all things are what they seem
In "Counterparts," the epiphany is painful because it involves us taking a look at a seedier aspect of life. Farrington realizes the dreadful routine in his life. For Farrington, there is no escape from any of the stresses in his….

Dupin becomes the "individual as the creature of history" (187) and the orangutan represents the "terror of a history secularized and devoid of design" (187). This pot was to usher in a new genre of plots that looked at the universe in a new way. The detective story, as a result, "responds to a new era of world history" (187). The crimes against the women can also be seen as symbols from Poe's own past as he lived through the deaths of the women he loved the most. Tragedy, of course, must make its way into Poe's fiction but the grisly murders of thee two women could easily be representations of the death of Poe's mother and cousin.
Society was all the inspiration Poe needed. Terrance halen maintains that Poe's tales "arose from within the specific conditions of capitalist development which were then emerging in antebellum America" (halen 386). Poe's….

Visual Imagery and Qualitative Dimensions of Life & Consciousness in Visual Art
Throughout history all cultures have produced works of art. The impulse to create as a means of personal expression and to stimulate the imagination of viewers is universal and perpetual. In their various manifestations, the arts play an important role in defining culture by presenting intelligent viewpoints of our present state of being, and by serving as a record of our past. The visual arts are a repository of those qualitative dimensions of life, which enhance our consciousness through the use of visual imagery.

The most exquisite expression of the self is through art, be it literature, history theatre, painting, sculptor and so on. From the wondrous Egyptian pyramids to the majestic statue of liberty, from eloquent Greek writer Homer - who produced masterpieces like the Odyssey - to 20th century literati like Palestinian journalist Edward Said - who so….

Along the edge of the pool are her refreshments and shoes waiting for her to claim them. The detail in this work is amazing, the water even looks three-dimensional and clear, and there is even a life preserving "floating" on the surface. The artist often poses with his work, acting as if he is a "part" of the piece. In this photo, he creates a bit of performance art by acting as if he is going to climb into the pool with the woman. He uses vivid colors of chalk for his drawings, which makes them all the more rich and detailed, and makes them pop off the pavement, adding to their reality. Looking at this painting, the viewer would swear the pavement had been dug out, it is that very real.
In "Arctic Street Conditions with Soft Drink," a seal seems to be emerging from an ice pack, balancing….