James' "The Art of Fiction" Essay

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 engaging enough to keep my attention, so in general I think this was a very good….....