In Response to Henry James and Edith Wharton

Text: "The Art of Fiction" - Henry James (pg. 553)
"Souls Belated" - Edith Wharton (pg. 847)

Although I found Henry James' essay to be a bit confusing I did get a little bit out of it to compare to the Edith Wharton piece. It seemed to me, the point of Henry James' piece "The Art of Fiction" is that fiction is based on real life experiences, "good" literature and "bad" literature depends greatly on the reader and the reader's preferences, and one cannot set rules for writing fiction.

The first point I found throughout James' piece was that fiction, and novels, are mostly based around the author's real life experiences. James stated, "The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life" (554). Also stated is, "...to insist on the fact that as the picture is reality, so the novel is history" (555). So as far as I could see James felt that fiction, and basically novels, the events which take place in the story are based upon the real life experiences of the author. Within Edith Wharton's piece, "Souls Belated", one could assume that the story is based on Wharton's own life experiences. The piece basically being about bad relationships and divorce makes one think that Wharton herself has experienced one or more bad relationship and perhaps even divorce.

The second point I found was the fact that one cannot set rules for what is "good" literature and what is "bad" literature. This meaning that every reader has their own set of preferences and own expectations of, what they would consider to be, "good" literature. James said, "They [the critics] would argue, of course, that a novel ought to be 'good', but they would interpret this term in a fashion of their own, which indeed would vary considerably from one critic to another" (556). Although James at this point was talking of the critics this applies to any reader. To use Wharton's work as an example all you would have to do is talk to a few different people who have read the work. Although I found Wharton's work rather boring some other reader may find the events rather interesting.

Lastly, James said that no one can set rules for how to write fiction. Fiction, James said "can never [be] learned in any manual" (560). There is no way to tell someone exactly how to write a work of fiction which would be liked by everyone. This goes back to the previous point that "good" literature is based on the reader's own preferences. There is no way an author can write a work of fiction which will be liked by every reader and critic. Therefore, there is no way to create a recipe for fiction. There is no way to create a "manual" for an author to abide by.

I found that James summarized the overall point of his piece in on sentence. He said, "Nothing, of course, will ever take the place of the good old fashion of 'liking' a work of art or not liking it: the most improved criticism will not abolish that primitive, the ultimate test" (562). I felt this was very well said. Regardless of how writing and authors change or how the critics adjust their preferences and criticisms nothing will change the fact that the readers are responsible of changing novels into best-sellers and then into legends. Nothing will ever change the fact that when the readers like a book that is what makes or breaks the novel. Nothing will ever change the fact that individual readers have different preferences and like different types of fiction.

Testing

This is simply a test post. To make sure everything is working correctly! :)