In 1884 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote A Humble Remonstrance in Longman's Magazine, which explained to Henry James that James totally misunderstood the nature of

In 1884 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote A Humble Remonstrance in Longman's Magazine, which explained to Henry James that James totally misunderstood the nature of fiction and art. James couldn't help admiring it, and they became very good friends. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30598/30598-h/30598-h.htm#page148 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30598/30598-h/30598-h.htm#pag... "The whole secret is that no art does “compete with life.” Man’s one method, whether he reasons or creates, is to half-shut his eyes against the dazzle and confusion of reality. The arts, like arithmetic and geometry, turn away their eyes from the gross, coloured and mobile nature at our feet, and regard instead a certain figmentary abstraction."