“Goethe’s essay, “On Simple Imitation of Nature; Manner; Style,” ranked three approaches to art from the lowest to the highest:

At the bottom is mere imitation — reproducing a thesis, if you will, without any appreciation for the value of confronting its opposite. This is the level of the typical piece of pulp fiction, where the writer manipulates a mental cookie cutter the way a painter-by-the-numbers might manipulate a brush.

At the next level, which Goethe called “manner,” the artist creates a work that expresses his or her emotions. This is the level of a memoir written by a creative, angst-ridden teenager. The artist confronts the polarity between subject and object and demonstrates the courage of revealing one’s own vulnerabilities, one’s own humanity. The effort involved in so stripping yourself bare for all to see is indeed considerable.

At the highest level, which Goethe calls “style,” is the work of art that integrates the artist’s personality with the acquisition of insight about the objects that s/he is depicting.