It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.
Caliban was the grotesque, brutish slave in Shakespeare's play, The Tempest . This page was put on-line and is maintained by Julie Van Camp, Associate Professor of Philosophy , California State University, Long Beach .