In art we distinguish today two broad categories: Romanticism, that recognizes free will, and Naturalism, that denies it
Big Brother and Superman.
Naturalists claim that an author must 'reproduce real life', 'as it is', without discrimination and without value judgments. To 'reproduce' means to 'photograph'; by 'real life' they mean concretes we happen to observe; by 'as it is' they mean, 'like ordinary people live their lives'. But if you watch closely you will see that these Naturalists are very selective when it comes to two attributes of literature: style and characterization. Without selection it would be impossible to picture any character at all, either an unusual man, or an average person, statistically typical for a large segment of the population. This is why the Naturalist opposition against selection is applicable only to one attribute in literature: the content, or the subject. The Naturalist claim is, that the novelist/script writer should not have any choice when it comes to the selection of his subject.
Naturalists claim that an author must 'reproduce real life', 'as it is', without discrimination and without value judgments. To 'reproduce' means to 'photograph'; by 'real life' they mean concretes we happen to observe; by 'as it is' they mean, 'like ordinary people live their lives'. But if you watch closely you will see that these Naturalists are very selective when it comes to two attributes of literature: style and characterization. Without selection it would be impossible to picture any character at all, either an unusual man, or an average person, statistically typical for a large segment of the population. This is why the Naturalist opposition against selection is applicable only to one attribute in literature: the content, or the subject. The Naturalist claim is, that the novelist/script writer should not have any choice when it comes to the selection of his subject.