Art often serves as a medium for thinking about the creative process itself. In this course, we will read writing by such figures as pianist Jeremy Denk, short story writers Jhumpa Lahiri and Flannery O’Connor, and essayists Mark Twain and Anne Fadiman. We will discuss how these writers view, create, and (sometimes) demolish art; simultaneously, we will think about how we conceive our own responses to these works. In the process, we will practice different ways to construct well written, compelling, analytical arguments, considering how the processes of gradual construction, erasure, and revision enable us to reinvent our writing.