There is nothing more disenchanting to man than to be shown the springs and mechanism of any art. ALL OUR ARTS AND OCCUPATIONS LIE WHOLLY ON THE SURFACE; IT IS ON THE SURFACE THAT WE PERCEIVE THEIR BEAUTY, FITNESS, AND SIGNIFICANCE; AND TO PRY BELOW IS TO BE APPALLED BY THEIR EMPTINESS AND SHOCKED BY THE COARSENESS OF THE STRING AND PULLEYS. In a similar way, psychology itself, when pushed to any nicety, discovers an abhorrent baldness, but rather from the fault of our analysis than from any poverty native to the mind. And perhaps in aesthetics the reason is the same: those disclosures which seem fatal to the dignity of art seem so perhaps only in the proportion of our ignorance; and those conscious and unconscious artifices which it seems unworthy of the serious artist to employ were yet, if we had the power to trace them to their springs, indications of a delicacy of the sense finer than we conceive, and hints of ancient harmonies in nature. […] I must therefore warn that well-known character, the general reader, that I am here embarked upon a most distasteful business: taking down the picture from the wall and looking on the back; and, like the inquiring child, pulling the musical cart to pieces. Re-read the line in bold.

What message is the author trying to convey through this figure of speech?

A. The author thinks analyzing any art can be compared to taking a machine to pieces.
B. The author thinks machines are more meaningful and complex than literature.
C. The author thinks literature is more meaningful and complex than machines.
D. The author believes all artistic endeavors are overly complex and a waste of time.

A. The author thinks analyzing any art can be compared to taking a machine to pieces.

Explanation:

The author believes the beauty of art is surface-level and any deeper analyzation is comparable to "string and pulleys."

author – information on the internet with a listed author is one indication of a credible site. the fact that the author is willing to stand behind the information presented (and in some cases, include his or her contact information) is a good indication that the information is reliable.

date – the date of any research information is important, including information found on the internet. by including a date, the website allows readers to make decisions about whether that information is recent enough for their purposes.

sources – credible websites, like books and scholarly articles, should cite the source of the information presented.

domain – some domains such as .com, .org, and .net can be purchased and used by any individual. however, the domain .edu is reserved for colleges and universities, while .gov denotes a government website. these two are usually credible sources for information (though occasionally a university will assign a .edu address to each of its students for personal use, in which case use caution when citing). be careful with the domain .org, because .org is usually used by non-profit organizations which may have an agenda of persuasion rather than education.

site design – this can be very subjective, but a well-designed site can be an indication of more reliable information. good design make information more easily accessible.

writing style – poor spelling and grammar are an indication that the site may not be credible. in an effort to make the information presented easy to understand, credible sites watch writing style closely.

in the shadow of war