Theses and Dissertations Collection

Artists is a novel in four parts that satirizes the journey of self-discovery in a divided world. Part One, comprising this thesis, opens at an art gallery where the unnamed narrator—a “Regular” in a world of “Regulars” and “Artists”—loses his fiancée to a famous painter, propelling him into the world of Artists during The Great Division, a movement which aims to segregate Regulars and Artists. In Part Two, the narrator abandons his Regular life and registers as an Artist, Jorge Desperado, and becomes a photographer; in Part Three, after ten years as an unsuccessful Artist, Jorge illegally returns to Regular Territory as Jim Doodle where his struggle to assimilate and obsession with fame leads to attempted murder; in Part Four, Jim, now Jorge, sits in an Artist prison where he unwillingly becomes Artist Killer, whose only redemption lies in somehow taking a “master photograph” that saves the world.