Movies are a Higher Art Form than Books

Tragedy has everything that the Epic has, together with a not inconsiderable addition in the shape of the Music (a very real factor in the pleasure of the drama) and the Spectacle.

Tragedy is superior in these respects, and also besides these, in its poetic effect, it is clear that, as attaining the poetic effect better than the Epic, it will be the higher form of art.

Aristotle concludes Poetics by attempting to determine which is the highest for of art: Tragedy or Epic (in modern parlance, a Movie or a Novel). He concludes that a Tragedy play is the highest potential form of art, because in addition to the story, it also includes music and visual elements. He does mention that these can be done badly, and so a good Epic is superior to a badly acted play, but if all the elements come together correctly, the play is the most powerful. 

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You Have to be Crazy to Write Good Fiction

he who feels the emotions to be described will be the most convincing; distress and anger, for instance, are portrayed most truthfully by one who is feeling them in the moment. Hence it is that poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him; the former can easily assume the required mood, and the latter may be actually beside himself with emotion.

What immediately came to mind when reading this was bi-polar disorder. There are some theories in modern evolutionary psychology that bi-polar "disorder" is a trait that has has been preserved in humanity because it contributes to creativity, and there is evidence that many of the most creative minds throughout history have "suffered" from it. If bi-polar disorder allows one to more freely experience the full range of human emotions - from the highest highs to the lowest lows - they will be able to more honestly express these emotions in their art - be it painting, music, or writing.

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Your Hero Must be Virtuous

As Tragedy is an imitation of personages better than the ordinary man...

If the hero of your story is going to befall a tragedy, he had better be a better person than your audience, or they will not pity or sympathize with him.

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Keep it in the Family

Whenever the tragic deed, however, is done within the family - when murder or the like is done or meditated by brother on brother, by son on father, by mother on son, or son on mother - these are the situations the poet should seek after.

Aristotle notes that the most compelling stories, the ones that have lasted, are those in which there is familial conflict. These are the most emotionally gripping stories. 

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Get Rid of Superfluous Details

the story, as in imitation of action, must represent one action, a complete whole, with its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin or dislocated the whole. For that which makes no perceptible difference by its presence or absence is no real part of the whole.

Something to consider for anyone who is a composer of stories. If there is an episode or incident which makes no perceptible difference to the story which contains it, why is it included?

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Beauty is Unity

in a creature of vast size - one say, of 1,000 miles long - as in that case, instead of the object being seen all at once, the unity and wholeness of it is lost to the beholder.

The context of this quote is that Aristotle is discussing beauty. Aristotle says that a crucial aspect of beauty is that it is a harmony of parts that contribute to a unity or wholeness of an object. In Poetics he is talking about plays and stories. He says that we cannot perceive extremely small objects to be beautiful or not because we cannot see all the parts; and we cannot perceive extremely large object as being beautiful or not because we cannot see the whole. So basically, a play or story shouldn't be too long or too short.

When I read this though, I got a picture in my head of the satellite images of Earth, and what an absolutely gorgeous picture it is. How lucky we are to be able to get that perspective and to see the whole of the earth, when Aristotle never got to.

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Plot is More Important than Characters

We maintain, therefore, that the first essential, the life and soul, so to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; and that the Characters come second.

Aristotle explains it like this: the most exceptional and memorable plays are those that will have an emotional impact on people even if they hear about it second-hand. The example he uses is Oedipus. Even if one never saw the actual play performed, if his friend saw it and then related it to him, he would still have an emotional reaction. The plot is that compelling.

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Action = Happiness or Misery

All human happiness or misery takes the form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity, not a quality. Character gives us qualities, but it is in our actions - what we do - that we are happy or the reverse. In a play accordingly they do not act in order to portray the Characters; they include the Characters for the sake of the action.

I love these twists on conventional wisdom. Over 100 years ago, William James said something similar: “We don't laugh because we're happy – we're happy because we laugh.” This is a truth which we still do not fully grasp to this day, but as usual, Aristotle knew it 2400 years ago. In this context, he is giving advice to writers of plays: focus on the action, and the audience will interpret the character. 

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