The importance of Aristotle's poetics for the world today The Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje, in his latest novel entitled In the Skin of a Lion, wrote that "the first sentence of every novel should be: trust me, it will take time but here there is order, very weak, very human” (Ondaatje 223). Ondaatje observed that what makes a novel a novel is order or, as it is sometimes called today, plot and structure. It is that structure that we, both as an audience and as an artist, rely on to understand and appreciate a work of art. But, although Ondaatje noted the necessary order, he did not do what had been done before: offer an explanation, or rather, a definition of that order. Over two thousand years before Ondaatje wrote that phrase, Aristotle, in his Poetics, attempted to define the order necessary for a work of art, whether literary, visual, or performance-based, to be successful. But we, as modern critics and artists, must ask ourselves: can a theory proposed many years ago still be worthy of interpretation and study today? Even a cursory look at the literature and theater produced in the last two centuries would reveal the public response: much of the world's great art is great because it relies on and adheres to Aristotle's theories and definitions, as well as because of its self-confidence. in the new suppositions that emerged from Aristotle's words. Before Aristotle's theories can be applied to today's world, a brief presentation of some of the most notable of those theories must be examined. The first of these theories is now called Aristotle's Unity; however only one of the three units can be directly attributed to Aristotle's words. In the book…middle of the paper…word wise, the longest running Broadway play of all time, Cats, certainly cannot be classified as universal and clearly neglects the three unities. Finally, most literary scholars would agree that James Joyce's Ulysses is a literary classic, but, because it created its own literary style, it does not conform to any of Aristotle's principles. It is clear though, given the influence they have had on so many works of art, both past and contemporary, that, while perhaps not a necessity, Aristotle's theories certainly deserve careful study. Works Cited Aristotle. "Poetics." Dramatic theory and criticism. Ed. Bernard F. Dukore. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1974. 31-55.Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A literature manual. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. Ondaatje, Michael. In the skin of a lion. Chicago: Penguin Publishers, 1987