Jansy,
You said, affirming Gavriel Shapiro's point, that genuine art doesn't resort to cruelty. I have to admit that I'm not sure what this means in practical terms. Your statement seems to imply that genuine art could resort to cruelty, but doesn't. But what is cruelty in art? Cruelty at what level? Certainly all satire has an element of cruelty in it, insomuch as corrective laughter, even when well-placed, corrects by shaming and/or embarrassing the butt of the joke. So the point may be both true and cruel. If, on the other hand, we're talking about an author's relationship to his characters, I don't see how an author can be either cruel or kind. Was it cruel to give Humbert Humbert that nasty habit? Was it kind of VN to show us Pnin's tender side? Perhaps I'm missing something. Can you give an example of another author you would consider cruel?

Thanks,
Matt