Leng identifies "Wah-Wah" as being directed at the "artifice" and "pretense" surrounding the Beatles. He called the act of changing styles an "illusion" and an "artifice". There was a true Godardian dialectic going on between artifice and reality. Pictorial artifice gives way to the epic portrayal of unvarnished brutality. Deborah J. Thomas argues that "Rushmore" has a certain level of deliberate artifice. A well-groomed Cairn has a rough-and-ready appearance, free of artifice or exaggeration. Rob's demonstration of adding canned laughter to television demonstrates the "cynical artifice of the medium". Also sacrificed in this more naturalistic production is the brilliance of Wilde's artifice. The height of artifice is the Maniera painter's penchant for deliberately misappropriating a quotation. This episode overtly deals with gay artifice, staging and the image. Cernuda's poetry shows a continual process of stripping away artifice and modish elements. You're expressing what's basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance. English words derived from this meaning include "artifact", "artificial", "artifice", "medical arts", and "military arts". It suggested style, artifice and surface were equally as important as depth and substance. Al-Hariri's "Maqamat" made extensive use of literary artifice.