Hi, every one. I'm a new guy in the blocks. I'd like to discuss Oscar Wilde with you. He's my favorite.
What does Oscar Wilde, in your opinion, bring us common readers most?
His idea of aesthetic art? His satire on the society? His beatiful writing style? Or his focus on redemptions and true love?
I just read the play Gross Indecency: 3 trials of Oscar Wilde and it sheds light on homosexuality mostly. He was more than important, not just in literature!
I like his satire and sense of humour. He is one of the few 'old' authors who is still funny today.
Couple o' thoughts...
For one thing, Wilde wrote the most perfect verbal opera in the English language: The Importance of Being Earnest.
(His other Society plays were an important advancement towards Shaw, Synge, Maugham, Coward, and later English playwrights. The short stories are also important in this regard.)
Wilde's other works--the poems, blank verse dramas, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and of course his French play Salomé--are a significant contribution to turn-of-the-century aesthetic culture.
His criticism (esp. 'The Portrait of Mr. WH', 'The Decay of Lying', and 'The Critic As Artist') is another significant advancement of critical thought in the line of Coleridge, Hazlitt, Carlyle, Ruskin, Arnold, Mill, and Pater, leading unto Eliot, and the New Criticism of Ransome, Leavis, Brooks, et alii.
Wilde wrote a beautiful, expressive, and clear English which has enormous appeal to the ear. Although he had a dark side, the ambience of his writings is very warm and gentle.
His oeuvre, though small, is unique and valuable in English (and French) letters.
And then of course his story is incredible in itself: his rise in the European and American cultural marketplace, and his tragic fall, are remarkable in the history of literature.
Last edited by Sebas. Melmoth; 05-16-2010 at 12:53 PM.
Hi everyone.
Well, I think - as Wilde wanted us to think - art exists for art's sake, he brought so a wonderful new aspect to our cultural life.
Also that he distinguished between art, morality, art's moral purpose and the (a)moral topic of a piece of art and the writers opinion was a kind of epiphany for the modern reader and writer - and maybe critic. That's the main point I think.
There are so many other things and "true love and redemption" were, in my opinion, just means to an end.
And of course Mr. Wilde brings wonderful evenings with a good book and a cup of tea to us "normal" human beings.
If satire has assumed a new shape and has become more acceptable, then the credit should go to Oscar Wilde. His genius for words and the way he laces those wonderfully relevant aspects with satire is the stuff of legends.
There is a world of difference between the sense of humor of Wilde and perhaps P G Wodehouse. What sets the former apart is that he writes logic with appropriate puns. While most `funny' and `comic' writers only entertain the readers, Wilde's writing makes one to ponder as he exposes the naive` mindset of the rich and famous.
He makes us to think beyond the logical or visible in addition to making us laugh.
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