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Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, was an amazing man. He was contraversial yet never truly over-powered, thanks to his wit.
Why do you think people still remember him today?
What did he do and/or say that was so important/special?
How does he affect modern day novels, poems and theatre?
Because he was brilliant...and mad.Quote:
Originally Posted by chubbz
Lord Douglas would say he was very special :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by chubbz
He makes me laugh - consistently. Do you know how impossible that is? Let me tell you - it's quite impossible to make me laugh consistently. He should win an award for that.
He helped inspire Jules Vercini (not that anyone cares, but he did). I don't know what his legacy is in terms of literature, except all good satire since his time seems to have a Wildean flavor to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by chubbz
Chubbz, for your project, I'll add something here.
Wilde's secret is the ability to speak truth through a lie. People lie "in all seriousness", but Wilde "lies through humor". By stating a perversion of the truth that in itself is so preposterous that it elicits a genuine giggle, he points towards the authentic truth, which is "in all seriousness".
He usually accomplishes this through his aphorisms. I can't think of one now, but let me come up with a facsimilie:
"All men are in love until they get married."
This aphorism suggests marriage and love are exclusive to one another. Is that true? Well in many cases (especially with the British aristocracy of his day and even current celebrity-dom, which is the basis for my Jules Vercini) it is true because marriages were arranged, based on socio-economic status, or in celebrity-dom, are based in "power-coupling". But is this the ideal? Absolutely not. The ideal is one marries the woman one is in love with. So, by mocking these other relationships, he's pointing to the truth.
The problem with most people is they read Wilde incorrectly. They take him seriously, and of course they are going to be offended!
Here's a link to my Jules. Doubt your professor would appreciate my work, but what the hell. If you want to see Wilde applied to modern times, this is it. Now, I just have to try to sell it to somebody (which is proving impossible):
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=14118
He was a glib windbag who should have learnt to shut his mouth from time to time. I cannot imagine how his friends put with the never-ending, meaningless quips .
"Would you like a cup of tea, Oscar?"
"Oh my dear fellow..should you not be asking "Would the tea like the cup?" ?"
"That doesn't make sense".
"Oh my dear fellow...is it not the sense that makes us do?"
"I'm not following...should I pour you some tea or not?"
"Well let me put it this way, my good man...if the tea is "pored" I say not, if "knotted", I say pour it".
"Shut up Oscar".
I wonder if he knew his "literary heritage" would be scrawled on joke mugs and ill-fitting XXL t-shirts for generations to come. Might he have forseen his assorted quotes cherished on student posters, right beside the "Take Me To Your Dealer" 40"x60"?
[QUOTE=Countess;385308]Because he was brilliant...and mad.[QUOTE]
Why do you say he was mad?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Set of Keys
:lol:so true :lol:
Well, there's the Lord Douglas affair that was pretty scandalous.
But on a more serious note, I'm really struck by his ability to distinguish himself from his art. To me, he was one of the first that made it okay for art to just be art. For him, art didn't have to teach a lesson or kiss up to a patron; it was okay to just be a frivolous piece of prettiness.
I think that's a very modern mindset that Wilde helped introduce.
This is my view, really, even before I watched Wilde.Quote:
Originally Posted by Set of Keys
The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.
~ Oscar Wilde
how is that?Quote:
Originally Posted by free
There was another side to Oscar Wilde apart from the witticisms. In People of the Abyss, Jack London reproduced a letter that Wilde had sent to a newspaper in which he explained how a prison warden had been sacked for giving food to a prisoner's hungry child. The food in prisons was very poor and almost inedible for children. Oscar Wilde had recently died by then.
He also had some interesting thoughts about how best to relieve poverty. Slavoj Zizek mentions him in this animate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAM...0ECFF&index=11
I have been reading Oscar Wilde's collected plays. I read The Importance of Being Ernest and A Woman of No Importance as part of a YouTube and GoodReads readalong, but the book had all his other plays so I read them too. They seem to fall in two main sorts. One is the West End sort, filled with witty Victorian aristocrats. The other were rather lyrical, more historical pieces, either written in verse or something close to it. My favourite of the first kind was An Ideal Husband. My favourite of the second kind was The Duchess of Padua.