Wise Oscar?

[The Unnamable]

Can you all still hear me?

A friend of mine mentioned a photograph of Morrissey from the 1980s. He was reclining on the grass, reading Oscar Wilde. It’s years since I read Wilde (although I still love listening to Morrissey). What, if any, is the attraction of the following comments by Wilde? Do you agree with him? He’s often the first person people mention when asked to name a witty and clever writer. If you find his comments funny, are they merely funny or is there any truth in his observations?

I am not young enough to know everything.

Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humour was provided to console him for what he is.

I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.

I would be particularly interested in what people think of this one. ^

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Is this just an arty bit of wit for the sophisticated or is it how we see things in practical terms? ^

Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating — people who know absolutely everything and people who know absolutely nothing.


There is no sin except stupidity.

To be popular one must be a mediocrity.


Come on, there must be a few there that deserve consideration. I particularly like the last one.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

He’s often the first person people mention when asked to name a witty and clever writer.

As Dorothy Parker quipped,

If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.

In answer to your question, I think that the above epigrams all have some element of truth but all are, at least in part, exaggerations. This is why they make us wonder momentarily if he's right while simultaneously making us laugh. Wilde, as many of us in this forum, delighted in projecting a persona; a single facet of himself.

As W H Auden put it,

From the beginning Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fate had taken the plot out of his hands.

I am quite sure that, following his own fall from grace, he was somewhat less inclined to see the charm of those that leapt upon the opportunity to lampoon him, however wittily it might have been done. He probably felt that they were bad - although he probably wouldn't blow his cover by saying so.

I like the last one too; but wasn't Shakespeare somewhat popular in his day? Like I say, all are somewhat true and somewhat exaggerated, in that they paint things in monochrome, ignoring the obvious counter-examples. Still sharp as a very pointy thing though, even after 100+ years.

[ElizabethSewall]

I agree with Xamonas about the epigrams being both true and exagerated.
Anyway I always find great fun reading them and their sharp cynicism is part of my pleasure.

What do you think of this one:
"Illusion is the first of all pleasures"?

[Virgil]

Yes, I agree with Xamonas too. The lines just stand alone, despite whatever context they made be from. Does anyone ever check their context? Wilde's lines can easliy be lines from a stand up comic, except that they have a "high brow" element to them. He's sort of become the comedian of the intellectual world.

[rachel]

whatever that means.

[absinthe]

It's a barely disguised fact that the character of Lord Henry Wooton, in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is very much based on Oscar Wilde and his life's philosophy. His life was his Art: the pursuit of pleasure, dandyism, being the first truly Modern man. His infamous aphorisms have more than a grain of truth to them. He was not one to judge what was "good" or "evil". In literature, it was either well-written or poorly written. Among his peers, they were either charming or tedious. In many ways, they are words of wisdom from a man who was without his illusions though still an incorrigible romantic.

[Art_mirrors]

yes i have to agree Oscar Wilde is a legend. however i belive that he did not sloely base lord henry on him self as if you know the character he appears flawless in his speech and his wit. agreed Wilde was witty but l.h is inhumanly witty. also i would like to point out his last sentence in his preface that all art is use less...... i think despite his inteligence he often falls victim to his own paradoxs as he also says that art mirrors the spectator..... correct me if im wrong but when he wrote this it was in 1891. he goes on to say that the crtics panning of his book was "The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass." Caliban was the monster in the tempest and obviously this is a derogtry remark toward victorian society, implying that all those finding his book immoral etc where merly in denial at the state of victorian society.......surely this is helpful if people acknowledged that fact as the first step toward acceptence? comment back if ya think im wrong