Finished reading....

[lithera]

So, I just finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.


Oscar Wilde really must have liked to hear himself talk. Well, maybe that isn't exactly the impression I came away with but it is very, very obvious that there is a character he has placed in the story that will slip all of his views and 'wisdom' through and into the story.

He was very much an aesthetic and it shows. However, it also shows in his works that there must be something else in life; there must be some sort of enforcing trend or everything goes downhill. Dorian Gray made one wish and then lived a life for pleasure and pleasure's sake alone. This reflects on the philosophy of aestheticism: "The term "aestheticism" is used in art to refer to any trend which argues that art is self-sufficient and justifies its own existence, thus rejecting an opposing perspective which assumes that art some other purpose for existence and must by non-aesthetic standards (moral, political, social, etc.)."

It is also something to think about that this was something which has become entwined with homosexuality through the passing of time. Beauty was beauty and it didn't matter how it was portrayed - or in what gender it was found. There is the idea that a true connoisseurship of the beautiful must be indulged without an allegiance to conventional morality. The appeal there is easy to see.

There are some amazingly great quotes in here and I appreciate them plenty. Wilde is very, very good a writing flirtatious banter. Also something I noticed about him is that he writes as if every sentence is going to be read by someone he is actively trying to seduce. Everything is written with lush prose and at times I was wondering if there was something going on beneath the text. Especially since there are so many places where he is very specific about details and then other places where he is almost misleadingly vague and sparse.

All in all it is a good book. I enjoyed the read and it was much easier to tackle than I had thought it might be. I'm looking forward to talking about it with Brian and Kris and to whatever it is we read next.

Comments

[sepulchrave.livejournal.com]

Wow this is your first time reading this? Have you read Wilde before? I was addicted to him when I was 12-15.

Re:

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I've read his plays before, but I'd never read Dorian Gray. There was a time when I could have told you all about it and written final term papers on it but I hadn't ever sat down and read it.