"I wish it had been just about friends sitting around talking about exhibiting a portrait one of them recently painted of the hot friend- at the art gallery- and the controversy. Just that- no moralizing- just the sitting around chatting, talking about the painting and art. I would have loved that book."
My partner came out with that yesterday evening- I can't remember the context now- we were at the mall- at Sephora? We had been in Sephora. Did that prompt the comment? But how?
Anyway, a couple of months ago I was on a work trip with a couple of colleagues, and one of them, a gay man, remarked that Oscar Wilde had stayed overnight in a hotel we just passed, and the other, a black woman, responded that she had never heard of Oscar Wilde. Quite a kerfuffle ensued, and the woman commented, perhaps jokingly, that she felt shamed for not knowing him. I told her she didn't need to feel that way, but honestly, I don't quite know how I felt.
I read Dorian Gray a hundred years ago (it was suggested but not required reading at y high school), and other than knowing the general plot, the only thing I actually remember from the book was Dorian and Sylvia's relationship- oh god sorry no- Sybil. Sybil. Thank you Google. I remember her speech about how she didn't care about acting well anymore, now that she had found true love, and Dorian was shocked and disgusted by her poor acting, and dumped her. Then she killed herself.
That was shocking. Another reason men? Women have to be excellent actresses? Teenage me couldn't get over it.
So Eng Lit teachers in my time didn;t really believe in providing context and or didn't care about the identity of the author, or perhaps they were ashamed and too shocked by Oscar Wilde's life and death to teach it, and no Google either, so I didn't actually know anything about Oscar Wilde until much later. By rights, I should have gone back to Dorian Gray to see how the knowledge changed my experience of it, but I didn't. I should, though. I will, I guess, but I know how it ends, so I might not.
I saw a beautiful statue of Oscar Wilde in a park in Dublin when we visited over Christmas a few months ago.
Tell me how you feel about The Picture of Dorian Gray– and about the books you wish were written instead of the books that actually were.
by 1000andonenites