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Thread: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

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    Default Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    Fascinating, brilliant writer; an acerbic wit; died young and penniless, a voluntary exile in Paris. Some fantastic quotes.

    I am about to start The Picture of Dorian Grey. Has anyone seen any of his plays, or read the book?

    ETA: many thanks to Shy1 for correcting the title!
    Last edited by Djoser; 12-19-2013 at 07:54 PM.
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    'Dorian Grey' is a total classic ! It also has a 'lot to say' about the present day if one reads between the lines.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    So many good quotes...


    • Women are made to be loved, not understood.
    • We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
    • The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.


    The list goes on....

    That being said, he was something of an unabashed misogynist... at least in many people's eyes. But ironically he became some sort of a feminist icon. (We both know that feminism isn't just about the ladies, but still... I find it ironic). He was persecuted for his sexual orientation... and he never really recovered. Tragic stuff...

    I can separate the talent/work from the individual so I can appreciate his writing. But yeah, he was a brilliant and controversial character.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay12 View Post
    ^What Sophia said.
    Quote Originally Posted by yoda57us View Post
    I wish there was an "auto-like" setting that I could just have applied to all of your posts Sophia....

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    Moderator Djoser's Avatar
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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Two years of hard labor because he liked men, that's so barbaric. I'd have exiled myself too. And to think the Victorians believed they were the most enlightened of all cultures.

    I kind of like what he said about the fact that you can judge a man by his enemies. Certainly I have always been amused when the geeks and losers go ballistic.

    His writing seems to be a vast repository of witty and acerbic one-liners.
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

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    Featured Member MellyMay's Avatar
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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    T
    His writing seems to be a vast repository of witty and acerbic one-liners.
    That's my favorite part about Wilde. The real life applications of his wit are spot on.

    Have you read his other works? The Importance of Being Earnest makes for a great play.
    mellymay.com

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    And to think the Victorians believed they were the most enlightened of all cultures.
    Every culture believes that it is the pinnacle of all cultures.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay12 View Post
    ^What Sophia said.
    Quote Originally Posted by yoda57us View Post
    I wish there was an "auto-like" setting that I could just have applied to all of your posts Sophia....

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by MellyMay View Post
    That's my favorite part about Wilde. The real life applications of his wit are spot on.

    Have you read his other works? The Importance of Being Earnest makes for a great play.
    Haven't read it or seen it performed, but I have heard great things about it. And they made this movie which I am about to get also:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278500/


    Quote Originally Posted by Sophia_Starina View Post
    Every culture believes that it is the pinnacle of all cultures.
    An extremely cogent observation...

    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    I need to start storing some of these one liners, either in my head or some sort of folder which will jog the memory if perused every so often.

    There's always some dipshit in these clubs coming to the booth doing things like asking me which girls will fuck them, or telling me they will only tip if I play the worst song in twenty years that will have the dancers coming at me with rusty spoons. Then they get all butthurt and/or insulting when you don't cooperate.

    Something devastatingly appropriate, which they will never understand, is the best response. They can't get mad because you are smiling at them. I've done it before but it's been a while.
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Damn that is the Motherlode of great quotations...thanks for posting it!
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Hate to say it but:
    He was married with two kids when arrested. He tried to take what little money his wife had and was using to support the kids. At least one of his contemporaries mentions that he traveled with Wilde for sex tourism (12 year old boys). The authorities delayed arresting him for as long as possible in the hopes that he would just go to Paris so they would not have to arrest him. The man was an incredible writer, but not much of a human being.
    Further (sorry, I know this is annoying) its picture, not portrait. Please don't hate me, I just got done reading his wife's biography.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by shy1 View Post
    Hate to say it but:
    He was married with two kids when arrested. He tried to take what little money his wife had and was using to support the kids. At least one of his contemporaries mentions that he traveled with Wilde for sex tourism (12 year old boys). The authorities delayed arresting him for as long as possible in the hopes that he would just go to Paris so they would not have to arrest him. The man was an incredible writer, but not much of a human being.
    Further (sorry, I know this is annoying) its picture, not portrait. Please don't hate me, I just got done reading his wife's biography.

    I couldn't possibly hate you for that. If you know the facts and I am wrong I will gladly stand corrected, like right fucking now haha. For one thing, you will have saved me the need to ever get corrected by some academic somewhere--some of them can get pretty snooty about it too...

    I never knew that nasty stuff about him either. Funny how they will bury the dirt about famous men & women in history who were supposed to be paragons of virtue (not that Wilde was, but you don't hear he was a scumbag to his wife for instance). Like Charlie Chaplin marrying the 13 year old. Disney's coke habit and ruthless slavedriving of his overworked employees. Henry Ford contracting work from competitors, then refusing to pay them so they went out of business. Plus being a huge supporter of Hitler. Going back to ancient really famous 'good' people; Constantine the Great murdering his own wife, his eldest son, and his nephew, among others, & making the Empire safe for Christians, so they could burn each other at the stake within a few years being 'saved' from persecution. Justinian the Great was not really so great at all when it came to his family, and let his wife kill her own son, among others..
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    It's it awful that I thought this was like another 50 Shades series. .. lol :-D

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey



    Sorry if you were disappointed.

    There's probably a quotation in that list that will fit the situation though.

    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    Fascinating, brilliant writer; an acerbic wit; died young and penniless, a voluntary exile in Paris. Some fantastic quotes.

    I am about to start The Picture of Dorian Grey. Has anyone seen any of his plays, or read the book?

    ETA: many thanks to Shy1 for correcting the title!
    I believe that Wilde was a man of brilliance and wit. I have read his play "Salome" and I found it to be quite interesting. I believe that he was a man ahead of his times when it came to sexuality and gay rights. However, I love his domestic dramas such as "An Ideal Husband" and " The Importance of being Earnest" because I am a big fan of seeing proper people in society have romantic failures. But more importantly, I am a big fan of Wilde's work because he touch on themes I enjoy such as marriages of convenience and throwing wealth around for no reason But I am more of a Shelley and Keats girl myself.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    Fascinating, brilliant writer; an acerbic wit; died young and penniless, a voluntary exile in Paris. Some fantastic quotes.

    I am about to start The Picture of Dorian Grey. Has anyone seen any of his plays, or read the book?

    ETA: many thanks to Shy1 for correcting the title!
    I've heard great things about the book! I started it, was probably only about 1/8th in then I lost it and never bought it again to re-read.

    "Rather have my feet hurting than my pockets."

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by shy1 View Post
    Hate to say it but:
    He was married with two kids when arrested. He tried to take what little money his wife had and was using to support the kids. At least one of his contemporaries mentions that he traveled with Wilde for sex tourism (12 year old boys). The authorities delayed arresting him for as long as possible in the hopes that he would just go to Paris so they would not have to arrest him. The man was an incredible writer, but not much of a human being.
    Further (sorry, I know this is annoying) its picture, not portrait. Please don't hate me, I just got done reading his wife's biography.
    I would say he was a typical Victorian English male writer in that respect. He was well-known to have enter into a lavender marriage with his wife in order to hide the fact he was clearly a pedophile and homosexual. However, he was no different than Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland who had an open love for little girls yet; polite English Victorian society turned a blind eye to that because he did not scare them like Wilde did. Nor was Wilde different from J.M Barrie; author of Peter Pan who had an unhealthy desire to be around 10 year old boys and teenage girls. However, since Carroll and Barrie wrote children's novels than people did not think that what they were doing was disgusting. Remember, this was an age before children had any rights and adults can used them as they seen fit. Men like Carroll, Barrie, and Wilde had those in less positions than themselves that their mercy.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    I couldn't possibly hate you for that. If you know the facts and I am wrong I will gladly stand corrected, like right fucking now haha. For one thing, you will have saved me the need to ever get corrected by some academic somewhere--some of them can get pretty snooty about it too...

    I never knew that nasty stuff about him either. Funny how they will bury the dirt about famous men & women in history who were supposed to be paragons of virtue (not that Wilde was, but you don't hear he was a scumbag to his wife for instance). Like Charlie Chaplin marrying the 13 year old. Disney's coke habit and ruthless slavedriving of his overworked employees. Henry Ford contracting work from competitors, then refusing to pay them so they went out of business. Plus being a huge supporter of Hitler. Going back to ancient really famous 'good' people; Constantine the Great murdering his own wife, his eldest son, and his nephew, among others, & making the Empire safe for Christians, so they could burn each other at the stake within a few years being 'saved' from persecution. Justinian the Great was not really so great at all when it came to his family, and let his wife kill her own son, among others..
    The reason why Chaplin married an 13 year old girl because he was of English Romany( gyspy) descent and they tend to marry teenagers because their purity laws. Women come of age between the ages of 13-17 in the English Romany communities. So it makes sense for him to marry a 13 year old according to the purity laws of his people. Secondly, Disney was a raging anti-semitic and racist but he was a man of his time and Ford was too. As far as the Romans Constantine and Justinian, come on now....Roman nobility often killed off their family members in order obtain power and glory. I mean even emperors killed their own parents and grandparents in order to get power such as Nero who killed his mother, Agrippina, after having sexual affair with her since the age of 17 because he wanted absolute power. I do not see these people as good or noble but there is a method to their madness. They are products of their time, culture, family, and their societies. Plus this is not limited in the Western World either, for example in one of Africa's greatest kingdoms such as Mali....a princess took out all of the male members of her family for not liking her blue braids. Or how one of Africa's greatest Queens...Nzinga openly killed off all of the members of her family in front of her transexual husband 10 years before the Europeans arrived. History is full of these types of people I am not mad at them because they are what they

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    I like this woman...
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    OK sorry, definitely not a comeon--you can ask Aniela if you doubt my gentlemanly nature lol.

    I hear you on the Romans, Disney, et al. I just hate to see the way they whitewash history in the public schools and in the media, and try to teach people that these historical figures were so much more virtuous than they really were.

    Plus Constantine could have picked a more merciful death for his wife than pushing her under near boiling water in her bath...just sayin'
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by Djoser View Post
    OK sorry, definitely not a comeon--you can ask Aniela if you doubt my gentlemanly nature lol.

    I hear you on the Romans, Disney, et al. I just hate to see the way they whitewash history in the public schools and in the media, and try to teach people that these historical figures were so much more virtuous than they really were.

    Plus Constantine could have picked a more merciful death for his wife than pushing her under near boiling water in her bath...just sayin'
    I do not hate that they try to whitewash these people for history because everyone needs to know that their heroes are larger than life. Many people for example look up to Disney...do you think children want to hear that Disneyland was created by a hateful man? As far as Constantine...Not really...he was a killer and his wife was an sex worker who he met a circus taking a egg out of her vagina. Do you really think that men did not tease him about making his wife a proper woman in those days? He killed her based on what his society thought? In order to keep the empire he needed to kill her...he did not kill her in a very brutal manner in my eye slight because he did what men did in that society for that time.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    Wait, it was Theodora who was the prostitute and showgirl (the story of the trained geese was funny), and Justinian didn't kill her--as well he shouldn't have since she saved his ass during those riots.

    I believe Fausta was killed for playing around with his son, who was also killed. Of course Constantine was allowed to play with whomever.

    And it was not a common method of execution either.

    I'm all for sparing children the sordid details. But when they grow up they ought to be able to handle the truth--that the great men and women of history were not so godlike after all, but actually quite human, with very human weaknesses and failings. I think this would aid greatly in helping people overcome their own failings and achieve better things than they might if they think their own foibles will hold them back.

    But in any case the discussion is fascinating.
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    ^ i agree. its almost like history is as photoshopped as celebrities these days. puts unheahlthy expectation on other ppl. just because some of them had short-comings, mental issues, and very bad character flaws doesn't mean that the great things they did don't matter. all humans are flawed, and i feel society tries to make it like " there are good people who do great things. and there are bad ppl who don't amount to shit". they want black and white two dimensional characters. they can't seem to wrap their heads around real human nature, where nobody is ALL good..and hopefully not ALL bad

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    I've read this and all of his books. It does have a lot to do with today.

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Picture of Dorian Grey

    ^^^That's great. I am fairly well read but there are many gaps and this is one.

    I am going to the used bookstore here and get it this week, I'm sure they will have it.

    Nina_ I bet you could pick a copy up pretty cheap in a used bookstore. Usually the classics dont sell well and they mark them down pretty low.

    DonaDiabla don't stop now you have definitely made the conversation interesting.

    Simone I am very impressed you can even think about this stuff with your throat so bad...
    You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
    George Clinton

    ______________________________________

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    Default Re: Oscar Wilde and the Portrait of Dorian Grey

    Quote Originally Posted by shy1 View Post
    Hate to say it but:
    He was married with two kids when arrested. He tried to take what little money his wife had and was using to support the kids. At least one of his contemporaries mentions that he traveled with Wilde for sex tourism (12 year old boys). The authorities delayed arresting him for as long as possible in the hopes that he would just go to Paris so they would not have to arrest him. The man was an incredible writer, but not much of a human being.
    Further (sorry, I know this is annoying) its picture, not portrait. Please don't hate me, I just got done reading his wife's biography.
    Duality for a brilliant man, not surprising at all but unfortunately that is the curse of many of society's outliers. Great people to casually know and perhaps even admire but you wouldn't want to live with them.

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