Thursday, April 29, 2004
Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
I have noticed that a lot of what I am currently reading is not strictly fantasy, although most of it does have definite speculative fiction leanings. I am a bit worried about the relevance of my blog title, and am thinking about changing it, but for now anyone who happens to stumble randomly into this blog will just have to accept the fact that I am going to post about everything I read and not just the fantasy.
The introduction to this edition of Picture of Dorian Gray was actually quite good. It gave pertinent information about the author and examined the themes of the text in the way I could actually understand. It was a pleasant surprise, as most of the introductions to literary works I have read make me feel as if I need a PhD in literature just to understand them. (I bought a copy of Ulysses by James Joyce a couple of years ago, and haven't even made it to the start of the story for this exact reason.) This introduction does shed quite a healthy amount of doubt on how much of the work is of Wilde's original invention, and it does appear that he was heavily influenced by some of his contempories.
The story started and from the second paragraph I was concerned that I was going to have to plough through a pile of pretentious literary dribble. It was one of those paragraphs were thoughts are strung together with commas and semi-colons until you get to the point were the words have lost all meaning and the thread of the sentence has disappeared what feels like half a page ago. But I was pleasantly surprised. This paragraph was the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps he was trying to prove his literary credentials early in the piece by including the monstrosity. Anyway after he stopped playing tricks I was able to quite enjoy the writing.
The story follows the life of Dorian Gray and his companions Lord Henry, and Basil. Lord Henry is beguiled by Dorian's beauty and drags him into a morally ambiguous lifestyle. Basil paints a portrait of Dorian that captures the rapturous feelings that he has around the young man. Dorian mourns the fact that while he is destined to grow old and have his beauty wither, the portrait will always be young and virile. His wish that he and the painting could trade places in this way is mysteriously granted.
Dorian's immoral transgressions are shown up in the deteriotion of the painting and while his decline haunts him somewhat, it is applauded by Lord Henry. But there is plenty of musing about the relative benefits of beauty and intellect. And I'll take that as a good place to throw in a few quotes that I lilked. They do show the gist of the thoughts that the novel raises.
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
There is luxury in self reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us.
We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.
But it is good to be able to say that I have read this, and perhaps better to be able to say that I actually enjoyed it. There was enough plot to actually carry the internal examinations without the story bogging down interminably.
Too much time has passed since I finished the book for me to remember too many particulars, so I think I will have to make a greater effort to cut the time between finishing reading a book and sitting down to write about it. It's just hard to give up reading time to write stuff. Something I shall have to fix.
Later edit -
I have found some more quotes from this book that I enjoyed, and may as well put them up here, although I doubt anyone will ever read this low. But I must remember to do a back up for my own files. I'd hate to lose the entire blog if blogger goes belly up for some reason.
She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiselled lips curled in exquisite disdain.
We woman, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you love at all.
Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion.
Medieval art is charming, but medieval emotions are out of date. One can use them in fiction, of course. But then the only things that one can use in fiction are the things that one has ceased to use in fact.
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
I felt that this grey, monstrous London of ours, with its myriad of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins, as you once phrased it, must have something in store for me.
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
The introduction to this edition of Picture of Dorian Gray was actually quite good. It gave pertinent information about the author and examined the themes of the text in the way I could actually understand. It was a pleasant surprise, as most of the introductions to literary works I have read make me feel as if I need a PhD in literature just to understand them. (I bought a copy of Ulysses by James Joyce a couple of years ago, and haven't even made it to the start of the story for this exact reason.) This introduction does shed quite a healthy amount of doubt on how much of the work is of Wilde's original invention, and it does appear that he was heavily influenced by some of his contempories.
The story started and from the second paragraph I was concerned that I was going to have to plough through a pile of pretentious literary dribble. It was one of those paragraphs were thoughts are strung together with commas and semi-colons until you get to the point were the words have lost all meaning and the thread of the sentence has disappeared what feels like half a page ago. But I was pleasantly surprised. This paragraph was the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps he was trying to prove his literary credentials early in the piece by including the monstrosity. Anyway after he stopped playing tricks I was able to quite enjoy the writing.
The story follows the life of Dorian Gray and his companions Lord Henry, and Basil. Lord Henry is beguiled by Dorian's beauty and drags him into a morally ambiguous lifestyle. Basil paints a portrait of Dorian that captures the rapturous feelings that he has around the young man. Dorian mourns the fact that while he is destined to grow old and have his beauty wither, the portrait will always be young and virile. His wish that he and the painting could trade places in this way is mysteriously granted.
Dorian's immoral transgressions are shown up in the deteriotion of the painting and while his decline haunts him somewhat, it is applauded by Lord Henry. But there is plenty of musing about the relative benefits of beauty and intellect. And I'll take that as a good place to throw in a few quotes that I lilked. They do show the gist of the thoughts that the novel raises.
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
There is luxury in self reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us.
We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.
But it is good to be able to say that I have read this, and perhaps better to be able to say that I actually enjoyed it. There was enough plot to actually carry the internal examinations without the story bogging down interminably.
Too much time has passed since I finished the book for me to remember too many particulars, so I think I will have to make a greater effort to cut the time between finishing reading a book and sitting down to write about it. It's just hard to give up reading time to write stuff. Something I shall have to fix.
Later edit -
I have found some more quotes from this book that I enjoyed, and may as well put them up here, although I doubt anyone will ever read this low. But I must remember to do a back up for my own files. I'd hate to lose the entire blog if blogger goes belly up for some reason.
She crouched on the floor like a wounded thing, and Dorian Gray, with his beautiful eyes, looked down at her, and his chiselled lips curled in exquisite disdain.
We woman, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you love at all.
Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion.
Medieval art is charming, but medieval emotions are out of date. One can use them in fiction, of course. But then the only things that one can use in fiction are the things that one has ceased to use in fact.
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
I felt that this grey, monstrous London of ours, with its myriad of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins, as you once phrased it, must have something in store for me.
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.
