I guess there were benefits to seeing LXG
Jul. 13th, 2003 07:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3pipeproblemI started rereading The Picture of Dorian Gray today at work. Yes, it was really, really slow. I'd forgotten how much I love the damn thing. Oscar Wilde has a wonderful way with words (stating the obvious, right?). Besides, the two main characters (besides Dorian) are based on different facets of Wilde's personality. There's Basil Hallward; he's an artist (a painter), who's pretty much hopelessly in love with Dorian. He knows Dorian doesn't really love him back but he wants to protect him from his sort-of-friend Lord Henry, a guy who's basically cynical and gets most of the good lines. In the first chapter alone, there are so many truths about love and art and life in general (most of them paradoxical). I was sitting there reading it on my break, laughing and smiling, and the people in the cafe thought I was insane.
Henry to Basil: "How English you are! If one puts forward an idea to a true Englishman--always a rash thing to do--he never dreams of considering whether the idea is right or wrong. The only thing he considers of any importance is whether one believes it oneself. Now, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the more insincere a man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be couloured be either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices."
I do what Basil does. I really don't care about people's ideas (unless it's like Schillinger; that might tend to color my impression of them as a person slightly). Nathan would always talk to me about philosophical issues; mind and body, body and soul, and I would always be stumped to answer. Who am I to say? But I would be interested in what he thought, what he believed, I guess because I thought it was a measure of who he was as a person. That's what Basil believes, too. He tells Henry that he states the most immoral ideas Basil's ever heard, but lives a very honest life.
Of course, Henry's response would suggest that Basil is right. He's probably totally insincere. He says most of what he says because it sounds good (and believe me, it does). But he also envies Basil, I think. A few select phrases right true. It is Henry who corrupts Dorian, and I haven't quite figured out the why of it yet, but this could be the beginnings.
Quotes of interest:
"You like everyone; that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone."
"An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them."
"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
Henry to Basil: "How English you are! If one puts forward an idea to a true Englishman--always a rash thing to do--he never dreams of considering whether the idea is right or wrong. The only thing he considers of any importance is whether one believes it oneself. Now, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the more insincere a man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be couloured be either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices."
I do what Basil does. I really don't care about people's ideas (unless it's like Schillinger; that might tend to color my impression of them as a person slightly). Nathan would always talk to me about philosophical issues; mind and body, body and soul, and I would always be stumped to answer. Who am I to say? But I would be interested in what he thought, what he believed, I guess because I thought it was a measure of who he was as a person. That's what Basil believes, too. He tells Henry that he states the most immoral ideas Basil's ever heard, but lives a very honest life.
Of course, Henry's response would suggest that Basil is right. He's probably totally insincere. He says most of what he says because it sounds good (and believe me, it does). But he also envies Basil, I think. A few select phrases right true. It is Henry who corrupts Dorian, and I haven't quite figured out the why of it yet, but this could be the beginnings.
Quotes of interest:
"You like everyone; that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone."
"An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them."
"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
