Feb 27th, 2006, 09:46 AM
Oscar Wilde
Even though I have only read about some 4 chapters of Portrait of Dorian Gray, I am convinced Oscar Wilde is the greatest writer I have ever read. I am no literature connossieur, but from what I have read, no one comes close.
Some writers are so bad you cannot read them, but Oscar Wilde is so good that now I remember why, in the year 2003 when I had begun the book, I set it down with my jaw dropped, saying, "You're reading way too much. You need to only attempt to read this when you are older. You're done." Reading two pages of Oscar Wilde is like reading anyone else's novel. You cannot read Oscar Wilde in any conventional sense.
If someone told me to sit and read Oscar Wilde for an hour I would tear my own head off because my brain cannot proceed beyond a few pages without being maxed out. I am so glad we didn't have to read any Wilde in school, because reading a chapter a night of him would drive me insane.
If I read a chapter a night I would mutilate myself on my bathroom floor and claim to be the second coming of Christ, and in that moment of irony I would masturbate to a bukkake film and certainly call it the second coming of Christ, and forget that I was merely making a pun and end up calling it artwork.
Sometimes, I do not think I should read any Oscar Wilde until I have gone out and had sex, gotten into a fist fight, gotten obscenely drunk, have someone close to me die, and have been forcibly sodomized with a bowling pin. How could I begin to understand the depth of his words if I am not both, at the same time, in abject pain and suffering and yet at the most triumphant and beautiful moment of my life?
If I do not haltingly read Wilde, I will devalue the greatest literature in the world. I used to highlight books for lines I liked, and would put large asterisks next to any paragraph that was especially worthy of being read again...
If I did this with his books, I would get more practice in drawing the constellations than anywhere else.
Honestly, I cannot take it. I cannot really even continue reading his stories in any conventional or proper sense being that it is overwhelming and speaks directly to the heart on such levels I am utterly humbled.
I went back into the book to find a few quotations for you to read about, some examples, but then I found that they tied in so well together that if I were to truly convey my true feelings towards their brilliance I would have to type the entire chapter III dinner conversation, and if I typed that how could I omit Grey and Lord Henry's conversation in Chapter IV (which I am only halfway through)?
NOTE: I generally read a chapter of Oscar Wilde a year; being I read the first two chapters in 2003. I am considering trying to read a chapter a week, but that sounds insane to me still.
Oscar Wilde puts every existentialist writer to shame and exalts life to where it should be: the utterly gripping and beautiful act of romance, love, and thought.
If I could have a conversation with any one man, it would be Oscar Wilde, and we would sit down and smoke cigars and I would eternally guard each word he uttered.
If I ever say anything worthy enough that Oscar Wilde could have been construed as having said something as witty, I would have contributed more to the world than John Grisham or Stephen King.
I used to dream one day of being a writer, but god damn you Oscar Wilde, how could I ever even consider putting pen to paper? How could I honestly tell someone that they should read a single thing I have to say more than reading all of your books several times over?
Art imitates life, and life pathetically imitates the chained human soul that is rarely free, and Oscar Wilde is a direct reflection of what a soul free of chains and barriers can express.
In short: I know there is a God because when I read what Oscar Wilde writes I feel something inside of me that is supernatural, and I feel a desire to live.
|
Linear Mode
