Oscar Wilde

The author describes Oscar Wilde first as an excellent conversationalist. I have met people like that during my life, which made me feel instantly connected with Wilde. I enjoyed reading "The Decay of Lying," but I found it hard to understand. I felt like there was a deeper meaning that I had trouble finding. I liked the part about "art never expressing anything but itself... It has an independent life, just as Thought has, and develops purely on its own lines," (845). I found this statement both true and false at the same time. Art, to me, is just art. However, at the same time, it can be an expression of meaning, or an expression of one's true inner feelings and emotions. Oftentimes, the work of a struggling author seems to evoke more deeper feelings from its viewers than work of a previous, less stressful time for the author. I am not quite sure if Wilde really meant all of that in his sentence, but I found the alternate views of Cyril and Vivian to contrast different ideas very stimulating to read.

Another interesting piece was the poem entitled, "Preface to 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.'" It begins with the sentence, "The artist is the creator of beautiful things," (846). It ends with, "All art is quite useless," (847). These two very different sentences showed me from the start that this poem was full of meaning, comparisons, and contrasts. I found this poem to be beautifully written. The form and the meaning go much deeper than I felt I could interpret, but even so, I got the feeling after I read it that Wilde's definition of an artists was like describing yen and yang. There are some good points and some bad points, to put it simply. He writes, "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is fault. Thos e who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope," (846). In this poem, I thought Wilde was attempting to cleverly express his opinion about art critics and the actual true meanings of art, since he kept bringing in the word "critic," (847). He writes, "When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man fora making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it," (847).

One last point I would like to make with Wilde's work is the "Aphorisms" on page 887-888. The text says, "Wilde's aphorisms often cleverly invert a cliche in order to produce a seeming paradox," (887). I felt like this style showed his great intellect and wit. My favorite Aphorisms was, "The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it," (887). This one seems so simple, but it is full of meaning.