Quick word books2/27/2023 ![]() ![]() There is no one right way to understand The Picture of Dorian Gray. So too does our understanding of more complex gothic stories like the tale of Dorian Gray. And very discriminatory against people with large feet. The small child sees a lady who is sad and lonely, who gets to go to a party, and, through a series of intervening events isn’t lonely or sad anymore.Īs we grow up our understanding of the book changes, it becomes more complex and potentially, as in my case, less uplifting and more problematic. We, as readers, bring the full scope of our life experience along for the ride when we read a book.Ī small child can read a Disneyified version of Cinderella in a very different way to an adult. It’s art and if you don’t like it then that’s your problem.Ĭalling literary criticism autobiography certainly has its merits for there are as many readings of a text as there a readers. This epigraph dares critics to find fault with the narrative that follows, because if they do they will be guilty of the flaws they see in the text. Art that does not provide us with commentary or allegory, art that is just beautiful and enjoyable. Wilde today is acknowledged as being one of the most influential writers of the aestheticism movement that advocated art for art’s sake. The mere cheek and eloquence of this epigraph make it one of the most endearing defences of aestheticism in literary history. In fact, there were several critics who took particular delight in eviscerating his works. Wilde’s work was not by any means universally popular. This is Wilde getting in the first and hopefully the last word in a hypothetical debate with his contemporary literary critics. It performs the same function as the modern day disclaimer that we are all so familiar with. This gorgeous epigraph at the beginning of The Picture of Dorian Gray might be my favourite part of the whole book. Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas By Apollomelos~commonswiki –, Public Domain, The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. ![]() When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.ĭiversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. ![]() From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.įrom the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.īooks are well written, or badly written. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The artist is the creator of beautiful things. ![]()
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