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A review by selfmythologies
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
5.0
OKAY HERES THE REVIEW
Me and my pile of 5 star ratings lately :D but let's be real, i knew this book would be exactly my thing. and if you know even just a bit about me you also knew this book would be exactly my thing. my first impression was actually yup, this is gonna be a solid at least 4 stars', but I ended up loving it even more than that, and at the end it was a true favorite.
ok so first of all. i already wrote on tumblr that this whole story reminded me in its themes intensely of kierkegaard's 'either/or' which i once partly read for a seminar, and which is about the dicussion of two differing modes of living: by ethics, or by aesthetics. and in a way, this book is another variation of that discussion.
now it is one of the most quotable books i ever read, but it's funny because most of the aphorisms and 'wisdoms' come from lord henry, who is like the Mephisto of this story and should definitely not be any sort of role model lmao. but actually it's really interesting because-lord henry totally 100% has the aesthetic worldview. he judges things and people by how appealing they are, how much potential they have for being interesting . and he's not immoral, but amoral; he doesn't care about morality (unless its, well, interesting.) (the connection aesthetic - interesting was also part of kierkegaard's book actually!) the thing is, intersting things are often really horrible things. destroying someone's life is interesting. decay is interesting. art has so many subject matters that are intensely disturbing and for that exact reason, appealing.
but what happens if you see your entire life the way you judge art? well...see: this book.
the thing is that lord henry is actually quite relatable or at least completely understandable (or was for me), the moment you let go of your own sense of morality. or maybe that only works for people who already have an intense sense of aesthetics. i know quite a lot of people wouldnt be able to see things differently than with their sense of moral judgement, but i can, and its....disturbing.
one of my favorite scenes in the book is when dorian rejects sibyl vane quite violently and she commits suicide, and hes starting to have a bad conscience about it but henry convinces him to see it as ~she died in a truly romantic way~ and dorian kind of...romaticizes the entire thing to absolve himself from guilt, as if the entire story of him and the girl was just....a work of art, and he only needed to judge it by how appealing it is artistically? THAT IS SUCH INTERESTING STUFF HOLY SHIT.
i also like immensely how dorian doesn't turn completely ~evil~ but his consciene continues to plague him and he constantly tries to avoid it and push it down. (see his behaviour around the picture, the opium stuff, also the reason hes mad at basil in the first place is that basil is basically his voice of reason or his conscience and he knows he is right, it's the typical reaction of being mad at someone because subconsciously youre mad at yourself)
(by the way did freud know this novel?? he must have loved it. its so....freudian. its basically psychoanalysis 101)
(also silence for basil, pure cinnamon roll who deserved so much better, im so sorry for my poor darling)
and what i also love is that in the end, the book doesnt...tell you what to think about the topic. is it a warning against being immoral for the sake of beauty? can be totally read that way. but then the book itself is also a work of art, and the writing is incredibly...well...focused on beauty. (and by the way, the writing style is SO GOOD) also the preface and the fact that oscar wilde was part of the aesthetic movement. it is clear that this book also....loves showing beautiful things. and isnt the story in itself about something disturbing that is interesting artistically? (SO META.)
its that ambiguity that made me rethink about the book for a long time after i read it. it stayed with me because the conflict ethics vs aesthetics is kinda central to me as a person because i find both these approaches to life deeply important, and im always trying to find a balance between them. in the end life is nothing without beauty, but it also is without responsibility and being able to live with what you did. and whats necessary isnt always appealing / beautiful / interesting. and after all we need to differentiate between life and fiction...even if it would seem a fairytale not having to. at the same time, i also want my life to be as....artistic as possible, lmao. issues! :D
tl;dr read this because its damn well written and damn fascinating
Me and my pile of 5 star ratings lately :D but let's be real, i knew this book would be exactly my thing. and if you know even just a bit about me you also knew this book would be exactly my thing. my first impression was actually yup, this is gonna be a solid at least 4 stars', but I ended up loving it even more than that, and at the end it was a true favorite.
ok so first of all. i already wrote on tumblr that this whole story reminded me in its themes intensely of kierkegaard's 'either/or' which i once partly read for a seminar, and which is about the dicussion of two differing modes of living: by ethics, or by aesthetics. and in a way, this book is another variation of that discussion.
now it is one of the most quotable books i ever read, but it's funny because most of the aphorisms and 'wisdoms' come from lord henry, who is like the Mephisto of this story and should definitely not be any sort of role model lmao. but actually it's really interesting because-lord henry totally 100% has the aesthetic worldview. he judges things and people by how appealing they are, how much potential they have for being interesting . and he's not immoral, but amoral; he doesn't care about morality (unless its, well, interesting.) (the connection aesthetic - interesting was also part of kierkegaard's book actually!) the thing is, intersting things are often really horrible things. destroying someone's life is interesting. decay is interesting. art has so many subject matters that are intensely disturbing and for that exact reason, appealing.
but what happens if you see your entire life the way you judge art? well...see: this book.
the thing is that lord henry is actually quite relatable or at least completely understandable (or was for me), the moment you let go of your own sense of morality. or maybe that only works for people who already have an intense sense of aesthetics. i know quite a lot of people wouldnt be able to see things differently than with their sense of moral judgement, but i can, and its....disturbing.
one of my favorite scenes in the book is when dorian rejects sibyl vane quite violently and she commits suicide, and hes starting to have a bad conscience about it but henry convinces him to see it as ~she died in a truly romantic way~ and dorian kind of...romaticizes the entire thing to absolve himself from guilt, as if the entire story of him and the girl was just....a work of art, and he only needed to judge it by how appealing it is artistically? THAT IS SUCH INTERESTING STUFF HOLY SHIT.
i also like immensely how dorian doesn't turn completely ~evil~ but his consciene continues to plague him and he constantly tries to avoid it and push it down. (see his behaviour around the picture, the opium stuff, also the reason hes mad at basil in the first place is that basil is basically his voice of reason or his conscience and he knows he is right, it's the typical reaction of being mad at someone because subconsciously youre mad at yourself)
(by the way did freud know this novel?? he must have loved it. its so....freudian. its basically psychoanalysis 101)
(also silence for basil, pure cinnamon roll who deserved so much better, im so sorry for my poor darling)
and what i also love is that in the end, the book doesnt...tell you what to think about the topic. is it a warning against being immoral for the sake of beauty? can be totally read that way. but then the book itself is also a work of art, and the writing is incredibly...well...focused on beauty. (and by the way, the writing style is SO GOOD) also the preface and the fact that oscar wilde was part of the aesthetic movement. it is clear that this book also....loves showing beautiful things. and isnt the story in itself about something disturbing that is interesting artistically? (SO META.)
its that ambiguity that made me rethink about the book for a long time after i read it. it stayed with me because the conflict ethics vs aesthetics is kinda central to me as a person because i find both these approaches to life deeply important, and im always trying to find a balance between them. in the end life is nothing without beauty, but it also is without responsibility and being able to live with what you did. and whats necessary isnt always appealing / beautiful / interesting. and after all we need to differentiate between life and fiction...even if it would seem a fairytale not having to. at the same time, i also want my life to be as....artistic as possible, lmao. issues! :D
tl;dr read this because its damn well written and damn fascinating