Re the Oscar Wilde stickie. Nice to see the man's face up there

[saltpoint]

on the stickie scoreboard.

His face and writing were both completely missing from my high school lit textbook.

So whosever stickie that is, thanks for giving credit where it's due. The man had talent.

[Placebo]

1. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

:)

[saltpoint]

2. Thank you, Placebo. Absolutely appropriate. /nt

[fleabert]

3. I never repy to my critics. I have far too much time. But I think someday

I will give a general answer in the form of a lecture, which I will call "Straight Talks to Old Men".

Oscar Wilde, in an interview.

I adore him, he would not have been surprised that he was excluded from your Lit books, but would have enjoyed some publicity on the matter. He is one of the best literary figures in history, imo. :-)

[saltpoint]

4. Yes. And lucky for those critics that Oscar Wilde never really gave that

talk. He would likely have mowed them down, but in sublime fashion.

His wit was razor-sharp. His life was tragic, though, and he died wildly beaten and unhappy. What would he have thought of the LGBTQ movements of this century? From "the love that dare not speak its name" through Stonewall all the way to Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN?!

Let Tony Kushner -- or someone -- write a play in which Oscar's ghost comes back to walk the streets of modern San Francisco. Let him walk into a LGBTQ bookshop on Castro Street and see several titles of his works and two or three young people standing in front of the shelf deciding which one to buy, take home, and read.

[fleabert]

5. what a wonderful idea for a play!

I think he would have loved San Francisco today- I think he'd be best friends with Eddie Izzard and Margaret Cho. He would be a rabid opponent of the Bush adminisitration- and hilarious. And he'd probably still be self-destructive and choose bad men as lovers.

[saltpoint]

12. Margaret Cho could even play herself! I agree -- she and Oscar

would likely hit it off pretty well.

She could be his guide through the contemporary world his writing helped form, similar to the way Beatrice guides Dante through Hell.

Their dialogue at Harvey Milk Plaza, as Margaret explains about Harvey and Dan White, would be a powerful scene.

[fleabert]

18. as a proper dandy, he would have some shock over modern language

and cursing- Margaret would be perfect to gracefully introduce him to the ways and wiles of the proper FUCK YOU!

Although I think OW would still speak his wonderfully floral way... he could tell you you were an asshole and you would say thank you!

[saltpoint]

20. LOL! Exactly. Margaret could attempt to train him on the vulgarities

he'd need to function in the Bay Area.

O my. All this is making me miss him all the more.

[Carla in Ca]

6. Isn't he the one who said

The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about?
Brilliant.

[saltpoint]

9. Just like him to say such things, too. Similar in tone to his comment,

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”

--Oscar Wilde



- - -

[Carla in Ca]

26. He was truly one of a kind

Here is another of my favorites:

But what is the difference between literature and journalism?
...Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all.

[saltpoint]

29. Yes. I like that one. Also that is an excellent beagle in your

signature field there.

[Carla in Ca]

33. Thank you

She is truly wonderful. Her name is Jean Harlow and she is 5 years old. I have a story about how we almost lost her in March in my journal. Veterinary medicine has come a long way, thank goodness. :hi:

[saltpoint]

34. Ah that's good. You pet Jean Harlow for me & tell her she's a good dog.

[trof]

7. WHAT stickies? Maybe it's my Firefox?

I don't see jack.
:-(

[saltpoint]

8. Hi, trof. Oscar's not up there right now, but he's on the big

stickie board -- "GrovelBot's Big Board" of stickies. Just click on that last stickie that says "GrovelBot's big Board" in the second row of stickies on each page.

[trof]

11. Ahhh. Thanks.

[frogmarch]

10. Were Oscar Wilde's last words before dying really

"Either those curtains go, or I do"?

[saltpoint]

13. His attributed last words, yes. In the face of overwhelming defeat

and despair and exile, his intellect and wit did not falter.

[fleabert]

14. Wallpaper, not curtains.

he was in a hotel in Paris- hated the wallpaper. yellow floral.

but they weren't his dying words- he couldn't speak in the final days. Depending on the author, the death was either peaceful or awful.

at least that is what I remember from the few biographies I have, I'll check for you.

[fleabert]

16. "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other

of us has to go." Wilde said to Claire de Pratz, after leaving his bed for the first time in weeks, going to a cafe, drinking absinthe (against dr's orders) and walking back to the hotel with much difficulty.

paraphrased from Richard Ellmann's biography, Oscar Wilde

[saltpoint]

19. There it is. Thank you, fleabert. I'd read Ellman on Wilde and

loved it.

I wish my high school text book had not omitted Wilde's visit with Jefferson Davis.

Predictably unpredictable thing for Wilde to do.

[fleabert]

23. I have one for you to read... it's exceptional

Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions, by Frank Harris (whom I am sure you recognize as one of OW's close confidants and friends. it was written in 1930 and is very interesting. Other biographers have some arguements with his version of things, but it is a very good read.

My friend that introduced me to Oscar gave me a copy for Christmas in 1989, first edition!, and wrote this inscription:

"Never discard the gentleness of nature 'midst the harshness of man's chaos...far on the edge of Beauty's harrowing dream lies Inspiration."

-JW

I think Oscar would have liked that little bit of prose.

[saltpoint]

25. I think he would have LOVED it. It's beautiful. It's the kind of

prose that would have stopped Oscar Wilde in his tracks. While the rest of his group went on to the party or gathering, Oscar would stay where he was and read a passage like that over and over.

What a knockout.

You hang around some very cool people, fleabert.

I will try to find a copy of the Harris book -- I have never read it.

[miss_american_pie]

24. And if you've seen the room

the wallpaper would make anyone want to off himself. ;)

[fleabert]

28. that picture is creepy!

I much prefer his pictures from his tour of America, and of him in younger days. The curly hair ones are very odd though.

[saltpoint]

15. I'll toss in this quotation to the mix:

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

--Oscar Wilde

[fleabert]

17. lovely. another: "Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. " OW nt

[PassingFair]

21. I can resist everything, except...

Oscar Wilde....

[saltpoint]

22. And a lot of us are ...

tempted to agree!

:hi:

[saltpoint]

27. Wilde's wit was not always kind. Here's this one as an example:

“Forty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin and forty years of marriage make her look like a public building.”

--Oscar Wilde

[fleabert]

30. there is one thing infinitely more pathetic than to have lost the woman

one is in love with, and that is to have won her and found out how shallow she is.

OW

methinks he showed more true feeling in this comment than usual- his wife was not the woman he thought she was when they married. Not that it was her fault entirely- he was also not terribly honest with her either. ;-)

[saltpoint]

31. You said it. Very true. That was not a marriage destined for

a long happiness.

The social pressure versus the imperative of self-acknowledgment. Very daunting.

[supernova]

32. I'm popping The Importance of Beign Earnest" in the DVD player

in his honor right this very minute! :D

And yes, my new love, Colin Firth is wonderful in it. :D

[saltpoint]

35. Hey, that's a very good selection for a Sunday night.

Good for you.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[saltpoint]

36. Here's three more from Mr. Wilde as Sunday's sand slips through the

hourglass:

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

--Oscar Wilde

“One’s real life is often the life that one does not lead.”

--Oscar Wilde

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”

--Oscar Wilde

________
Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It's a pleasure to have this commerce of mutual interest and respect for Oscar Wilde.