This quote from Oscar Wilde was sent to me by a friend named Terrance:
"The only artists I have ever known, who are personally delightful, are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most ...unpoetical of creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not live."
--Lord Henry Wotton from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
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reply:
This is not intended as wisdom Terry . . . but rather a device used by a skilled writer, filling space like a musician with counterpoint; from these sentiments we are given to confront the disposition of our own gullibility through the articulated principles of the author's invention, his character, blemishes and all.
No greater example of such teasing polemics exists than the famous chapter 5 from The Brothers Karamazov, (Dostoyevsky), "The Grand Inquisitor", regarded universally as the greatest chapter from any work in the history of literature. Briefly, Christ returns to a plaza in Spain during the mid sixteenth century, only to be arrested and cross examined by the Grand Inquisitor. Through a meticulous and thorough dissection of the self destructive tendencies of society as a whole, Jesus is condemned for having forsaken mankind by refusing Satan's offer; leaving the Church, through strict and brutal devices, to pick up the burden of mankind's security, but only at the expense of its Liberty.
This is a thought experiment. I don't believe anyone was ever intended to confuse the eloquence of the Grand Inquisitor for the philosophy of Dostoyevsky himself.
The clue? . . . When the premise flies in the face of a reader's practical experience, ethics, or cold logic, it is generally assumed that he/she is being called upon to wrestle with the page; the reader must assume authority in the saddle when engaged; the trail does not stray, but the horse will be given to wander. The reader must never loose the reins without forsaking the fundamental purpose in reading. It is a wrestling match, not a spectator sport.
The clues in Wildes invention? . . the facts:. Bob Dylan, Lord Byron, Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Keith and Mick, S T Coleridge, Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Ovid, Shakespeare, Cervantes . . .
each example a testament to an artist who lived a life eqivilant to the furthest excesses of their oeuvre . . .
And finally, allow me to present myself as a prime example of a second rate talent, thoroughly enjoying the turmoil, strang und durm, of a second rate biography, chock filled with second rate adventure
No greater example of such teasing polemics exists than the famous chapter 5 from The Brothers Karamazov, (Dostoyevsky), "The Grand Inquisitor", regarded universally as the greatest chapter from any work in the history of literature. Briefly, Christ returns to a plaza in Spain during the mid sixteenth century, only to be arrested and cross examined by the Grand Inquisitor. Through a meticulous and thorough dissection of the self destructive tendencies of society as a whole, Jesus is condemned for having forsaken mankind by refusing Satan's offer; leaving the Church, through strict and brutal devices, to pick up the burden of mankind's security, but only at the expense of its Liberty.
This is a thought experiment. I don't believe anyone was ever intended to confuse the eloquence of the Grand Inquisitor for the philosophy of Dostoyevsky himself.
The clue? . . . When the premise flies in the face of a reader's practical experience, ethics, or cold logic, it is generally assumed that he/she is being called upon to wrestle with the page; the reader must assume authority in the saddle when engaged; the trail does not stray, but the horse will be given to wander. The reader must never loose the reins without forsaking the fundamental purpose in reading. It is a wrestling match, not a spectator sport.
The clues in Wildes invention? . . the facts:. Bob Dylan, Lord Byron, Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Keith and Mick, S T Coleridge, Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Ovid, Shakespeare, Cervantes . . .
each example a testament to an artist who lived a life eqivilant to the furthest excesses of their oeuvre . . .
And finally, allow me to present myself as a prime example of a second rate talent, thoroughly enjoying the turmoil, strang und durm, of a second rate biography, chock filled with second rate adventure
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