Wilde, Like Oscar

Posted by Minni |1 comments

I've always been a fan of Oscar Wilde. Of course, as you can imagine, I fell into the rapture of Dorian Gray some time ago, but recently I came upon a new book that shed light on Oscar's character as a the person rather than solely the writer and poet and I suspect he has enchanted me from the grave.

It is a semi-biography "based on true events" they boast. The name of the book is Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance.

I don't know how I feel about factual accuracy in highly personal depictions of events. There are certain techniques employed in autobiographical and biographical writings.

In short, the fact doesn't (and often cannot) articulate the feeling at times. I think there is nothing wrong in using symbolism to capture a mood, an atmosphere: who cares if it took two days. I wrote that it took two weeks because, well it felt that long...etc, and I need the reader to fully understand this. To me it's just a variation of a metaphor. The idea of a metaphor, in a sense, stretched over a piece to cover more than just "The knife to the heart" but also the difference between two hours and two weeks.

Imagination is underrated! And the story should unfold like a cherry tree in April. You get my drift.

Wilde once said, "Biography lends to death a new terror" and I chuckle at that statement, but in my eyes it all depends on the biographer (Wilde actually told his friend to take notes as to later be able to write one). He was fortunate to have some good ones. Many people "worshiped" him, he took command and captivated all those in his presence indeed, I consider him a genius. And he suffered his dues to the great mind behind his eyes. Sir Arther Conan Doyle echoed this sentiment when creating fictional character Sherlock Holmes. Though I doubt nowadays heroin and cocaine could be compared to homosexuality, perhaps that was lent to the Victorian era in which these events took place. Hey, don't get red in the face, they hadn't even invented running water then. It wasn't our prime...well socially speaking, but then again, now isn't either. But I digress.

However, genius bears the mark of woe as well. And I think that is the point of this post. We all strive (in some way at least) to be "brilliant", "Cutting edge" but who really wants to endure the burden of genius? It's a serious thing to take on, and a lonely road to travel. The delicate line that separates genius and lunacy is not getting any bulkier despite what researchers suggest. In fact the odds are good for the modern sociopath: go to work, bite some heads off, get promoted. HELLO, corporate America, you're brilliant! Shine on, down my organic throat.

Judgment Placement

Posted by Minni |1 comments

It is said that one should never judge books by their covers. So what, then, shall we judge them by? Judgment, face it, is inevitable. While it isn’t wise to start with the cover, who shall say it is wrong sometimes go by the first page or second, and so on?

That the cover should be spared judgment is reasonable, however, is the material not far therein is protected by the immunity of the cover? In order to find out if you like the book in question, must you reserve judgment until you have to read the whole thing, cover to cover?

I took the effort of opening a book some days ago and read until I felt utterly unimpressed. I was only to the second page, and I hadn’t even moved far from the shelf it came from before putting right back into the gap it came out of, and moved on amongst the shelves until I was fully captivated by the first words chosen by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the fore pages of “Beautiful Damned.”

Aside from the few horrid pieces I have ventured to open, I can usually endure the first two chapters of any book, and sometimes, I finish those chapters feeling breathless and dive headfirst into the next chapters only to strike the hard bottom of trite words and content. My personal judgment line usually falls after the first couple chapters, after which, any reader who knows their taste will either scoff and throw it aside, or plow further into its pages. This method usually works because
it's common sense that a writer will put their best words forward. It’s natural to start strong. How many one paragraph clips do you have of unfinished (notwithstanding, rather brilliant) ideas? And they all look good because they’re the fresh wind of new thoughts that always land strong from the pen of a trained writer.

I would consider myself a writer in training, proven by a bachelor’s degree if not years of dedication to the skill, who still has a lot to learn. My talent is, of course, debatable, as even I spend much time debating my own skill with, um, myself. One thing, I think, that outshines talent in most cases, is dedication, ambition and passion.

More than half of the time great talent is bulldozed by the cutthroat ambition of the mediocre. But once in a while we experience a jewel of a writer who has all the talent and ambitious qualities rolled into one being. Unfortunately, I am not one of those. Fair, fair enough. I’m sorry, I like to sleep in.