Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was a very interesting character. He was a great writer. I love his thoughts on art. One of my favorite quotes of his comes from his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray: "The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."

However, even though he's charming and artistic and intellectual, overall he's not a guy that I'd like my children to spend time with.

Lately I've been reading The Soul of Man Under Socialism, one of Wilde's essays. The ideas are really intriguing, but here's some stuff he says that I just completely disagree with:

"With the abolition of private property, marriage in its present form must disappear. This is part of the programme. Individualism accepts this and makes it fine. It converts the abolition of legal restraint into a form of freedom that will help the full development of personality, and make the love of man and woman more wonderful, more beautiful, and more ennobling." He goes on to say that Jesus understood that marriage wasn't that important, because Jesus wasn't married and he left his family to go preach.

I have to disagree with Wilde's thoughts here. I think marriage is a wonderful stabilizing institution. I have great example of my parents. They've been married for over 30 years and they're doing just great. Marriage is wonderful. If there is any social/political/economical organization that eliminates marriage, I don't want to be a part of it. I also believe that family life is ordained of God. God created Adam and Eve and married them. That's the way he intended it.

Of course, Wilde was one to show us through example how unimportant the traditional family life is. He did his best to mess up his own. No, wait, that's mean. He loved his children and wrote fairy tales for their enjoyment. But still, he committed adultery and also dabbled in homosexual behavior.

Oscar Wilde says, that to the woman taken in adultery, "Jesus said that her sins were forgiven her, not because she repented, but because her love was so intense and wonderful" This is messed up, in my opinion.

Another quote: "When there is no punishment at all, crime will either cease to exist, or, if it occurs, will be treated by physicians as a very distressing form of dementia." This reminds me of people who insist on reforming monsters. I think some people are just monsters and should be punished.

"It is mentally and morally injurious to man to do anything in which he does not find pleasure." News flash, Oscar Wilde: life isn't all fun and games. Remember: "By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread."

"An individual who has to make things for the use of others, and with reference to their wants and wishes, does not work with interest, and consequently cannot put into his work what is best in him." Wrong again, Wilde. Jesus lived for others. He lived, worked, and died for us. In fact, I refute the main premise of this whole essay. In the first paragraph, Wilde says, "The chief advantage that would result form the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others..." Living for others is a grand thing. I do not think I could live without the company of my family and the company of the people who I see every day. That does not make me codependent or mentally unstable or anything, it makes me normal. We all need somebody to lean on.

It's funny, though, because even though I disagree with so much of what Wilde says, I want to keep reading his writings. Sometimes I wonder if he says such outlandish things just for the argument. He seems to be challenging so much tradition and so much normality and so many assumptions.

I'm still an Oscar Wilde fan, don't get me wrong. I will continue to read his works, even though some of them are just wacky. Isn't that funny?

Speaking of reading books that I disagree with on moral grounds, isn't it funny that I kind of like reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson? I mean, there's a book that is really messed up, but I still kind of like it. Remember Matthew 18:7 "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" Think about it. OK, gotta go.