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Sunday, December 05, 2004 - 06:37 PM
The exclusive interview with the larger than life author and play write
By Michael Kellerman
Mike: As you know Mr. Wilde, our country recently survived a very divisive election. After a long year of endless moral, cultural, and economic debates, many of us feel that we have not only continued on a journey of “more of the same,” but we’ve actually stepped into a past where self-expression has been virtually eliminated and economic prosperity has been limited to the wealthy. In the past, you were always quite the critic of such societies. What do you think of the USA today?
Oscar Wilde: Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative; illusion is the first of all pleasures. The culture Mr. Bush has helped to reinvent only further reinforces my belief that the America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
Mike: Doesn’t it seem quite selfish that the slim moral majority in America, especially during a time when a questionable war is killing our youth, has forced their debatable religious views upon all of the United States?
Oscar Wilde: Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes them to live. Unfortunately, discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. If they only knew that the truth is rarely pure and never simple. (The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)
Mike: It is widely known that George Bush has not always been the upstanding Christian he claims to be. He readily admits to finding God and shedding his sinful ways. Still, I find it quite contradictory to the teaching of Jesus Christ that George Bush and his followers can promote a religious environment of exclusivity by, for instance, denying homosexuals the right to express their love and commitment to each other at the supposed alter of God. What do you think about this current controversy?
Oscar Wilde: It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious. In the same light, I think that we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Still, my dear boy, be careful not to moralize. You don’t want to be going about like the converted, and the revivalist, warning people against of all the sins which you have grown tired. You are much too delightful to do that. Besides, it is no use. You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be.
Mike: So what would you say to those of us who feel angry and alienated after the re-election of such a divisive man?
Oscar Wilde: To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity. I would say the same is true in America. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Mike: I have always felt that organized religion is nothing more than rationalization of fear in the power of numbers; that the many religious lack any kind of originality. Would you agree or disagree with this assertion? Why?
Oscar Wilde: Well, ones real life is often the life one does not lead. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Does that answer your question?
Mike: Yes. In the recent election, suburban and rural America really decided our president. These same people were the people who thought morals were the most important issue in the election. Can you explain this reasoning?
Oscar Wilde: Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there. That is the reason why people who live out of town are so absolutely uncivilized. Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured and the other is by being corrupt. Country people have no opportunity to be either, so they stagnate ……and vote for less than acceptable presidents.
Mike: Thanks for the interview Mr. Wilde. As always, you have many interesting and witty insights into our world. Any last words of wisdom you would like to give to our readers?
Oscar Wilde: Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854. After graduating from college, he published his first book of poems in 1881. His first success in the world of art came in 1892 when his play “Lady Windermere’s Fan” was performed on a London stage. The success of this production was followed by other successful productions including “An Ideal Husband,” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
In 1891, Wilde wrote the play “Salome.” The play, taken from the Bible’s Book of Matthew, told the story of Princess Salome, the stepdaughter of Herod. The original story chronicled the night Princess Salome danced for Herod the Great, on his birthday. Herod was so pleased with her dance that he offered her anything she desired. The princess asked for John the Baptist’s head, and was thus responsible for his death. The play was so controversial that it was banned in England.
Oscar Wilde’s controversy didn’t end with his plays. In his day, many considered him bisexual or homosexual. After becoming involved with the son of the 9th Marquess of Queensbury, Lord Alfred Douglas, it was discovered by the 9th Marquess that the two were having an affair. The Marquess publicly insulted Wilde by leaving a note in a pub that said, “Mr. Wilde posing as a sodomite.” Wilde filed a libel suit against the Marquess, which he lost, and was later imprisoned for. After being released from prison, bankrupt, Wilde moved to Paris where he would die in 1900.
All Oscar Wilde responses are in his own words. When necessary, I’ve added present day information to make the statements flow, as well limited opinions on how I think he would respond today. When not footnoted, quotes taken from www.quotationspage.com.
Michael Kellerman and Simone Monet-Williams write “Search for Culture in Cincinnati” in each edition of QCF Magazine. The column is honest and raw, geared to the young, vital exploration of the drinks, dining, people, sexual orientation, and arts in the city---to name a few things.
Contact Information
· michaelk@queencityforum.com
· simonemw@queencityforum.com
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