La decadenza del mentire

by Oscar Wilde

Uno dei dialoghi wildeiani di più rilevante peso teorico, "La decadenza del mentire" (1898) rappresenta il manifesto dell'antinaturalismo e il più importante contributo dell'irlandese al dibattito sul rapporto tra valore dell'arte e ruolo dell'uomo nel mondo. La più grande aspirazione umana, quella alla bellezza, si condensa nella massima: "Primo dovere dell'uomo è quello di risultare il più artificiale possibile, il secondo nessuno l'ha ancora scoperto". L'artista tenta costantemente di rendere ciò che lo circonda più consono alle proprie esigenze di quanto lo sia "per natura'. Creare, produrre arte, significa trasfigurare la realtà e deviarne i fini naturali, troppo aspri e violentemente veritieri per essere sopportabili, significa rendersi sapienti nella suprema arte della menzogna. Significa riprodurre un mondo artificiale dove mentire diviene il più sublime esercizio del sapiente. Attraverso il confronto con le opere d'arte e con gli esiti della critica a lui contemporanea, Wilde mette alla prova le proprie teorie per giungere ad allontanare sempre più l'Arte e la Vita dalle catene della Verità, diremmo oggi dal realismo.

Genres: Classics, Nonfiction, Essays, Philosophy, 19th Century, Art, Victorian

82 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1889

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

welcome to: THE PENGUIN GREAT IDEAS PROJECT!

as you all know, i'm:
a) addicted to projects (and my book club, my long classics project, and my genius project are all on pause)
b) mildly behind on my reading challenge (see: months-long reading slump and corresponding existential crisis)
c) very into short books that make me look smart (much like the penguin great ideas collection).

i have acquired a couple dozen penguin great ideas installments, and i will be attempting to read one a day until i get bored, catch up, or reach spiritual fulfillment!

find past books here:
WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM?
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE
THREE JAPANESE BUDDHIST MONKS
REFLECTIONS ON THE GUILLOTINE

i was nervous to read this, as both a huge oscar wilde fan and a huge fan of lying...

but this was a hater's paradise.

the first story is about how literature is better than life, mostly because lying rules. these are two opinions at the core of my personal philosophy and reading affirmations of them in oscar wilde's prose was a dream fulfilled.

the second story is about how critics are as valuable as (if not more valuable than) the artists themselves, and as one of goodreads' preeminent annoying people picky readers that ruled too.

i love this project!

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Art of Lying


The only real people are the people who never existed

What is interesting about people in good society is the mask that each one of them wears. Not the reality that lies behind the mask
It is an humiliating confession but we are all of us made out of the same stuff. Where we differ from each other is purely in accidents: in dress, manner, tone of voice, religious opinions, personal appearance... Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.

The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.

Lying and poetry are arts—arts, as Plato saw, not unconnected with each other—and they require the most careful study, the most disinterested devotion. Indeed, they have their technique, just as the more material arts of painting and sculpture have, their subtle secrets of form and colour, their craft-mysteries, their deliberate artistic methods. As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection

After reading these quotes on the art of lying , maybe some of you will consider the possibility of Donald Trump being an Oscar Wilde faithful follower. As a compulsive liar, maybe he has found in this essay some useful material for his creative personality. However that is not the case, cos according to Oscar Wilde “politicians never rise beyond the level of misrepresentation and actually condescend to prove, to discuss, to argue. How different from the temper of a true liar, with his frank, fearless statements, his superb irresponsibility , his healthy, natural disdain of proof of any kind...”
As you see, there’s no possible way of Mr. DT ever using OW’s geniality as a scapegoat for his deceitful manners 😉
Although I don’t approve of hating, if you don’t suffer from the same problem, that means you can go on hating him as you previously did ... 😉😜

………………


Mentira é Arte


Será que entre Natureza (mesmo apesar do seu rol de imperfeições) e Arte elegemos a primeira?

“Nature's lack of design”?
“Her curious crudities”?
“Her extraordinary monotony”?
“Her absolutely unfinished condition”?…

Ou será que optamos pela segunda como galante forma de protesto: “Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place.“

E quanto à Literatura? Essa forma de arte que nos é tão querida?!

Sim… o que sucederia à Literatura se cortássemos as Asas à Mentira?! O que aconteceria às histórias, aos livros, se todos arvorássemos “uma faculdade mórbida e insalubre de contar a verdade”?! Já pensaram nisso?!…

Por Amor à Arte em geral e à Literatura em particular, deixem a Mentira voar!
Mentira é Semente, Mentira é Arte latente…😜

O exacerbado puritanismo da era vitoriana amordaçava a Mentira e, com ela, a Liberdade de Expressão nas suas variadíssimas formas. The Decay of Lying foi a galante revolta de Wilde , o seu inevitável e consequente protesto…


P.S.: Roubei uma estrela ao OW porque, mesmo apesar de caleidoscopicamente (estou a usar esta palavra, nem sei porquê😜) imperfeita, a Mãe Natureza merece todo o respeito e devoção

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

"La decadencia de la mentira" forma parte de un volumen de Oscar Wilde conocido como "Intenciones" y se trata de un ensayo literario a modo de diálogo entre dos cultos señores en una biblioteca de una casa de campo llamados Cyril y Vivian, que casualmente eran los nombres de los hijos del propio Wilde.
En este ensayo, Oscar Wilde reniega y se proclama en contra de la escuela aristotélica que propugnaba, a partir del propio Aristóteles al concepto del Arte como reflejo e imitación de la vida o mimesis, en su famosa "Poética", quien en el capítulo cuarto sobre la definición de lo que es una Tragedia rezaba: "Es evidente que el origen general de la poesía se debió a dos causas; cada una de ellas parte de la naturaleza humana. La imitación es natural para el hombre desde la infancia, y esta es una de sus ventajas sobre los animales inferiores, pues él es una de las criaturas más imitadoras del mundo, y aprende desde el comienzo por imitación. Y es asimismo natural para todos regocijarse en tareas de imitación."
Dice Aristóteles que en una tragedia, ese “acto de imitación de la vida”, la condición esencial para que una pieza teatral tenga un efecto ideal deseado en el espectador, el cambio de la fortuna del héroe debe ir de la felicidad a la desdicha. Así como están dadas las cosas, Aristóteles define que el Arte imita a la Naturaleza y Wilde lo refuta estableciendo este concepto exactamente al revés.
En primer lugar, cuando uno comienza a leer este ensayo, Wilde se encarga de defenestrar a todo aquello que él considera literatura mediocre, en primer lugar de su propio país para luego encargarse de desmitificar a los franceses (especialmente a Balzac) y hasta llega a tocar a los rusos.
En segundo término y hasta el final del ensayo comienza a explicar a modo de manifiesto lo que él considera que es el Arte como elemento puro de inspiración y de como la mentira puede servir o no en sus propósitos. A continuación dejo algunas de las excelentes frases que posee este ensayo y que son esenciales para entender el alcance de sus innegables conceptos artísticos.
"Una de las principales causas del carácter singularmente banal de casi toda la literatura de nuestra época es, indudablemente, la decadencia de la mentira considerada como arte, como ciencia y como placer social. Los antiguos historiadores nos ofrecían ficciones deliciosas bajo la forma de hechos; el novelista moderno nos presenta hechos estúpidos a guisa de ficciones."
"La verdadera escuela de Artes es el arte mismo y no la Vida."
"Invocarán el nombre de Shakespeare -¡como siempre!-, y citarán esa imagen tan manoseada del Arte que presenta un espejo a la Naturaleza, sin acordarse de que ese desdichado aforismo lo dice Hamlet a propósito, para convencer a los espectadores de su absoluta insensatez en materia de arte."
"La literatura adelanta siempre a la Vida. No la copia: la modela a su gusto. El siglo XIX, es en gran parte, una pura invención de Balzac."
"El mundo es ahora triste, porque en otros tiempos fue una marioneta melancólica. El nihilista, ese extraño mártir sin fe, que sube al cadalso sin entusiasmo y muere por una causa en que no cree, es un producto puramente literario. Fue inventado por Turgueniev y Dostoievski le dio el último toque."
"Las cosas existen porque las vemos, y lo que vemos y cómo lo vemos depende de las artes que han influido sobre nosotros. Mirar una cosa y verla, son dos actos muy diferentes. No se ve una cosa sino cuando se ve su belleza. Entonces, y solo entonces, nace esa cosa a la vida..."
"El Arte crea un efecto incomparable y único, y en seguida pasa a otra cosa. La Naturaleza, en cambio, olvidándose de que la imitación puede convertirse en la forma más directa del insulto, se pone a repetir ese efecto hasta que nos cansa por completo."
"El hombre puede creer en lo imposible, pero no creerá nunca en lo improbable."
"El Arte no se expresa más que a sí mismo. Tiene una vida independiente, como el pensamiento y se desarrolla sólo en un sentido que es el suyo."
"La Vida imita al Arte más que el Arte a la Vida. Y esto se debe, no solamente al instinto imitador de la vida, sino al hecho de que el fin consciente de la vida es hallar una expresión, y el arte le ofrece ciertas formas de belleza en las que emplear su energía."

Oscar Wilde fue un esteta, pero principalmente un Artista, con mayúsculas, al que no le temblaba el pulso para poner en duda al mismísimo Aristóteles y lo más importante de todo es que tenía lo fundamental que se necesitaba para ello: su Genio indiscutido.

[Saman · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘‘The justification of a character in a novel is not that other persons are what they are, but that the author is what he is. Otherwise, the novel is not a work of art.”

The Decay Of Lying, an essay included in his collections of essays, Intentions, was written in a Socratic Dialogue between two characters Cyril and Vivian, named after his sons. Vivian reads out his article to Cyril in which he presents a somewhat absurd idea that life imitates art and not the other way around.

“Cyril: But you ’don’t mean to say that you seriously believe that life imitates art, that life, in fact, is the mirror, and art the reality.
Vivian: Certainly I do.”

Every Oscar Wilde book (Play or Essay) presents some harsh realities of life and you'll forever learn from his intriguing and thought-provoking writing.

"Indeed as anyone who has ever worked among the poor knows only too well, the brotherhood of man is no mere poet's dream, it is a most depressing and humiliating reality."

The Decay of Lying was worth reading. It is difficult to express into words your feelings for so fascinating and incredible creation. It would suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed his satire on Life, Art and Nature.

"The fact is that we look back on the ages entirely through the medium of art, and art, very fortunately, has never once told us the truth."

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Decay of Lying: An Observation by Oscar Wilde (1891)

“The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. He is the very basis of civilized society.”

I’ll admit that I bought this book during the early entertaining days of George Santos, though I also know the Liar in Chief was his better, and there are countless politicians in office who have been and are consummate liars--and purveyors of lies such as conspiracy theories. The “play” or essay in this book is unfortunately mainly a really a witty discussion of aesthetics and art--
“The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for his personages he should at least pretend that they are creations, and not boast of them as copies.”
“Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.”
--and not an essay such as On Bullshit about political lies and liars. But I nevertheless read it quickly for nuggets about political lying. Vivian tells Cyril she is writing an essay on the decay of lying, and she is off to the races about “. . . the temper of the true liar, with his frank, fearless statements, his embrace of irresponsibility, his healthy, natural disdain of proof of any kind.”

“What is a fine lie? Simply that which is its own evidence.”

Vivian decries today’s “. . . careless habits of accuracy. . .”

But on aesthetics, Vivian prefers art’s perfection to nature’s imperfections. Life imitates Art more often than Art imitates Life.

“If something cannot be done to check, or at least to modify, our monstrous worship of facts, art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land.”

I bought the book with the intention of writing, ala Vonnegut or Twain, something funny about Santos, but whatever I might invent pales in comparison to anything we hear ten times a day. Wilde would have applauded the current Revival of Lying, were he alive today.

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

O Elogio da Mentira


“As únicas verdadeiras pessoas são as que nunca existiram“

“Os historiadores clássicos deram-nos encantadora ficção na forma de factos; os romancistas modernos apresentam-nos factos enfadonhos sob a forma de ficção”

“Tal como se conhece o poeta pela sua boa música, também pode reconhecer-se o mentiroso pela sua eloquência rítmica, e em nenhum dos casos a casual inspiração do momento será suficiente. Aqui, como em qualquer outro caso, a prática faz a perfeição.”

“De facto, o que é interessante nas pessoas de sociedade é a máscara que cada um deles usa, não a realidade por trás da máscara. É uma confissão humilhante, mas somos todos feitos da mesma coisa. O cavaleiro gordo tem seus humores melancólicos, e o jovem príncipe tem seus momentos de humor tosco. Onde diferimos uns dos outros é em puros acidentes : no vestir, maneiras, tom de voz, opiniões religiosas, aparência pessoal, hábitos e gostos. Quanto mais se analisa as pessoas, mais as razões para fazê-las desaparecer. Cedo ou tarde se chega àquela detestável coisa universal chamada natureza humana. Realmente, como qualquer um que já trabalhou entre os pobres sabe muito bem, a irmandade entre os homens não é um mero sonho de poeta, é uma deprimente e humilhante realidade”

“A Arte começa com a decoração abstrata, com a obra puramente imaginativa e prazerosa lidando com o que é irreal e inexistente. Esse é o primeiro estágio. Então a Vida deixa-se fascinar por essa maravilha, e pede para ser admitida no círculo encantado. A Arte toma então a Vida como parte da sua matéria-prima, recriando-a e remodelando-a em novas formas. Sendo absolutamente indiferente a factos, inventa, imagina, sonha, e mantém entre ela e a realidade a impenetrável barreira do belo estilo, do tratamento decorativo ou ideal. O terceiro estágio é quando a Vida ganha a vantagem, e arrasta a Arte à selva. Essa é a verdadeira decadência, e é disso que estamos agora a sofrer.”


Tendo como pena a sua língua afiada, Oscar Wilde contrapõe o suicídio literário à premente necessidade da mentira como tapa-misérias. Wilde estabelece uma analogia entre mentira e arte — um culto do belo que a literatura da época não deu mostras de dominar 👎

Que perda foi para ele (e para nós também) não ter vivido na Era de Donald Trump! 😉

Na sátira, na arte de distorcer, Oscar Wilde é único, divinal e imbatível. 🥰👍

[leynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Decay of Lying – An Observation is an essay by Oscar Wilde, published in 1891. Oscar presents the essay in a Socratic dialogue between the characters of Vivian and Cyril who, oddly, share the names of both of his sons. The conversation promotes Oscar's view of Romanticism over Realism.

The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.

I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde and quite familiar with his body of work, nonetheless, I needed some time to get used to his writing style in the genre of nonfiction. Even though he propagates similar views in his plays, his essays are written in a very different fashion and are a lot harder to digest. Nonetheless, I quite enjoyed getting to know this new side of Oscar, since it showed his ability as a brilliant literary critic as well as a playwright.

The conversation between Vivian and Cyril is prompted by the fact that the former wants to share an essay that he wrote on the decay of lying in art. While Vivian reads his unfinished essay, Cyril listens (at times unattentively), interrupts and objects. From the beginning, it becomes clear that Vivian will be Oscar's mouthpiece. All of Oscar's personal opinions are expressed through him. I found that very fascinating due to the fact that both characters might have been inspired by Oscar's sons and this show of favoritism seems odd. But that might just be Oscar being a classy dad. ;)

Even though the essay is quite info-dumpy, there are some whimsical and playful moments; mostly due to Cyril's funny interruptions:

CYRIL: Well, you need not look at the landscape. You can lie on the grass and smoke and talk.

These light-hearted moments were much needed in this somewhat dense and inaccessible conversation. Oscar examines the conflict between unimaginative realism and imaginative reality. He despises the former and praises/ promotes the latter.

Oscar thinks that the decay of lying in art has the consequence that writers will no longer think for themselves but only write what they think is deemed morally correct and relevant by society. He fears that artists will lose their imagination and start copying things instead of creating them.

VIVIAN: The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for his personages he should at least pretend that they are creations, and not boast of them as copies.

This approach to literature is often called art for art's sake or aestheticism. If you're familiar with Oscar's work, you will already know that he was one of the biggest aesthetes of his time. [If you want to treat yourself, read the prologue to The Picture of Dorian Gray which Oscar added after his novel was heavily censored and deemed immoral. You will be shook.]

Personally, I resonated with this approach to literature because I like the idea that there shouldn't be any constraints when it comes to art. Writers should be able to write about whatever the fuck they want, and however they want it. I'm not the biggest fan of writers solely writing for other people – fan service is the worst. Also, in modern literature we see this huge trend of writers writing the same stories all over again – using the same tropes, character archetypes, settings – and not daring to think outside the box and to truly create something special.

VIVIAN: And if something cannot be done to check, or at least to modify, our monstrous worship of facts, Art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land.

Oscar says that art stands for itself and shouldn't be scrutinized by the public eye and their sense of morality. I think it's very important to keep the context in mind in which Oscar wrote this essay. He published his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray a year earlier and was forced to make severe alterations, e.g. cut out certain scenes entirely and modify certain actions to appease his publisher. The reason his novel was rejected in the first place was its homoerotic subtext.

VIVIAN: To Art's subject-matter we should be more or less indifferent. We should, at any rate have no preferences, no prejudices, no partisan feeling of any kind.

VIVIAN: Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance. She is a veil, rather than a mirror.

So, I can totally understand why Oscar was so passionate about the topic of censorship. He was heavily constrained in his private life [he couldn't be openly gay because homosexuality was still a taboo in Victorian London], and then, he wasn't even allowed to write about his feelings and experiences in his art.

The fact that Oscar was so outspoken against censorship makes me really happy. Although, since the times have changed, it's necessary to make a few adjustments to his statements. Nowadays we are mainly calling out racist, sexist and homophobic views. Something that I deem super vital and important, so we might say that today 'problematic' Art should be scrutinized by the public. It's kind of crazy if you think of it, we're fighting for the same thing that Oscar fought for (in this particular case: LGBTQ+ rights) but our approaches have to change as the times change; Oscar had to fight for the basic right to write about homosexual relationships, whilst today, we can focus on calling out homophobic bullshit. Still, our fight against the notion of homosexuality=bad is the same.

VIVIAN: My dear fellow, whatever you may say, it is merely a dramatic utterance, and no more represents Shakespeare's real views upon art than the speeches of Iago represent his real views upon morals.

Nonetheless, I also like the notion of 'to write these ideas is not to endorse them' but it's definitely a tricky subject matter. On the one hand, (especially after reading Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov) I appreciate authors who break taboos and maybe even take in the perspective of a 'problematic' person (e.g. a pedophile, a rapist, a racist) because it fosters conversation and the reader is forced to think. On the other hand, I am quite quick to judge and when I see racist statements I automatically infer that the author is racist as well. So, I think there's a fine line and only really skilled authors (imo) manage to write 'problemtic' ideas without endorsing them. In Lolita, I always had the feeling that Nabokov was completely in charge of what he was doing and that his ultimate message was that Humbert is a sick pedophile, and definitely not the message that pedophilia is great. Not sure if that makes sense.

And lastly, even though I don't fully agree with Oscar on this point, I found it very interesting what he had to say about art being a representation of its time.

CYRIL: Surely you would acknowledge that Art expresses the temper of its age, the spitit of its time, the moral and social conditions that surround it, and under whose influence it is produced.

VIVIAN: Certainly not! Art never expresses anything but itself.

As mentioned earlier, the context in which Oscar wrote this statements is super important to keep in mind, and I get where he is coming from, especially if we look at the disgusting censorship at his time.

Nonetheless, I think that art can't be seperated from its artist and therefore also not seperated from its time. I agree that there are certainly writers who were ahead of their time and wrote (non)fiction which was very uncharacteristic of their time, still they were influenced by their surroundings and thus represent them.

Finally, I will leave you with my favorite and probably the most Oscar-quote of this essay:

VIVIAN: Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.

Shitting on English moral and the English society as a whole whenever he could, gotta love my main man.

[Mehmet B · Rating 5 out of 5]

"1. Art never expresses anything but itself.
2. All bad art comes from returning to life and nature. (Realism is a complete failure, and the two things that every artist should avoid are modernity of form and modernity of subject matter.)
3. Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
4. Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of art."
At first encounter, some of these doctrines may seem somewhat wierd. Oscar Wilde elaborates them convincingly in a dialogue between characters named Vivian and Cyril. Vivian is a witty defender of Romanticism.

[hafsah · Rating 4 out of 5]

oscar wilde, the man that you were

touching on the importance of lying (aka fiction and fantasy) in literature, the critic as artist, and how life imitates art, wilde imbues his characteristic satirical, witty, and thoughtful perspective on a range of topics about art. this collection perfectly captures how non-fiction should be written. with absolutely beautiful prose, wilde breathes life, humanity, and passion into these essays. i just love this man’s brain.

[Ada · Rating 3 out of 5]

La idea que més m'ha agradat, per mi la més suggerent, és la idea de que la Naturalesa imita l'Art. Que apreciem les postes de sol o la boira, per exemple, perquè hi trobem un Turner o els versos d'algun poeta.

Pel que fa la idea de la Bellesa per damunt de la la Veritat, això ja em costa més. Wilde és provocatiu, i m'han entrat ganes de rellegir-me el retrat de Dorian Gray, que en el seu moment em va agradar tant.

[Al Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

People who don't lie have no creativity. And nowadays, people who do lie do it so poorly that they have no creativity either.

[Inese Okonova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Šis bija ļoti atsvaidzinoši. Vailds, protams, nedaudz atgādina pusaudzi, kas noteikti teiks "B", ja visa pasaule teiks "A", bet šobrīd, lasot viņa tēzi par to, ka garlaicīgā Dzīve tikai atdarina Mākslu un ka Mākslai nav muļķīgāka mērķa kā mēģināt atdarināt dzīvi, neglābjami nāk prātā, atklāti sakot, pagarlaicīgie MI mēģinājumi imitēt un atdarināt jau kādreiz izdomāto un redzēto. Varbūt meli un mākslinieka prasme "melot" būs tas, kas glābs Mākslu MI laikmetā?

[Omololu Adeniran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thesis is so radical, so unconventional that it takes your attention by force. Life imitates art and not the other way round? Written in the form of a socratic dialogue (the two characters happen to be the names of Oscar Wilde's two boys), this essay changed my life. It showed me just how far we could stretch the mind if we let it roam free.

“Schopenhauer has analysed the pessimism that characterises modern thought, but Hamlet invented it. The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The Nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Tourgenieff, and completed by Dostoieffski. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People’s Palace rose out of the debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac. Our Luciens de Rubempre, our Rastignacs, and De Marsays made their first appearance on the stage of the Comedie Humaine.”

[Airam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's incredible how many discussions I have had with friends over this essay.
Perhaps I'm too orthodox to appreciate sensationalist attacks on nature and realism (a genre I see great value in, unlike Wilde). But my disagreeing with the thesis had less to do with my underappreciation than the lack of substantiation the author puts forward. If this were a novel, no justifications would even be needed, but being an essay, better reasoning is due.
Wilde proposes (or rather, imposes) a few ideas, but I will focus on two: 1) life imitates art; 2) nature imitates art. I accept the first, but not the latter.
Are sunsets attempts to imitate Turner's paintings? No. It's not nature that imitates art, it's our perception of nature that builds bridges between nature and art. Here you might argue that our perception of nature is nature. Does a tree fall if no one is there to see it? Yes. How egocentrical to think not.
Of course we could endeavour in mystical lines of reasoning and feed the idea that the world only exists because we do and that our perception ultimately conditions reality. This is an interesting exercise, but for pragmatic purposes I will stick to the more humbling notion that humans are not the centre of the Universe.
The only nature that imitates art is human nature, and that is also the nature that creates it.
Wilde's writing is wonderful as ever - as it would, being an aesthetic piece -, but I struggle with poorly fundamented pillorying of other takes on art.

[Марија Андреева · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think that I will ever read something from Oscar Wilde which I will not like. I've read it in less than 2 hours. Great!!

[Théo d'Or]

And alien tears will fill for him Pity's long-broken urn, for his mourners will be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn.

[Bloodorange]

An entirely skippable Wilde, unless you have better reasons than I to read it.

[Fer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ya me dieron ganas de mentir, la mentira se la a tomado por mala, talvez lo sea, pero es la cosa más increíble en un entorno sano, ¿no?.
Hasta para decir la verdad se tiene que decirla de forma creíble.
La mentira, ¿es buena?, En el arte si, ¿y en la vida?, Depende, si no es en exceso, creo que si, por ejemplo la mentira como método para cambiar la vida, poniendo el caso de soñar un mundo mejor, y creyendo q es posible, no sería esto una forma de mentira que dejara de serlo hasta cierto punto cuando se cumple el sueño, pero es imposible hacer todo lo que se dice y se planea para el futuro y no por eso se miente ¿o sí?, pero entonces por qué la mentira es mala, antes se creía en mitos, hoy se cree en ciencias (las ciencias son otra forma de mitología, solo que más realistas), entonces ¿porqué si hoy estamos más cerca de la verdad estamos tan vacíos y cuando la mentira dominaba estábamos más llenos de vida?

El libro me dió mucho que pensar.
En si el libro trata de la mentira en el arte, y su importancia. El realismo literario llegó a ser tan común y corriente, ésta es una crítica muy buena en contra del realismo, no solo es una buena crítica, es hermosa y entretenida con postulados muy audazes, tales como:
"El arte jamás expresa otra cosa que su propio ser. Tiene su vida independiente, lo mismo que el Pensamiento, y se desenvuelve únicamente sobre sus propias trazas. No tiene por qué ser realista en una época de realismo, ni espiritual en una época de fe. Lejos de ser creación de su tiempo, suele estar en directa oposición a él, y la única historia que guarda para nosotros es la historia de su propio curso. A veces vuelve sobre sus pasos, y resucita una forma antigua [...] En ningún caso reproduce su época"

"La segunda doctrina es esta. Todo arte malo proviene de volver a la Vida y a la Naturaleza, y erigirlas en ideales. La Vida y la Naturaleza podrán a veces formar parte de la materia bruta del Arte, pero para que le sean de alguna utilidad real hay que traducirlas a convenciones artísticas. En el momento en que el Arte abdica de su medio imaginativo abdica de todo. Como método el Realismo es un completo fracaso, y las dos cosas que todo artista debe evitar son la modernidad de la forma y la modernidad del asunto. Para nosotros, que vivimos en el siglo XIX , cualquier siglo es tema válido para el arte menos el nuestro. Las únicas cosas bellas son las cosas que no nos conciernen. Es, diré por el placer de citarme a mí mismo, exactamente porque Hécuba no es nada para nosotros por lo que sus penas constituyen un motivo de tragedia tan apropiado. Además, lo moderno es lo único que se queda anticuado".

[danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

aaahhhhh i loved this so much!!!

it took me about 10 pages to get into, and then i couldn’t put it down. the first section (“the decay of lying” essay) was very interesting but the REAL DEAL began in the second essay “the critic as artist”.

i forgot how beautiful oscar wilde’s writing is, i could honestly read these sorts of essays for hours. the ideas were so interesting and the form of conversation between gilbert and ernest in which it was presented felt quite like a conversation between dorian and henry.

and the little bits in between???? i literally scribbled all over my copy there was so much that i want to remember.

“turn round and talk to me. talk to me till the white-horned day comes into the room. there is something in your voice that is wonderful.”

like??

“ernest, you are quite delightful, but your views are terribly unsound” !!!

“and as the moon has hidden herself, let us talk a little longer”

also there were so many unexpected links between stuff we’ve been doing at school, like the renaissance and the use of form in literature. it was so interesting to read about it here.

other aggressively underlined quotes:

“music…creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sene of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears”

“for the secrets of life and death belong to those, and those only, whom the sequence of time affects, and who possess not merely the present but the future…”

“for when the work is finished it has, as it were, and independent life of its own, and may deliver a message far other than that which was put into its lips to say”

“there is no mood or passion that Art cannot give us”

“are there not book that can make us live more in a single hour than life can make us live in a score of shameful years?”

“… and you will become for a moment what he was who wrote it; nay, not for a moment only, but for many barren moonlit nights and sunless sterile days will a despair that is not your own make its dwellings within you, and the misery of another gnaw your heart away.”

“an idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all”

“man is least himself when he talks in his own person. give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

there were countless more but hopefully you get the idea.

i feel rather bewitched.

[Miloš Lazarević · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eseji su, često, kao putopisi: ili su frigidna, nemaštovita putovanja tokom kojih su predeli, mesta i ljudi samo to - pobrojavanje, sastavljanje, sabiranje, ili su, naprotiv, presvučeni ličnošću autora, čime istorija ( bilo da je to istorija mesta ili depo intelektualne zaostavštine ) biva osvežena, njen dekor učvršćen. Pored toga što su Vajldovi eseji duhoviti i inteligentni, oni su dobri onoliko koliko jedna misao uspe da se održi kao dovoljno pogrešna, a ne univerzalno istinita. Domet nije samo umetnički, jer tri eseja donose i putovanje kroz istoriju literature, a koja je skoro uvek isto što i istorija mesta i ljudi. U jednom pasusu Vajld kaže da u prirodi ima samo onoga što smo u nju uneli i da nešto postoji ukoliko ga opažamo, a to kako opažamo zavisi od umetnosti kojima smo bili izloženi. Divno je putovati očima Oskara Vajlda, na isti način na koji sam u “Vinjetama Londona” uživao idući korak uz korak s Virdžinijom. Oči i koraci puni su uzbuđenja, ali svakog časa, ako se na njih osloniš, možeš mirno zaspati na otvorenom ritmu. Sve je moguće ako su su oči, ako su koraci, dovoljno široki da u njih stane i jedan san.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Oscar Wilde feels like being on twitter; quick, punchy, amusing yet somehow secretly poignant. Twitter is rife with hypothetical dialogues, meme formats that commonly fuel the zestiest jokes: Me, also me; Expanding Brain; and Me, an Intellectual all have an Wildean bent.

Hard to say what it must have felt like to read his words a hundred years ago; I imagine it looked a bit like your grandparents puzzling over tumblr. The structure simply feels different than a Conan Doyle or a Kipling, which often take patience or focus to tease apart. When you compare contemporaries like Treasure Island’s opening sentence, “Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17__ and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof,” to Decay's, “Enjoy Nature! I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty,” and it is hard not to think his words and phrasing were too casual, too flippant to be standard for the time.

Except:

...Surely you don’t imagine that the people of the Middle Ages bore any resemblance at all to the figures on medieval stained glass, or in medieval stone and wood carving, or illuminated MSS. There were probably very ordinary-looking people, with nothing grotesque, or remarkable, or fantastic in their appearance. The Middle Ages, as we know them in art, are simply a definite form of style, and there is no reason at all why an artist with this style should not be produced in the nineteenth century.

Within the text of The Decay of Lying, the point is made that stylistic choices of the past are not representative of anything but stylistic choices. It does not follow that the stilted or dense sentencing of Sherlock Holmes recreates the reality of the 1890’s any more than Lil’ Kim’s dope-ass rhymes represent how we spoke to each other in the mid-2010s.

So what does this mean for The Decay of Lying? Well, not a whole lot. Its purpose was mostly shit-talking by Oscar Wilde about how boring other authors were, and how the modern style of believably realistic fiction was boring AF. It calls to mind The Great Derangement, where Ghosh doesn’t feel comfortable drawing on his experience of being nearly killed by a tornado because it would make his fiction seem too fantastic to be real. So, again, Wilde has his finger on a preternaturally modern complaint. There is, of course, a more horrifying possibility—nothing really changes over much across the centuries.

But in the works of Herodotus, who, in spite of the shallow and ungenerous attempts of modern sciolists to verify his history, may justly be called the ‘Father of Lies’; in the published speeches of Cicero and the biographies of Suetonius; in Tacitus at his best; in Pliny’s Natural History; in Hanno’s Periplus; in all the early chronicles; in the Lives of the Saints; in Frossart and Sir Thomas Malory; in the travels of Marco Polo; in Olaus Magnus and Aldrovandus, and Conrad Lycosthenes, with his magnificent Prodigiorum et Ostentorum Chronicon; in the autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini; in the memoirs of Casanova; in Defoe’s History of the Plague; in Boswell’s Life of Johnson; in Napoleon’s dispatches, and in the works of our own Carlyle, whose French Revolution is one of the most fascinating historical novels ever written, facts are either kept in the proper subordinate position, or else entirely excluded on the general ground of dullness. Now everything is changed. Facts are not merely finding a footing place in history, but they are usurping the domain of Fancy, and have invaded the kingdom of Romance. Their chilling touch is over everything. They are vulgarizing mankind.

Wilde harkens back to Herodotus, while we harken back to Wilde as non-fiction incorporates more storytelling elements. Fiction’s raison d'être is elegant lies. Believable audacity, designed to thrill and entertain, becomes muddied when the improbable is cited as too convenient. Remember, No, coincidence, no story.

By the end of The Decay of Lying the narrator—who fie’d upon Nature in the opening—dutifully recounts the glory of a sunset and then ascribes its “chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.” It is an unsubtle and absurdist reversal of reality that emphasizes creative unreality, rather than pale reflective description, as the central power of the written word.

[Katie Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I really enjoy the format of presenting an essay as a conversation; I've been fond of it since reading Plato.

I agree about 50/50 with the essay's ideology and theory; I think Vivian's argument fails when there is no nuance offered

[Liene Kainaize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sirila un Viviana (tā sauca Oskara Vailda dēlus) dialogs kādā Notingemšīras mājas bibliotēkā.
Dzīve imitē mākslu.
Spriež par dažādiem zināmiem rakstniekiem, viņu stilu un spēju melot.
Mēs redzam miglu vai saulrietu tikai tāpēc, ka esam lasījuši kādu dzejnieku vai rakstnieku, redzējuši mākslinieka gleznu.
Domas rosinošs darbs.

[tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

класс, много свежих идей и вещей, о которых никогда не задумывалась и буду рада поразмышлять но бля….. меньше гонора молю 😭 хотя что я хотела начиная читать уайлда

[Annabel Gunn]

This has truly been the bane of my life. It’s thoughtful and thought provoking and I did enjoy parts of it, but it is really not the escapism I’ve been needing and so have hurtled through in tiny chucks (with little thought) in an attempt to get it over with. I would like to one day re-read it when I have the mental capacity to enjoy it!

[Mireia Ruiz Vigatà · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aquest és, fins ara, el meu llibre preferit d'Oscar Wilde. Fins ara havia llegit novel·les en les quals introduïa idees interessantíssimes a través dels seus múltiples personatges. Aquest llibre, però, molt més breu i al gra que els altres, es limita a seguir la conversa entre dos personatges, un dels quals defensa la necessitat de la mentida, especialment en l'art.

El llibre convida la gent a escriure des de perspectives interessants, no vertaderes. Deixar la recerca de la veritat aparcada, en pro de la bellesa i la capacitat creativa.

I crec que, a la vegada, ni el mateix Oscar Wilde es creu del tot aquest al·legat a favor de la mentida tan ferri que fa durant tot el llibre. I la matèria del llibre acaba sent una representació del que està defensant, una obra que anteposa la forma al contingut, la creativitat a la veritat, la imaginació al realisme i la bellesa a la vida.

Tot plegat em sembla una reflexió molt interessant, sobretot en aquests temps en els quals el discurs hegemònic està tan obsessionat amb l'honestedat i amb comunicar tot el que pensem tota l'estona.

Òbviament, l'honestedat té moltes virtuts, però i les virtuts de les mentides o les mitges veritats? El plaer artístic que produeixen les convencions socials, la fascinació d'una conversa amb algú que prioritza l'estètica a la raó, el delit d'escoltar una història que inclou tota mena d'exageracions i rumors...

"Cuando se exige al arte que renuncie a la belleza- la más elevada aspiración humana- en pos de la verdad, se sacrifica una de las capacidades más extraordinarias del ser humano: La de transformar la realidad. Crear significa urdir maravillosas mentiras para convertir al mundo en un lugar digno de nuestro asombro"

[Jakub · Rating 4 out of 5]

thanks to David who has chosen this book for my b-day gift. although it’s something i would not pick up at a bookstore, some of oscar’s concludions were quite thought-provoking, especially when i related them to my own creative endeavours in music production. in the end, however, it’s crucial to remember that it is a pair of complicated essays that one will struggle with. the lower rating thus stems only from the challenging aspect, which means that for a casual reader it might be better to find these ideas elsewhere in a more digestible manner. below i give some more detail on each of the texts:

— decay of lying —
oscar tries to argue that Nature and Life are imitating Art, and that the modern tendency of Art to tend to Realism has made current Art bland. many of his references are difficult to follow without a thorough background and so i tried my best to get at least something out of this essay-like dialogue. i got some interesting insights, but it was primarily an intellectual challenge.

— the critic as artist —
simarly to the above, oscar utilises many references to works i simply do not know. nevertheless, he does an interesting job at exploring the role of critics in art. he recognises Criticism as something much more difficult and meaningful over the Creation of Art, and also believes that Criticism is a key intellectual direction that should be embraced by the society to achieve unity, peace and social prosperity.

[piezimesungramatas_Raiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

O.Vailda dialoga formā veidotā eseja "Melu sairums" vēstī par mākslas un dabas mijiedarbību dažādos kultūras procesos, par iztēli un melu skaistumu, par mākslas patiesumu. Kas ir melīgāks-daba vai māksla? Autors runā par šiem un citiem jautājumiem, par laikmeta ideāliem un, no mūsdienu viedokļa, joprojām aktuālām mākslas, tai skaitā, literatūras problēmām. Interesanti, ka galvenie varoņi, kas veido esejas dialogu, nosaukti O.Vailda dēlu-Serila un Viviana vārdā.
O.Vailda tekstus vienmēr ir bauda lasīt! Priecē, ka šis darbs iztulkots latviski. Arī šajā esejā izpaužas autora talants runāt par mākslas procesiem trāpīgi,atjautīgi un ar vieglu ironiju.
📝"Literatūra vienmēr iet pa priekšu dzīvei. Tā nevis kopē dzīvi,bet veido to pēc savām vajadzībām."(29.)
📝"Ja cilvēks nevar gūt prieku,pārlasot grāmatu atkal un atkal, tad to vispār nav vērts lasīt."(19.)
📝"Mijkrēslī daba kļūst brīnumaini suğestējoša, un tai piemīt zināms skaistums,lai gan tās galvenais pielietojums varbūt ir ilustrēt dzejnieku citātus." (43.)

[Greta Rase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literal no sabía que este texto existía hasta hace dos días que me compartieron el archivo jajaja. ¡Esta increíble! Este libro contiene un diálogo en el que dos personajes, Cyril y Vivian, reflexionan sobre el valor del arte desde si mismo y no desde su imitación de la realidad. Entonces es la ‘mentira’ (lo ajeno a la Verdad y lo Real) lo que acerca al arte a su valor más alto. Por ello, como inicio de su argumentación, Vivian piensa que la imitación de la realidad y la literatura como espejo es el origen de la mediocridad artística. En cambio, es la realidad la que imita al arte (no al reves) y la literatura de su época parece en declive por su obsesión (muy de acuerdo a la mimesis de Aristoteles) de encontrar y presentar la verdad. Aunque hay cosas que sin duda no comparto, me parece un texto maravilloso que busca recuperar y demostrar que la experiencia estética se encuentra en la posibilidad de imaginar y trastocar lo real, la Literatura (o el Arte) es mejor que la Realidad por ello, por ser el espacio de la Mentira.

[Morgan Holdsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

126 pages of the philosophy of art written beautifully by Wilde, however in the style of a dialogue - think Waiting for Godot style. If I could’ve given it 3.9 stars I probably would have done given I am not too much of a classics fan which Wilde references in Part 2 and I think it would’ve greatly aided my understanding of the text. Would recommend reading pre visiting an art gallery to get you in the spirit.