Oscar Wilde's of the world

Do you know what hedonism is? Oscar Wilde (of late 19th century Britain) was a hedonist. He bravely lived art and firmly believed in art as the highest regard in life. A hedonist is a person who makes pleasure the top priority, however sinful and immoral that is. It follows one of the seven mortal sins: lust. What’s sinful about it, is that you start to indulge in pleasure and that takes away your attention from God. How is pleasure connected to art? While I don’t know the exact answer, for it would be a difficult and “essential” (not direct) one, I can take a guess. I’m thinking that, to Wilde, art is pleasure. Pleasure to all the senses: seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting.

You see, Wilde was very brave for being a hedonist during his time because during the late 1800s, society made it a crime to go against convention by any means, even in terms of sexuality. I kind of commend him for his bravery. Wilde was a homosexual and engaged in homosexual acts with his close friend, Lord Alfred Douglass (better known as Bosie) and the two enjoyed the services of rent boys at their hotel, shall we say.

Now, why would the public be interested in Oscar’s personal life? Why him, in other words. In his day, Wilde was a huge personality. He held dinner parties, where his artful, witty speech captivated all the guests. He wore clothes that were gorgeous on him and the absolute latest fashion of his time. Remember that he lived art. Art is there to both pleasure and entertain. But for him, it was something he needed to sustain himself the way he wanted to be sustained. He said once that he had to “live up to [his] blue china,” which he considered highly for their beauty in the home. Speaking of which, he once toured America (the West), giving lectures on home decoration. You have to please your sight if you’re going to live in it, I guess he thought.

He was a fairly all right writer, but really he wanted to shock people, society and he succeeded in doing so, in standing out, by living as a hedonist, both publicly and privately. Publicly, he was a hedonist in the way he carried himself, his clothes, speech, people he associated himself with. Privately he was a hedonist in his homosexual acts with Bosie. Wilde was safe from a total dismantling of his reputation and life so long as the public was blind to his private life. But of course the public wasn’t totally blind – it was as if they were wearing sun glasses; they don’t get the direct glare from the bright sun, but the sun is till there and they can still see it, it’s just not as bright. The public knew something fishy was going on; they saw the rent boys leaving Wilde and Bosie’s hotel with cigarette cases that had engraved in them: “for services rendered.” So long as Wilde didn’t say it out loud, he was safe.

But Bosie’s father (Bosie, by the way, was 16 years younger than Wilde), a mentally unstable guy, wreaked havoc on Bosie and Wilde’s relationship. He knew what was going on and wanted to do something about it; he wanted to expose the truth. So what did he do? He pressed charges on Wilde. “Gross indecency,” it was called. In the trial, Wilde let out his homosexuality and the graphic evidence was just too much. Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor.

You’d think this isn’t that depressing, that he had it coming. And you’re right. But wait; there’s more. Wilde had been going bankrupt, despite his earnings from his writings and plays, because he spent it on lavish gifts for Bosie, fancy food and hotels and rent boys. He spent his money, in other words, on pleasure. Talk about a sad ending for an enchanting and intriguing personality of his time!

After watching his biography, I just felt bad for Wilde. He just wanted to live his own life by his own principles – that of art. If only art and pleasure weren’t so expensive (and not to mention costly, regrettable) he wouldn’t have gone bankrupt. But still, in my opinion, he had a bit too much pleasure, and you know the saying, too much of something is a bad thing. It’s an obsession and obsessions are dominating and merciless because they’re blind to their host. But I still feel I have to commend him for his attempt to stay alive in his pleasure obsession and for his staying true to his homosexual self. He truly was ahead of his time.

Even today, people are starting to come out of the closet, professing their homosexuality to family, friends, and even the world. I like to think it is because we have lived with each other – humanity-wise – long enough to share our true feelings. They’ve been itching under the surface, apparently since Oscar Wilde’s time, possibly earlier (they may not have had a name for homosexuality yet). I applaud their bravery and courage. It’s amazing how Oscar has transcended through the times, connecting the past with the present. He broke free from the standards of his Victorian era to be his quirky, risky, philosophical self that mirrors gays and lesbians of our times . . . well, somewhat.