I spend a fair amount of time reading. Online stuff, of course, but what I really mean here is print. For example, over the past year I have been reading The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. While Wilde is not one of my favorite authors I enjoy him well enough. I think he’s more funny than people give him credit for, but his humor is often missed because it is sometimes subtle.

Here’s an example passage from Salomé (the King of Cappadocia is Herod’s enemy):

And I have never broken my word. I am not of those who break their oaths. I know not how to lie. I am the slave of my word, and my word is the word of a king. The King of Cappadocia always lies, but he is no true king. He is a coward. Also he owes me money that he will not repay.

In fact, the entire premise of Salomé is actually pretty amusing – Wilde re-envisioned the biblical account and has Salomé demand the head of John the Baptist because she wants to kiss him (and he refuses, in life, to oblige her).

That said, I guess I find it hard to take so much of the same style – I have been delaying finishing the book by reading numerous other things. I checked my book journal and I have read 17 other books (and in excess of a few dozen National Geographics) since starting the Wilde tome. A few days ago I made a plan to read a certain number of pages every day so that I can finish the book by the end of the year.

Mais uma adaptação de O Retrato de Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, para os cinemas. Essa vêm pelas mãos de Oliver Parker, que já adaptou para as telonas Othelo (1995), de Shakespeare e An Ideal Husband (1999), outra obra de Oscar Wilde.

Ben Barnes (Stardust (2007), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian(2008)) interpretará Dorian, o jovem de beleza estonteante que após ter noção desta através de um quadro pintado por seu amigo Basil e pelas palavras instigadoras de Lord Henry, se perde apaixonadamente pela própria beleza e deseja do fundo de seu coração mantê-la para sempre. Forças desconhecidas tornam este desejo realidade e fazem com que seu quadro envelheça e fique  horroroso a cada “pecado” cometido, mantendo a beleza e juventude de Dorian pela eternidade.

O livro é aberto a diversas interpretações psicológicas, sexuais e sociais além de transitar pela metalinguagem. A obra já teve diversas interpretações para o cinema, sendo a última a participação do personagem principal da obra emA Liga Extraordinária (2003), vivido por Stuart Townsend.

Dorian Gray chega aos cinemas em 09 de Setembro deste ano. Veja o trailer:

The Picture of Dorian Gray carrega uma grande carga biográfica devido a crítica social que Oscar Wilde faz a sociedade do século XIX. Pessoas que escondem suas perversões, traições amorosas e uso de pessoas para chegar a objetivos egoístas atrás das máscaras sociais são claramente identificadas na obra, tornando-a universal e atemporal. Por isso as várias versões cinematográficas da obra, desde versões em cinema mudo até a utilização de Dorian em A Liga Extraordinária como o Ser sem sentimentos.

Lembrando que Oscar Wilde sentiu na pela toda a hipocrisia de uma sociedade quando todos lhe viraram as costas, perdendo todo o dinheiro e quase a dignidade completa sendo preso e humilhado quando acusado de ter um relacionamento homossexual com Lord Alfred Douglas, ou Bosie.

O trailer dá a dica de que Oliver Parker manteve todo esse tom sombrio e luxurioso da obra original. É esperar de dedos cruzados para ver.

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty”.

(from the Preface to ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde)

An abridged version of “Colossal Youth,” my piece on Arthur Cravan, was posted on the Flux magazine website on Friday 13 November 2009:

Colossal Youth

You may never have heard of him, but Arthur Cravan was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The fact that he wrote precious little — and certainly nothing of any lasting literary value — should not be held against him. Quite the contrary, in fact. Oscar Wilde’s nephew put all his genius into his life, turning it into a magnum opus full of sound and fury, high farce and convulsive beauty. In so doing, he influenced every single major avant-garde movement from Dada onwards. Cravan was the original Sid Vicious, the blueprint for all the subsequent outrages committed in the name of art. “Let me state once and for all: I do not wish to be civilised,” he wrote — and he meant it, man.

Arthur Cravan (or Fabian Lloyd, to call him by his real name) was born in Switzerland in 1887. After being expelled from an English military academy for spanking a teacher, he relocated to bohemian Paris where he partied hard with the likes of Blaise Cendrars and managed to become France’s Heavyweight Champion without throwing a single punch.

Cravan first gained the notoriety he so craved through Maintenant (“Now”), the literary journal in which he wrote everything under various noms de plume. Sourced from a butcher’s shop, the very paper it was printed on highlighted his utter contempt for belles-lettres. He filled an entire issue with gratuitous insults aimed at the artists taking part in the 1914 Independents Exhibition. As a result, he was challenged to a duel by the poet Apollinaire and almost lynched by a posse of avant-garde painters. Result.

Art, for Cravan, was essentially boxing by another means, as proved by the infamous conferences he gave in Paris and New York. During these happenings, he would knock back absinthe, perform drunken stripteases, shout abuse at the spectators and even fire gunshots over their heads. His final Parisian gig descended into pandemonium when he failed to commit suicide as advertised.

The onset of the First World War marked the beginning of a convoluted vanishing act that led him — in various guises — from Paris to Mexico where he disappeared at sea on a drunken boat of his own making. His body was never found. For years to come, he would continue to be spotted throughout the world. Arthur Cravan is still at large.

Photo by VC Ferry

“Wisdom comes with winters.”

~ Oscar Wilde

All Rights Reserved

© 2009

“An inordinate passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young”- Oscar Wilde

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Trike in the Studio #2

This time we’re not “actually” in the studio, but we hang out with cats, make music videos with cats, take bubble baths, read iris murdoch and oscar wilde and other fun shit.  Take a gander.

La culpa de este devaneo es de Casisocio, con quien tengo, o trato de tener en realidad, negocios que no nos llevarán a ninguna parte porque él es muy usurero, adorable, pero usurero, sin embargo esa es otra historia. Lo cierto es que Casisocio vive obsesionado con la eterna juventud y la muerte. Con la eterna juventud porque a sus cuarenta y tantos se siente viejo (entonces yo ya no sé qué es ser joven). Creo que ese lugar común que es “el peso de los años” se comienza a vivir a cierta edad, es verdad, pero creo también que Casisocio exagera. Luego, su obsesión con la muerte es un poco más provechosa porque al menos algún libro ha quedado con el tema de la muerte paseando por maravillosas líneas (recuerdo, por ejemplo, que por sus obsesiones leí “Las intermitencias de la muerte” de José Saramago, un libro inquietante en cuanto al tema: nadie muere y todos están condenados a una especie de vejez perpetua).

Hace poco tuve que hacer un viaje largo fuera de Santiago y para que me hiciera compañía me llevé (por equivocación) a don Oscar Wilde con “El retrato de Dorian Gray”, esa novelita maravillosa que a ustedes les debe ser muy familiar y que cuenta la historia del joven y hermosísimo Dorian Gray, del narcisismo que lo apresa cuando se ve reflejado en un retrato que desvela toda su hermosura y que a la vez le provoca un deseo irresistible de ser eternamente joven y conservar su belleza. Dorian desea entonces que sobre el cuadro recaigan todos las manifestaciones que deja a su paso el tiempo y el cuadro no sólo registra las arrugas y canas, sino que también es espejo fiel de sus gestos de maldad. Por supuesto, tiene un trágico final. No pude evitar relacionar la historia de esta novela y los excesos y hedonismo de su protagonista con Casisocio, aunque manteniendo las proporciones, claro está. Digamos que Casisocio sería algo así como un Dorian Gray adorable cuyo retrato no sufre las consecuencias del mal comportamiento del retratado.

Pero, dejando de lado las bromas con Casisocio, creo que sinceramente estamos en el siglo de Dorian Gray. Por eso este libro es un clásico, porque los clásicos son aquellas obras inmunes al paso del tiempo, no importa cuando fueron escritas, ni en qué contexto histórico, no tienen fecha de caducidad: son eternas. Decía que estamos en el siglo de Dorian Gray y no lo decía por chiste. Fíjense ustedes: ¿no es deseo de eterna juventud lo que llama a la puerta del consultorio del cirujano plástico? ¿No desean tantas mujeres (y hombres) que esas fotografías digitales de hace un par de años carguen solas todo el peso de arrugas, cinturas rollizas y canas, mientras ellos se mantienen apolíneos? Todos nos resistimos de alguna manera a las costras que deja el tiempo cuando pasa, sobre todo cuando pasa por nuestro cuerpo, y esa resistencia se ha transformado en algo tragicómico en lo que va de este siglo. Lo trágico – y yo lo he observado en Chile y Argentina, ya me dirán si en Colombia pasa también, es posible que sí – se manifiesta cuando algunas muchachas irrumpen de repente en la pantalla de la televisión, del computador o en las páginas de los diarios, portando enormes cicatrices, quemaduras, moretones y toda clase de deformaciones, producto de someterse a cirugías precarias con cirujanos inescrupulosos. No pocas han muerto.

Lo cómico se encuentra, principalmente, en los reinados de belleza. En estos días mi buen amigo Gustavo Faverón escribió algo al respecto en su delicioso blog, Puente Aéreo, puesto que las respuestas de las reinas pueden clasificarse, a estas alturas, como un “género” aparte y mencionó algunas de las más “notables”. Yo me pregunto, entonces, si uno de los precios amargos de perseguir a costa de sudor y sangre – literalmente – la eterna juventud y la belleza, no será el del atrevido ridículo que trasciende fronteras. Puede ser.

Hace varios meses me salió una cana. Mi mamá me lo hizo notar con un gritito. Hace un par de días me recogí el cabello en una moña y un amigo me hizo notar que tenía dos canas bien visibles. Ya van tres entonces. “Estás vieja”, me dijo, como si con eso me fuera yo a picar. No solo no me teñiría las canas, si es que continúan naciendo tan prematuramente, sino que las luciría feliz. No quiero con esto hacer una apología de la belleza natural, ni declarar la guerra al quirófano, el bótox o el gimnasio. Cada quien finalmente decide qué pócimas bebe (o padece) para lucir siempre joven y por lo demás es absurdo librar batallas perdidas de antemano: habrá que aceptar pues que el cincel de nuestros días sea el bisturí y el yeso la silicona. Y si no, el hambre, todo depende del objetivo que requiere moldear el cuerpo.

Simplemente me llama la atención que, después de tantos años de haberla leído por primera vez, esta obra de ficción que es “El retrato de Dorian Gray” se me convirtió en una metáfora de los narcisismos del siglo XXI. Otra cosa es que no deja de ser perturbador encontrar tantas correspondencias con la vanidad de nuestros días, en una historia que – aún escondiendo una poderosa crítica de su autor a la sociedad de su época – finalmente es fantástica y está escrita utilizando en buena medida (pero de forma estética) el recurso literario de la exageración, recurso que por lo demás está tan malogrado por estos días, pero que a Wilde le salía tan bien.

Hace años ya, en uno de los intercambios epistolares más bellos de mi vida, hablábamos con un excelentísimo escritor sobre nuestros respectivos abuelos y entonces yo le contaba que: «Yo me crié entre viejos, los vi soportar a todos sus enfermedades, los vi sonreír sin dientes, los vi enloquecer y los vi luchar batallas cruentas contra la soledad y los vi perder. Pero a esas edades, no pude verlos levantarse, sin embargo, muchos de ellos, antes de irse, me levantaron un par de veces y precisamente como libros, dejaron que me alimentara de su enseñanza.» Y transcribo este trocito de carta por una razón especial, una confesión en realidad: es que en el fondo me entristece un poco que las personas ya no quieran envejecer.

Photo by VC Ferry

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

Oscar Wilde

All Rights Reserved

© 2009

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. Hellen Keller

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses. Oscar Wilde

Live for yourself – there’s no one else more worth living for. Begging  hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more. Neil Peart (Canadian drummer)

Charity consists not so much on how much we give to the person but on how much we keep for ourselves. Gregory Ramkisoon

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest “celebrities” of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years’ hard labour after being convicted of homosexual relationships, described as “gross indecency” with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry, never to return to Ireland or Britain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

I know most of us lead busy lives, and that some visitors to this blog only skim through the posts to look at the pictures. However, for all those interested in pederasty and boylove, its history and its value, reading John Francis Bloxam’s “The Priest and the Acolyte” is a must.

John Francis Bloxam was an English poet and priest. While studying at Oxford’s Exter College, he submitted, in 1894, a beautiful story to The Chameleon, a one issue periodical for which he also served as an editor. The periodical also contained Lord Alfred Douglas’ poem Two Loves, which, along with Bloxam’s work, would later be used against Oscar Wilde in his trial.

“The Priest and the Acolyte” is a tragic story about a love affair between a Catholic priest and a 14 year old acolyte. It describes what the priest feels toward the boy, and how the love is reciprocated. It explores the priest’s mindset, and his struggles with his “sins”. At the end of the story, the priest is confronted by the rector, and he stands up for what he believes in a pure, direct, and unapologetic way.

"Bodo" by Otto Lohmüller

Despite the tragic end, the short story is fascinating. One can really tell that Bloxam understands the priest’s psyche in a way that only another pederast could. It is also interesting because it deals with pederast priests, a category that still seems to be alive and well in the 21st Century. But perhaps what makes this story unique is the fact that it was written in the late 19th Century, and is a true reflection of the “Uranian” pederasty movement of the time.

Here are some fragments of the story:

“He saw the oval face flushed with shame at the simple boyish sins he was confessing, and a thrill shot through him, for he felt that here at least was something in the world that was beautiful, something that was really true. Would the day come when those soft scarlet lips would have grown hard and false?”

"Patrick VI" by Otto Lohmüller

“And that night, and for many nights after, the priest, with the pale tired-looking face, drew the curtain over his crucifix and waited at the window for the glimmer of the pale summer moonlight on a crown of golden curls, for the sight of slim boyish limbs clad in the long white night-shirt, that only emphasized the grace of every movement, and the beautiful pallor of his feet speeding across the grass. There at the window, night after night, he waited to feel tender loving arms thrown round his neck, and to feel the intoxicating delight of beautiful boyish lips raining kisses on his own.”

“He said the solemn words with a reverence and devotion that made the few poor people who happened to be there speak of him afterwards almost with awe; while the face of the young acolyte at his side shone with a fervour which made them ask each other what this strange light could mean. Surely the young priest must be a saint indeed, while the boy beside him looked more like an angel from heaven than any child of human birth.”

“‘There is no sin for which I should feel shame,’ he answered very quietly. ‘God gave me my love for him, and He gave him also his love for me. Who is there that shall withstand God and the love that is His gift?’

‘Dare you profane the name by calling such a passion as this “love” ?’

‘It was love, perfect love: it is perfect love.’”

The full text can be found here.

Oscar Wilde – because everyone loves a classic.

  — Vous êtes une personne bien agaçante, dit la fusée, et bien mal élevée. Je déteste les gens qui parlent d’eux-mêmes comme vous, quand on a besoin de parler de soi, comme c’est mon cas. C’est ce qu’on appelle de l’égoïsme et l’égoïsme est une chose détestable, surtout pour quelqu’un de mon caractère, car je suis bien connue pour ma nature sympathique. Vous devriez prendre exemple sur moi.

Oscar Wilde, La fameuse fusée

They say the last words of Oscar Wilde were:

“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.”

Sometimes I wonder if he died in my house. I certainly can share the sentiment.

《道连.格雷的画像》前言

艺术家是美的事物的创造者.

艺术的目的无非是：揭示艺术;隐去艺术家。

批评家是那些能将其对美的事物的印象转化成另一种形式或者新的质地的人.
最低形式的批评的最高体现,是一种自传的意味.

在美的事物中发现丑的涵义者,他们思想腐败而人格缺乏魅力.这是错的.
在美的事物中发现美的涵义者是上档次的.因为他们所以有希望.他们是被选择的种
族.对他们来说,美的事物只代表美.

对于书,不存在什么道德不道德的说法.
书要不写得好,要不写得坏.这就结了.

十九世纪对现实主义的反感,有如Caliban从镜中看见自己的丑面时那种愤怒.
(Caliban,莎士比亚里的畸形奴隶)
十九世纪对浪漫主义的反感,则是Caliban在镜中看不到自己时的愤怒.

人类的道德生活,是艺术家取材的一部分.不过艺术的道德观,却是建立在对不完美
的完美使用上.

没有艺术家指望去证明什么.就连真事都可以被证明掉.

没什么艺术家是具有道德同情心的.艺术家的道德同情心,是一种不可原谅的矫柔造
作。

没有艺术家会是病态的.艺术家能表达一切.

对于艺术家,思想和语言都是艺术的工具.
对于艺术家,恶行德行都是艺术的材料.

从形式的角度看来,艺术就是音乐家的艺术.从情感的角度看来,艺术者的手艺就是
艺术.

艺术同时既是浮面又是意象.
那些走到表面之下的人得冒险.那些试图直接阅读意象者亦是.

艺术真正反映的,不是生活而是其观照者.

关于一样艺术作品的不同观点,体现了这个作品的新颖,复杂和生动.

当批评家反对时,艺术家和他自己达成一致.

我们可以原谅那些做出有用之物的人,只要他自己不迷恋.而做出无用之物的唯一借
口,是制造者深深地沉迷其中.

所有艺术都挺无用的.

The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor�s craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.

What follows is what I think of as the definitive decadent manifesto – Oscar Wilde’s Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young. First published in December 1894, in the first (and only edition of Oxford student magazine, The Chameleon, this collection of epigrams defy conventional morality, elevate art above nature, and hold utility in the utmost contempt. It doesn’t really matter whether Wilde truly believed in these philosophies. The point is that he wrote them.

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.

If the poor only had profiles there would be no problem in solving the problem of poverty.

Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither.

A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature.

Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.

The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance.

Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.

In all unimportant matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential. In all important matters, style, not sincerity, is the essential.

If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.

Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness.

It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.

no crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime. vulgarity is the conduct of others.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Time is a waste of money.

One should always be a little improbable.

There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are invariably made too soon.

The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated.

To be premature is to be perfect.

Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right and wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.

In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.

Greek dress was in its essence inartistic. Nothing should reveal the body but the body.

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.

Industry is the root of all ugliness.

The ages live in history through their anachronisms.

It is only the gods who taste of death. Apollo has passed away, by Hyacinth, whom men say he slew, lives on.  Nero and Narcissus are always with us.

The old believe everything: the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything.

The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.

Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.

There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession.

To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.

Wilde with sometime lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, Oxford 1893

Dorian Gray (dir: Oliver Parker, 2009)

El Nekrofílmico es un ser que no siempre vive de la sangre, el gore, los zombies y la violencia. A veces, también nos interesamos por ciertas películas que aunque no tengas las premisas antes mencionadas, son igual de interesantes, y en defintiva, disfrutamos con su visionado.

Dorian Gray ha sido llevado al cine en muchas ocasiones, yo he contabilizado en el Imdb (sí, sí… habéis leído bien, no todos nacemos con el chip de cine incorporado, y tenemos que consultar ciertas referencias!), como unas 5 o 6 veces, como mínimo!

Dorian Gray (dir: Oliver Parker, 2009) este realizador parece que le tira lo clásico puesto que anteriormente ya ha dirigido: Othelo (1995) y La importancia de llamarse Ernesto (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2002), ambas obras de Shakespeare. Y esta vez, le toca al personaje más famoso de Oscar Wilde, después de él mismo, claro está. La primera vez que vi imágenes de esta nueva versión, me quedé con muchas dudas por si su joven protagonista sería capaz de transmitir toda la fuerza que el personaje de Dorian Gray requería, pero tras ver la película, toda duda quedó borrada.

Dorian Gray by Ben Barnes

El personaje de Dorian Gray es interpretado por el joven Ben Barnes (el príncipe Caspian de las Crónicas de Narnia), y puedo afirmar que borda el papel. Consigue transmitir todo aquello que Dorian Gray tiene que transmitir al espectador, cinismo, violencia, despotismo y como no, lujuria por un tubo. Pero otro puntal interpretativo del film es sin lugar a dudas, Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), el controvertido mentor de Dorian Gray en el mundo de la noche y el placer…

La trama nos traslada a un Londres Victoriano gracias al joven Dorian Gray, único heredero de una bien posicionada familia. Al llegar el pobre parece más bien un paleto, un pardillo salido de la aldea quedando maravillado por la efervescente ciudad de Londres. Rápidamente conocerá a Lord Wotton que ejercerá en él una increíble influencia aportándole una nueva visión de las cosas, personas y la vida en sí misma…

El retrato de Dorian Gray

Si ya de por si, la época victoriana conlleva una doble moralina y una sociedad para la apariencia, desde la visión de Dorian comprobaremos el significado de moral victoriana en todos sus aspectos. Lord  Henry atrae a Dorian como un imán, con un magnetismo y una fuerza vital, que harán que Dorian se entregue por completo a las enseñanzas de su maestro de ceremonias. Pero Dorian no sólo demostrará ser un alumno aventajado, nos demostrará que ha nacido por y para el propio placer.

Pero este dúo se ve completado por Basil (Ben Chaplin) pintor del magnífico retrato de Dorian. Pero es el propio retrato el que acabará condenando al propio Dorian al vender su alma. Basil es un pintor libertino y seguidor de los placeres que propone Lord Wotton pero hasta cierto punto, pues en esencia, de los 3 amigos, el más humano.

En la trama también aparecen otros personajes, sobre todo femeninos, que en sus diversas etapas de la película, nos irán descubriendo los cambios que Dorian experimenta a lo largo de su descubrimiento de los placeres ocultos de la vida. La primera de todas es Sybil (Rachel Hurd-Wood), una guapa aspirante a actriz que topa sin quererlo con Dorian. Y la segunda, Emily Wotton (Rebecca Hall) que se encontrará tras 20 años de no hacer acto de presencia por Londres, con un Dorian (amigo íntimo de su padre) pletórico e igual de joven que cuando llegó a la ciudad.

Los placeres de Dorian Gray

Será esta relación el detonante final de Dorian, puesto que Lord Wotton no la aprobará, y aunque en el pasado hubiese mostrado cualquier tipo de desprecio hacía terceros, ahora que Dorian se ha fijado en su propia hija no puede consentir que nada malo le suceda. Un hombre que no envejece y que ofrece su alma a todos los placeres terrenales, guarda algún secreto o misterio.

Quizás en algunos momentos, la película se ralentiza pero en general, Dorian está muy bien estructurada. Con un buen guión, Parker nos ofrece una muy buena adaptación de todo un clásico.

Las muertes están muy bien representadas, ciertos momentos de ansiedad en el film la hacen interesante, pero sobre todo, destaca un elemento por encima de cualquier otro, el retrato en sí de Dorian Gray. Al principio es una obra perfecta, única en el mundo, que irradia una energía casi celestial, y en cambio, a medida que se desarrolla la trama, el retrato parece como si cobrara vida, o mejor dicho, no vida. El retrato se acaba convirtiendo en un muerto viviente, capaz de devorar, de matar,…

No obstante, quienes pretendan en Dorian Gray encontrar una película terrorífica o sangrienta, no les recomiendo el visionado. Sí en cambio, para los amantes del cine clásico, aunque se trate de una nueva versión, esta película cumple con su objetivo: mostrar una nueva visión de un personaje creado por la turbadora mente de Oscar Wilde.

Ah… por cierto, a las chicas les encantará, así que si tenéis novia, y os queréis marcar un tanto eligiendo esta película (seguro que las pobres están cansadas de tanto zombi y tanta sangre), yo de vosotros no me lo pensaba dos veces.

Anonymous – The Wordsworth Collection Of Irish Ghost Stories (Wordsworth, 2005)

Sheridan Le Fanu – Green Tea
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Familiar
Sheridan Le Fanu – Mr Justice Harbottle
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Room In Le Dragon Volant
Sheridan Le Fanu – Carmilla
Sheridan Le Fanu – Madam Crowl’s Ghost
Sheridan Le Fanu – Squire Toby’s Will
Sheridan Le Fanu – Dickon The Devil
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Child That Went With The Fairies
Sheridan Le Fanu – The White Cat Of Drumguinnol
Sheridan Le Fanu – An Account Of Some Strange Disturbances In Aungiers Street
Sheridan Le Fanu – Ghost Stories Of Chapelizod
Sheridan Le Fanu – Wicked Captain Walshawe Of Wauling
Sheridan Le Fanu – Sir Dominick’s Bargain
Sheridan Le Fanu – Ultor de Lacy
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Vision Of Tom Chuff
Sheridan Le Fanu – Stories Of Lough Guir
Michael Banim – The Rival Dreamers
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Spectre Lovers
Thomas Crofton Croker – The Haunted Cellar
Thomas Crofton Croker – Legend Of Bottle Hill
Patrick Kennedy – The Ghost And The Game of Football
Jeremiah Curtin – The Blood-Drawing Ghost
Jeremiah Curtin – St. Martin’s Eve
William Maginn – A Vision Of Purgatory
Gerald Griffin – The Brown Man
Gerald Griffin – The Dilemma Of Phadrig
Shan F. Bullock – Th’ Ould Boy
Letitia Maclintock – Far Darrig In Donegal
Letitia Maclintock – Jamie Freel And The Young Lady
James Berry – The Adventures Of Foranan O’Fergus, The Physician
William Carleton – Moll Roe’s Marriage, or The Pudding Bewitched
William Carleton – The Three Wishes
Bram Stoker – The Judges House
Francis Marion Crawford – The Dead Smile
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Charlotte Riddell – Hertford O’Donnell’s Warning
Charlotte Riddell – The Last Squire Of Ennismore
Douglas Hyde – Teig O’Kane And The Corpse
Daniel Corkery – Eyes Of The Dead
A. E. Coppard – The Gollan
George Moore – A Play-House In The Waste
Rosa Mulholland – The Ghost At The Rath
Forrest Reid – Courage
Dorothy Macardl – The Prisoner
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Watcher
Sheridan Le Fanu – Passage In The Secret History Of An Irish Countess
Sheridan Le Fanu – Strange Event In The Life Of Shalken The Painter
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Fortunes Of Sir Robert Ardagh
Sheridan Le Fanu – The Dream
Sheridan Le Fanu – A Chapter In The History Of A Tyrone Family
Cecil Francis Alexander – The Legend Of Stumpie’s Brae
Traditional – Daniel Crowley And The Ghosts
Traditional – John Reardon And The Sister Ghosts
Anonymous – The Witch Hare
Traditional – Donald And His Neighbours
Patrick Kennedy – Hairy Rouchy
Thomas Crofton Crocker – The Legend Of Knockgrafton
Thomas Crofton Crocker – Daniel O’Rouke
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – About The Fairies
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – Satan As Sculptor
Hermine Kavenagh – Darby O’Gill And The Leprechaun
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – The Defeat Of The Widows
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – The Henpecked Giant
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – The Leprechaun
Thomas Crofton Crocker – Master And Man
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – How The Lakes Were Made
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – Taming The Pooka
D. R. McAnally, Jr. – The Sexton Of Cashel
Joseph Jacobs – The Fields Of Boliauns

Blurb:

With a word of warning to those of nervous a disposition, Wordsworth presents this spellbinding collection of chilling Celtic tales of the macabre, all drawn from the rich and varied literary tradition of a culture long enchanted by things supernatural, ‘a land where ghosts and ghost-seers are so common’. Featuring the imaginative writing of such towering masters of the genre as Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Crofton Croker and George Moore, this volume of ghoulish masterpieces from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is an encapsulation of the arcane lore, magical landscape and fantastic creativity of the Irish. Don’t attempt to read these horrifying tales alone in an empty house. Your blood will run cold as the unreal becomes real and the impossible all too possible. Indelible images will possess your imagination and haunt your dreams. Make sure all the lights are on and the doors are bolted.

Thanks to mattofthespurs for suggesting this one!

(strange as that sounds…)

Look! You can pre-order it!

“For Henry, having two countries meant staged risk, and privacy. For Oscar, having the world meant everything bet on the one toss. In a 20’s Modernist trope, this sequence hints at big unanalysed scandals by almost making them cockney rhyming slang: Evans-Bush shows us Two Great Late Victorians through the prism of the 1920s, even while she looks back 90 years at the Modernists, in a double manoeuvre.

In literary judgment we think about sex, but in our own lives we think about love. An equal attention to Henry James and Oscar Wilde at once can illuminate both. Henry remains, at this stage, Evans-Bush’s object of quiet love: touchstone to a vision of love that is the secret, and the secret joy of these poems.”
–Ira Lightman

Published 14 January by Rack Press.

En el interesantísmo prólogo del libro de Barthes “La cámara lúcida” se muestra el siguiente párrafo:

“La fotografía recoge una interrupción del tiempo a la vez que construye sobre el papel preparado un doble de la realidad. De ello se infiere que la muerte, o lo que es lo mismo: la evidencia del esto-ha-sido, va ligada esencialmente a la aparición (o elaboración) del doble en la imágen fotográfica”(Sala-Sanahuja, 1989, p.21)

La lectura de este texto me hace reflexionar especialmente sobre dos temas: en primer lugar, en la fotografía como una interrupción del tiempo, pero, en segundo lugar, también en la fotografía como la elaboración de un doble. Sobre estos dos aspectos es sobre los que encuentro interesante divagar. Aunque bien se podría decir que ambos conjuntamente son las dos caras de una misma moneda, puesto que la aparición de ese doble detiene el paso del tiempo, a la vez que paradójicamente nos muestra algo que nos angustia, algo desconocido a lo que tememos y que nos recuerda de alguna manera una pérdida (asociada a la noción de muerte). Tal vez aparece ese miedo porqué la presentación de ese doble de uno mismo (el retrato) está ligada al descubrimiento del otro que habita en uno mismo, y ese conocimiento siempre es perturbador, puesto que de alguna forma muestra un saber que no se sabe que se tiene (el saber inconsciente) y por tanto, es una muestra clara de que uno nunca sabe bien quién es.

Intentaré a continuación analizar por separado ambos temas.

El retrato muestra que alguien ha sido

En primer lugar, estaría la idea de que siempre que hay un retrato es la muestra de que alguien-ha-sido en un momento temporal distinto al actual (tal como comenta el propio Sala-Sanahuja). Tal vez por este motivo, el tema del “retrato” tiene que ver con el “mito de la eterna juventud”, tan bien plasmado por Oscar Wilde en su única novela “El retrato de Dorian Grey”. Dorian era un apuesto, narcisista y seductor joven que a través del retrato que le pinta un amigo que es pintor, quiere retar al paso del tiempo. Desde el momento en que su retrato está acabado, es sobre éste sobre quien pasa el tiempo, mientras que el joven permanece siempre en el mismo estado juvenil. La foto se ennegrece,se mustia, se resquebraja, mientras que Dorian continúa igual. Cuadro y modelo han intercambiado los papeles en la ficción recreada por Wilde. A través del extraño retrato que ha realizado su amigo, Dorian consigue evitar la decadencia del cuerpo, de su cuerpo.

En el mundo real no es posible el acontecer que sucede en la ficción, pero de una manera diferente sucede igual. El sujeto retratado se ve a si mismo en otro momento anterior, cuando aún su cuerpo era un cuerpo deseable y deseado. Consigue vencer el paso del tiempo cuando la plata queda revelada y fijada primero en el negativo y después en el papel. Ese es él en otro momento y probablemente en otro lugar. Por mucho tiempo que pase continuará, en la fotografía, siendo el mismo. Así su narcisismo, que es el mismo que llevo a Dorian a ser retratado, permanece satisfecho. Por ello el retrato, ese que es el doble de uno mismo, conecta al modelo con su narcisismo primario y también con la primera conciencia que tuvo de él mismo cuando reconoció su propia imagen en el espejo en algún momento entre el primer y el segundo año de vida.

La imagen del cuerpo es muy importante para el desarrollo de nuestra identidad, especialmente la sexual. La fotografía, al igual que el espejo, nos evidencia cuál y cómo es nuestro cuerpo. Tal vez por ello nos asusta.

———–

Sala-Sanahuja, J (1989) Prólogo. En: R.Barthes (Ed) La cámara lúcida. Barcelona: Ed. Paidós

*Retrato de Oscar Wilde tomado de Wikipedia

Esta obra está bajo una
licencia de Creative Commons.

Last night I had the opportunity to go and see Matthew Bourne’s “Dorian Gray“, a modern interpretation of the Oscar Wilde novel, performed through contemporary dance and ballet.

I won’t go in to too much detail about the story as I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it…but lets just say it was phenomenal. I’ve been a huge fan of Matthew’s work for a number of years now, with my first experience being “The Car Man” (his interpretation of the opera “Carmen”) a few years back.

Bourne’s interpretation of the novel is a dark and sinister tale of the anti-hero Dorian who becomes captivated by the power of the celebrity lifestyle. His obsession with youth and beauty (as well as a number of deaths a long the way) ultimately lead to his demise.

The original novel was many many years a head of its time, making it seem more like something from the 21st century rather than the 19th. Bourne however takes the story even further, altering the persona of a number of characters including Lord Henry, Dorian’s corrupting influence, turning him into Lady H, the seductive agent who leaves him gasping for more.

In order to modernise the production further, Bourne also switches the demonic portrait of Dorian for a series of fashion photography images. In particular this one…

The story remains the same however, a tragedy told through traditional storytelling (something which Bourne told us in the show after talk that he is an avid fan of).

This is the first time in a long time where my mind hasn’t wandered during a performance; there’s always a moment in a play where you drift off for a few minutes where there is piece of unnecessary dialogue or a song which seems to go on for ever…this was not the case for Dorian though. I was truly captivated through the entire performance, and when the curtain came down for the interval I had no idea where the time had gone.

The dancers themselves were stunning. I’ve never seen chemistry like that between Richard Winson (Dorian) and Michela Meazza (Lady H) before. The sheer body strength was awe-inspiring. I don’t pretend to know much about contemporary dance (although it is something I’d love to experience more of) but I do know that the cast have put in some serious rehearsal hours to pull off some, if not all of the scenes in the show.

If you go to the theatre just once this year, I urge you to go and see Bourne’s masterpiece. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. My only worry is, can Matthew better this with his next production…I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

Dorian Gray is showing at the Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 14th November. You can book online at www.birimnghamhippodrome.com or ring the box office on 0844 338 5000