Monday, February 18, 2013
Speaking of Jesters...
I have never taught Oscar Wilde before; I haven't really read much other than Earnest, Salome and the odd poem. I have yet to read The Picture of Dorian Gray, but that is not because I don't enjoy his writing or his persona. I have read more about him than by him; I imagine him to have been exactly like his characters, and I want to go back in time and have conversations with him where I am lost in the dust of his legendary quick wit. I have many smart friends, and though I think that they are formidably fast with a quip or comeback, there is something about the dry Victorian delivery, at least in his writing, that adds to Wilde's snarky-genius mystique; my friends, sadly, don't have the wealth or the snide British sneers to pull off banter of this type. I hope that my students like the play; I think they will. Even though it is very smart, it is also very accessible. The humor and shenanigans keep me engaged in a way that more melodramatic Victorian fare cannot; as a matter of fact, whenever I try to watch Downton Abbey, I hope that it is going to be like The Importance of Being Earnest. I guess it is in a way, but it is decidedly less funny, and it degrades into a soap opera. Give me questionable rogues, dishonest scalawags, and irony over Downton Abbey any day.
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