MetaFilter posts tagged with Wilde

Caricatures from the late 19th Century and early 20th

Kattullus — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:15:34 -0800

900 caricatures of noted Victorian and Edwardian personages from British society magazine Vanity Fair which ran from 1868 to 1914. Among those pictured are Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Disraeli, Herman Melville, Alfred Dreyfus, Teddy Roosevelt, Gustave Eiffel and Charles Boycott (from whose name comes the word). A couple are mildly not safe for work, a few quite racist, as was the prevalent attitude of the time, and at least one is both.

When Men Wear Nail Polish, the Terrorists Win

digaman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 08:45:41 -0800

"I'm not a politician, I'm an artist. Depravity is part of the job description," says self-styled dandy, former drug addict, and controversial British author Sebastian Horsely, who was denied entrance to the US by customs officials at Newark Airport on the grounds of "moral turpitude," a wide net that encompasses everything from fornication to being a "nuisance." Shades of Oscar Wilde.

"The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac".

matteo — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:15:25 -0800

The Niagara Fortissimo. “Mahler was to conduct in Buffalo, New York, and we took advantage of the trip to visit Niagara Falls. We spent hours near and even under the roaring falls... and then with that roar still in his ears Mahler went to conduct Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale’. I was waiting for him as he stepped off the podium. ‘Endlich ein fortissimo!,’ he said, ‘At last a fortissimo!’” The fortissimo in question is Beethoven's, not Niagara's. The point, as Alma elaborates it in her memoirs, is that music can offer experiences more overpowering than Nature itself — a kind of extreme aestheticism that Oscar Wilde also propounded in "The Decay of Lying" when he said that most sunsets are attempts at second-rate Turners. More inside.

Dandyism

peacay — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 10:54:46 -0800

"The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated."(Wilde)
A dandy eschews fashion but embraces style.(.pdf)
He is an aficionado of personal elegance and refinement. From the archetype in George 'Beau' Brummell there is a lineage tracking through to Tom Wolfe in which the personal artistry of the dandy knows no bounds save for those of exquisite taste.

plinth — Mon, 04 Dec 2000 17:13:09 -0800

A little too much Aural Sex, Mr. Wilde?