Oscar Wilde's 'Ins and Outs' for 2024
As outlined in Only Dull People Are Brilliant at Breakfast
I recently read Only Dull People Are Brilliant At Breakfast and felt I could read between the lines and take some lessons for today’s age—perhaps naively. In any case, here’s what I think Oscar Wilde would advise us to do and don’t for this year.
In:
Theater kids
“The stage is not merely the meeting-place of all the arts, but it is also the return of art to life…The true dramatist shows us life under the conditions of art, not art in the form of life.” (3)
I’ve spent a lot of my time in college trying to pretend that I wasn’t the biggest theater kid to exist. Recently, I’ve been trying to embrace these innate parts of my personality—from singing Hamilton at karaoke night, to talking about my time as a director in high school. As Wilde put it, theater is love; theater is life. The appreciation that dramatists have for the nature of human existence and the desire to share that with others is something I hope to incorporate in all my future work, theatrical or otherwise.
Americans
“There is no such thing as a stupid American. Many Americans are horrid, vulgar, intrusive, and impertinent just as many English people are also; but stupidity is not one of the national vices.” (4)
Ah, something else that is the subject of all my tangents: the socio-political climate of working class America. Going to a liberal arts school with predominantly rich, white liberals means I’ve spent much more time than I’d like vouching for people who might not vote in the way we’d like. This doesn’t mean I’m a bigot apologist—it just means I see the humanity in people like my loved ones whose politics aren’t in their best interest, as blue-collar folks. I firmly believe Republicans aren’t stupid—I think the ones who make the laws are a little too smart, in the conniving and plotting sense. And more importantly, I don’t think coal miners or farmers who vote red are stupid. Misguided? Perhaps. Angry? Most definitely. But at the root is this is neglect from the federal government and the ruling class—not stupidity.
My best friend Camille
“But what is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means? Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain. Indeed, if he is a really true friend he prefers it, for he knows that then he is doing good.” (6)
Reading this transported me to last semester, when I was horribly depressed and couldn’t get through my Zoom therapy sesh without crying. I offhandedly mentioned to my therapist how much I missed my hometown best friend, but didn’t want to reach out in fear of burdening her with my messiness. At the end of the call, she said “Take care of yourself. And call Camille—I promise, she wants to hear from you.” This is what replays in my head every time I hesitate to text or call her because my mood isn’t the prettiest—I know if the roles were reversed, I would prefer to hear from her at her worst than not at all.
Getting Redpilled by Absinthe “After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world (On absinthe). (23)
Can’t say I’ve had this experience on absinthe—or any at all, for that matter. But I’m sure a bottle of red wine and an edible would do the same.
Young people
“The old believe everything: the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything.” (23)
The first ten years of a human’s life is when they are most pure, unscathed and untouched by the horrors of the world. This is the least biased and calculated time of being in our lives.
Dressing up to be alone
“If I were all alone, marooned on some desert island and had my things with me, I should dress for dinner every evening.” (26)
I mean, I’ve been saying this. During virtual school, I put on a cute outfit and makeup and jewelry to sit in my room alone on a Zoom call every day. It laid down a strong foundation for continuing to dress for me, and not for others.
Banned Books (41)
“The books that the world calls immoral books are books that show the world its own shame.”
Ron DeSantis, this one’s for you. Read banned books. Or just stop banning books, that’d be good too.
Nature
“We all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.” (49)
Just in time for Earth Day. Keep this with you as we enter the springtime of our lives.
Out:
Being taught things
“Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught.” (12)
Great for Emerson College students who have imposter syndrome because they didn’t go to private school or school’s that were well funded whatsoever. My message to you, a la Wilde, is that you got exposure and experience that can’t be bought.
Ideas that aren’t dangerous
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” (14)
This is just a good mantra for all artists and writers. I try to remind myself of this every time I have hesitancy when publishing an article for fear of backlash or judgment.
Private Property
“With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols of things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” (17)
Based Oscar Wilde moment.
Exercise, getting up early, being respectable
“To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” (27)
Healthy lifestyles are overrated.
Gender Roles
“Every right article of apparel belongs equally to both sexes, and there is absolutely no such thing as a definitely feminine garment.” (28)
Enough said. Clothes don’t have a gender. And gender probably isn’t even real.
Corporal Punishment and the Prison Industrial Complex
“Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime…A community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment, than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.”(33)
So what I’m hearing is…abolish the prison industrial complex and legalize all drugs? Wilde said it first.
Biopics
“To introduce real people into a novel or a play is a sign of an unimaginative mind, a coarse, untutored observation, and an entire absence of style.” (40)
I just listened to the brilliant Sarah Marshall’s podcast You’re Wrong About on Amy Winehouse. I would highly recommend listening to that instead of supporting the new Back to Black biopic, which will undoubtedly continue to exploit a figure whose fame killed her. From Karen Carpenter to Princess Diana, this is an archetype of women who were martyred because of public attention and have not been allowed to rest since. I wrote a piece for the Berkeley Beacon about this exactly a year ago, and it stands just as true:
“Biopics are self-serving by nature; they are done for the directors, writers, and actors spearheading these projects, especially when done without the input or consent of the subject. There is nothing just or fair about replaying a woman’s trauma for the sake of money—all it does is serve as a reminder that her agency is not her own, but instead puppeteered by men and the media, those who victimized her initially.”
I hope you enjoyed this christening post for Meg’s Musings. Please subscribe and keep reading! Thank you, see you next time.
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Loved this. Brilliant interpretations of Wilde’s work