misc things

"What of art?" she asked.

"It is a malady."

"Love?"

"An illusion."

"Religion?"

"The fashionable substitute for belief."

"You are a sceptic."

"Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith."

"What are you?"

"To define is to limit."

— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

the picrew of dorian gray

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

Death whispered,"I'll love you more than life ever can."

Picture Credit ~📍 pinterest

@luciferslilith7

Okay but if you put R.M. Renfield, Dorian Gray, and Victor Frankenstein in a room together who is winning that fight?

Picture of Dorian Gray AU where he's a celebrity in the modern day (broadly speaking) and his stans post pics of him looking the same through the years on Twitter and caption them "How you age when you're unproblematic 💖💖💖"

KNOW ITS FOR THE BETTER.

when i grow up i want to be a list of further possibilities, chen chen // the picture of dorian gray, oscar wilde // the worm kings lullaby, richard siken // limer3ence // bleuts, maggie nelson // tonight i can write, pablo neruda // the crucible, arthur miller // when i grow up i want to be a list of further possibilities, chen chen // untitled, margaret schnabel // waiting room, phoebe bridgers

I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

ig credit: vintagesoul_reads.

tag that classic lit character

somebody had probably done this before but

Dorian gray sketch

"mutuals can ask for discord" mutuals can haunt me after they die. mutuals can paint my immortal youth in a cursed portrait. mutuals can build a 8ft tall creature in my college dorm. mutuals can watch me wake up as a monstrous vermin. mutuals can feed me soup after i commit murder. mutuals can help me kill uncle claudius. mutuals can go out with me and my girlfriend from accross the bay. mutuals can hunt the beast with me. do better

There is something about classic literature that hits different - which is not to say that modern literature lacks depth - there is just something so incredible about reading something and knowing that these same words were consumed by people decades, centuries before you took your first breath. And they loved and felt the stories the way you do& despite all the time separating you you’re still connected…

to all the tiktok anti-aging influencers: where’s that horrid looking portrait of yourself