psalm_onethirtyone: (Chrissy)
Soujin ([personal profile] psalm_onethirtyone) wrote2004-05-04 11:09 pm

"Even a Memory is Paradise For All the Fools Like Me..."

One hundred pages in on Picture of Dorian Gray.

I hope I offend no one when I say that book is the slashiest thing ever. And Basil is sweet. I want to take Basil home and love him and cherish him and find him someone pretty to sit for his portraits.

And I want to slap Lord Henry. Dorian was almost nice at first. Lord Henry is obviously a hideous, corrupting influence.

It's still the slashiest thing ever.

EDIT: The back of the book tells me Oscar Wilde was arrested and put in prison two years for being homosexual. Awwww. *hugs him* This might explain the slashiness, though. Poor man...

[identity profile] mmebahorel.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
It is the slashiest thing ever. I think I picked up the homosexual subtext even though I read it before I knew what slash was. Basil is so my boi. Dorian was always too self-centred for me.

Warning, you will end up hiding this book under a pillow while weeping profusely. Because you are Soujin, and not very nice things end up happening. And I wanted to smack someone after what happens. But there is much pretty slashiness before that.

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. For two sentences, and when Basil is describing him to Lord Henry in a slashy little scene, Dorian is charming. Then, two sentences later, he meets Lord Henry, and I only dislike him more and more after that.

I was afraid of that. Da' says it's a horror story of sorts. I am sure--O, I hope nothing happens to Basil. >_> Oh, dear.

Slashiness. The balm of Gilead, and all that.

[identity profile] sansenmage.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I wonder how dull Dorain Gray would be without the subtext...

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I am sure it would still be a good story, but the subtext is nonetheless delicious, and I'm glad it's there.

[identity profile] maranz.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
*waves arms in the air excitedly* I just started reading that book! (Of course, I'm just finished with the preface, but we shall ignore that minor detail.) Slashy subtext shall make it all the more interesting. I shall shut up now and read it.

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-04 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh! Sweet! (I told my Mum I'd gotten started on it when I'd only read the first sentence. ^_^) Yes, yes! Read! But be prepared for very pretty people being very infuriating.

[identity profile] eponinenkind.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
This book is not only the slashiest, but also the best thing ever!!! *worships*
*hugs*

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
*sniffles* Oh, perhaps not the best. It hurts too much to be the best.

[identity profile] eponinenkind.livejournal.com 2004-05-06 08:44 am (UTC)(link)
One of the best things ever, then ^^
*hugs*

[identity profile] sparklychibi.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 01:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually, that book was used as evidence against Oscar Wilde when they accused him of such "gross indecency". So, yeah, it's pretty much impossible not to pick up the slashy subtext.

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
*snarls* Nasty... nasty people. That is awfully unfair. My stories have as little to do with me as possible. But I shall rejoice in the slashy subtext.

[identity profile] sparklychibi.livejournal.com 2004-05-06 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
I know - it's like people taking a deathfic, pointing at it and going "Soujin writes deathfics! That means she must be dead!" Stupid people.

And random fact: Oscar Wilde's lover was Lord Alfred Douglas (who coined the term "the love that dare not speak its name").

Amazing what you pick up around the slash forum of FictionAlley Park.

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-06 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Good analogy. I'll quote you on that, if I may.

Really? According to De Profundis, this really long letter he wrote a friend from prison, his lover's name begins with R. The rest of the name has, kindly, been cut for discretion purposes. -_-

Okay, so he had two lovers. This is getting very interesting. *g*

[identity profile] mhari.livejournal.com 2004-05-08 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Totally not on topic, but ICON LOVE.

[identity profile] tatteredsparrow.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
That is the most amazing book. Slash abounds. I would like to hug Basil, though he reminds me of me.

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I would like to hug him and take him home and protect him. *sigh* It is an amazing book, though.

[identity profile] venefica32.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooooo! Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favourite books - partly because of its slashiness. ;-)
All in all, Oscar Wilde is one of my favourite playwrights; too bad that he only wrote that one novel...

And you're obviously not the only one who has realised that the book is quite slashy. If you've not yet read the whole book then you've not probably yet met a character called Sibyl Vane.
Hopefully, you won't consider it a spoiler when I say that it's been said that Wilde added her character in the novel only afterwards because some people thought that the book was becoming a little too... well, I don't think they used the word "slashy" back then but anyway... *grins*

[identity profile] rainbowjehan.livejournal.com 2004-05-05 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Oscar Wilde is a genius.

Actually, I had at the time. Poor Sibyl. I was feeling awfully sorry for her--she hadn't died yet, then. And--he did? Wow. She seems very naturally occuring. The art of sticking something that big in randomly after one's already finished a project is a great feat. I say again, he was a genius.