"All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
- Oscar Wilde
This is one of my favourite quotes and Wilde has to be featured, sooner or later. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, to a family of intellectuals; he himself moved on to be an outstanding student at Oxford. After university, Wilde moved to London where he met Constance Lloyd, whom he married, and a number of young men, whom he had affairs with. One of them proved fatal as it prompted Wilde to sue his lover's father for libel (for calling him a 'posing somdomite'), which backlashed tragically and ended with Wilde being convicted of gross indecency, imprisoned and bankrupt.
...But who remembers him for that? Wilde impresses me because he was a truly modern man of his times, and through his works and words I think he showed a remarkable insight into human nature. For example The Picture of Dorian Gray, which tells the story of the degradation of a young man who - basically - falls in love with a portrait of himself, is a haunting account of how vanity can consume us all. Maybe Wilde himself was a victim of his own vanity, but I think that only makes him human and one of us. But if that's the case, he was definitely looking at the stars.
*Addendum: Oscar Wilde doesn't stop inspiring. Designer Yuichi Kuroda designs a collection inspired by 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray' for LAD Musician 2011 Spring/Summer. Here is a little preview:
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