The Truth about All Art: It's Quite Useless

I don't really believe that art is useless. Don't get me wrong, Wilde is a badass but sometimes he's a bit wordy and I think he likes to come up with catchy phrases just to create conversation and have them repeated. Which is fine by me.

I'm going to begin with two quotes, one from Norris and one from Zola and then begin my rambling.

"For the novel is the great expression of modern life. Each form of art has had its turn at reflecting and expressing its contemporaneous thought." -Norris-

"There is neither nobility, nor dignity, nor beauty, nor morality in not knowing, in lying, in pretending that you are greater according as you advance in error and confusion. The only great and moral works are those of truth." -Zola-

Honestly I don't really know what genre Wilde's text really fits in but I'm going to force it into a Naturalistic ideal because it fits the mold. There is an extremely pessimistic view of morality, detachment, determination and a plot twist in the end. If we apply Zola's principles of reading as an observer we can certainly see the "truth" that is so incredibly important to both Norris and Zola. Wilde tells a story about what could happen if someone was giving the opportunity to do whatever they desired. Wilde clearly writes Dorian Gray into his grave due to his own vanity and obsession with the corruption of his soul.

Referring back to the two mentioned quotes: Beginning with Zola's...Wilde writes the truly pessimistic side of humanity. People are sinful and corrupt at times and he puts us in a position as spectator to see the true nature and evil that exists in humanity. With Norris's statement it leaves us left to observe and "reflect" at what exactly we are to do with the truth of the potentially gross nature of human existence.

When I first read this back in the day I caught myself reflecting on my own existence and not that I'm a bad person by any means but I'm a totally vain person and some of my favorite things fit into the seven deadly sins category, primarily sloth and gluttony. Dorian thinks to himself "But the picture? What was he to say of that? It held the secret of his life, and told his story. It had taught him to love his own beauty. Would it teach him to loathe his own soul? would he ever look at it again?" (89) Honestly, if I had a straight view into my soul I'm not sure I would want to look into it. Scary.

To briefly summarize: we as readers, and as human beings, need to properly "observe" the "truth" and then figure out what we can do with it. Hopefully we won't end up like Dorian, that would be sad.