Self's title here works two ways. His Dorian is an imitation of Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, and Self's Dorian Gray, which is to say his hero, is an imitation of whatever he needs to be, given the situation at hand. Numerous times the narrator refers to this man as a chameleon, and indeed there's something far more sinister about this Dorian than Wilde's.Self has updated the story to AIDS-era Britain. Instead of a picture, Dorian is reproduced as Cathode Narcissus, a nine-monitor video installation of Dorian's nude body seen voyeuristically at all angles at once. It's this video that Dorian wishes would age while he stays young, and, indeed, this is what happens. But Self pushes the central magic further: Dorian's video self also bears AIDS's ravages of the body, while the live Dorian is able to live with (and spread) the virus without any personal threat.What's great about this novel is how it sits right at that line between anti-gay and anti-"gay"—which is to say, borderline homophobic but really in the end just smartly critical of all the failures of post-Stonewall gay culture. Self attacks the whole notion of gay identity and identification, most explicitly in the dialogue of his heroin-shooting novelist stand-in character Devenish: "'It's been the misfortune of people who prefer sex with their own gender to be forced to regard this as some essential part of themselves. After all, homosexuality was only defined as a pathology in response to the alleged healthiness of heterosexuality. It's the great mistake of you ... erm ... you gays to mistake a mere attribute for an essence'" (212). And the same character attacks gay/our culture's youth obsession: "'If Gray were able to stay young and have this video installation age in his stead, he'd be the icon of an era in which everyone seeks to hang on to their childhood until they're pressing furry fucking teddy bears against wrinkled cheeks.'" [. . .] "'You homosexuals are only the vanguard of a mutton army dressed as denim lambs'" (220).Will Self is straight (or, well, "straight" or whatever), which complicates all this in stupid ways. What I mean is, if it were, say, Foucault saying this (which he did, essentially, regarding the first quote), or Roy Cohn in Angels in America (who said something similar to the second quote regarding clout and anti-discrimination laws), I'd be fine with it. The "community" or whatever would be fine with it, but as Self doesn't identify as gay (nor could he I don't think), his writing could be seen as homophobic.It's not. I for one am glad for Self's book. I'd much rather read something critical and thought-provoking than the easy bromides of rah-rah, "Good for us!" gay fiction. Even if the former isn't accurate, the latter feels like a lie.
First, a confession. I have yet to read 'A Picture of Dorian Grey', and indeed I have little doubt that if I had, then my reading of Will Self's modern reboot will have been a little richer / better informed in regards to character and story at the very least.So, to keep things short and sweet, I liked 'Dorian'. Fleshing out a culture of hard-drug use and homo-eroticism, Will Self takes us on a terrifyingly intimate journey through the hedonistic 1980s and 90s counter-culture, as seen through the eyes of three individuals: Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward and Dorian Grey. These guys I can only describe as aristocratic hipsters with a penchant for art, class A drugs and sodomy.The story hinges mainly on the eponymous anti-hero Dorian's mortal self, who has been immortalised as a subject in Basil's 9-screen video installation, Cathode Narcissus. But while Dorian may be the object of almost every character's desire, it is Henry Wotton who I found most intriguing, and indeed very, very funny. Some of the gags that got me doubling over do, admittedly, spin within a moral grey area (no pun intended), but he was, for me, the only character I found almost completely loveable and psychologically intriguing. It would have been nice to see this in the other characters too.Self's writing is ─ as any Self fan might expect ─ very precise, exacting, culturally engaged. And yes, incredibly outrageous. It's hard not to smile at his turn of phrase even at the most hideously contemptible scenes in the novel ─ of which there are many. I, as a new reader of Will Self, found it hard going with the language at times, having stumbled on what must have been in excess of 400 words I had never known existed. But, soldiering on without a dictionary (context helps with the words, anyway), I couldn't have been half as satisfied with his style if it weren't so scathing and pointed.Enjoy.
What do You think about Dorian (2004)?
Self's re-styling of Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray moves on a heavy under-current of shock, but considering the treatment, that might be appropriate. Full of grotesques and satire, along with plenty of descriptions just as dark as they are humorous, the novel rewrites the idea of Dorian onto a society already punctured by overindulgence in drugs, alcohol, and sex. Played out in the years when AIDS is just becoming known, the novel's focus becomes a trajectory of declining grotesques who either struggle against attaining any moral code, or suffer slowly under the lack thereof. Self's humor and (insane) descriptions keep the novel moving quickly, even with such a serious backdrop as it finds, but the crudeness and plays on moral violence will turn off a lot of readers before the novel is done. For what it is, however, it's an interesting re-write of Wilde's novel, and one which wouldn't have had anywhere near so much power if Self had chosen to set the novel in an earlier (or later) time--as it turns out, the novel becomes a surprisingly introspective condemnation, showing a destruction that was in many ways far too realistic once AIDS took hold in the eighties. In the end, this certainly isn't for every reader, and even though I read horror regularly, I was tempted to put the book down in disgust on more than one occasion. If nothing else, this speaks to the shock value that Self so often seeks out as the book moves along. But, all that said, many aspects of the book were frighteningly clever and humorous.
—Jennifer Lauren Collins
terrific, fantastic, outrageous and exciting re-reading of WIlde's Portrait!! Up-to-date, Dorian-- is nowadays a proeminent figure of gay, AIDS-plagued, artistic milieu, and the novel turns out to portray sarcastically the world we live in. Such wit in delineating Henry Wotton, superb explorations of London in Wotton's jaguar!!! The pervading cynicism is matched with a style that conveys with lavishness the inner rottennes of the characters. We cannot but laugh and/or shrug when reading the "exploits" of the protagonist, wondering how the story will end...but the nemesis comes in an unpredictable way, diverging from Wilde's conception of the coda.
—Tatiana
Really good, interesting working on a classic book. The contemporary setting and locations in this book make it really interesting. As a young, adopted londoner I found the book captivating not only for the main plot but also for the interesting history regarding the AIDS virus in London. At the time I read this I was actually working off Goodge Street and used to go past the hospital mentioned in the book everyday (though it has now been demolished). I came across this book after meeting Self at a literary event and was very skeptical about him messing with a classic but he has definitely pulled this off very well.
—Ben Cooke
