The Uncensored Picture Of Dorian Gray (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
A youth remains eternally young by a weird coincidence, which happens after he inspires an artist to transcend himself in painting a portrait, and in a charged moment right after that portrait is finished his accidentally uttered wish comes true. A cynical hedonist with a penchant for experimentation on people uses his powers on the naive youth to mould him according to his desires. The youth is the artist's ideal and inspiration, and the artist has his own vision of what he should be. The premise just oozes potential for subtle drama and interesting tension. Will the youth resist the temptation, and how? Will the artist try to lure him to the light side with cookies and alchohol? What the experiments will be? Surely the hedonist, being a self-proclaimed psychologist, will try to place him into interesting situations and observe his behaviour? Well, nothing of the above happens. Instead, the novel takes as subtle approach to the situation as a train hitting you out of nowhere right after you use irony in your sentence. There's no gradual change in the character, there's no struggle of wills, there's no doubt who's bad and who isn't from the very beginning. I can't even view it as a commentary on human nature, or on degradation, or on dangers of cynicism and hedonism. Neither fanatical cynicism, nor overindulgent hedonism make a person evil by themselves. There was absolutely nothing corruptive in the shown theories of the hedonist, except for the extreme misogyny on steroids. This book is merely a description of one particular case where an exceptionally rich and evil person leads a life of moral degradation. The main plot device barely comes into the story. And it doesn't even have a juicy description of his multiple sins. By the way, would you be interested in reading which gems and textiles this person collected? Your curiousity will be satisfied.But the point is, would you be interested in reading about such a person's plights and struggles at all? If you rather wouldn't, you'll pass on one almost believable transformation, one cool downfall, some interesting situations, a lot of extremely flowery descriptions, and one character who speaks entirely in aphorisms. If you would, they're probably worse ways to spend your time. See being impaled. L'avventura di un'anima, indissolubilmente legata al destino del corpo e alle sue sensazioni. Questa "favola" riesce a stringere insieme Arte e Vita, verità e menzogna, autenticità e falsificazione... lo "Spirito del suo tempo"... L'inutilità dell'Arte, la sua completa scissione dalla morale, l'antinaturalismo come la tradizione dell'ultimo Romanticismo europeo di fine '800. "L'Arte è inutile perché il suo scopo è semplicemente quello di creare uno stato d'animo. È superbamente sterile, e la nota del suo piacere è la sterilità". Due sono i personaggi che si rapportano con l'Arte: il protagonista Dorian, e la (brevemente) amata Sibyl. Sibyl infatti traversa il tempo e lo spazio, nel momento di massima illusione l'amore di Dorian si accende per un "corpo" teatrale su cui Arte e Vita riscrivono la storia; ma la inutile, vana, presunzione di Sibyl di sostituire la vita all'Arte, porta alla sua fine. La caducità della vita (disintegrazione del corpo di Dorian) si misura con l'eterna, seppur misteriosa, sopravvivenza dell'Arte.Buona lettura.
What do You think about The Uncensored Picture Of Dorian Gray (2012)?
The best way to overcome your passions is to bow to them. Sin, sin, sin what a sweer word......
—christinalbowles
Borrowed on a public library back in RE. I need to read this again.
—vivek
One of the few books I've read quite a few times!!!
—justina614
