{"id":350,"date":"2015-04-09T20:41:27","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T20:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=350"},"modified":"2015-09-17T23:27:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T23:27:34","slug":"on-oscar-wilde-and-gross-indecencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"On Oscar Wilde and “gross indecencies”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oscar\u00a0Oscar Wilde in 1882, before he was sentenced to prison for \u201cgross indecency\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

April 9, 2015 \u00a0– \u00a0I saw the movie,\u00a0The Imitation Game<\/a><\/em>, last January. \u00a0It’s a \u201c2014 historical<\/a> thriller<\/a> film about Britishmathematician<\/a>, logician<\/a>, cryptanalyst<\/a> and pioneering computer scientist<\/a> Alan Turing<\/a> who was a key figure in cracking Nazi Germany<\/a>\u2018s naval Enigma code<\/a> which helped the Allies<\/a> win the Second World War<\/a>, only to later be criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I noted that this\u00a0all this occurred in another country \u2013 England \u2013 and before<\/em> the year 2003.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the U.S. Supreme Court issued Lawrence v. Texas<\/a>, thus ending such sentences:<\/p>\n

[T]he Court struck down the sodomy law<\/a> in Texas<\/a> and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states<\/a>, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory.\u00a0 The Court overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick<\/a><\/i>\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct<\/strong> was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process<\/a> under the 14th Amendment<\/a>. (E.A.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which leads to the general rule that it pays to remember our past history<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good advice even when \u2013 and perhaps especially<\/em> when \u2013 that history isn\u2019t all that glorious.\u00a0 As Harry Truman once said, \u201cThe only thing new in the world is the history you don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 (See for example\u00a0Harry Truman and his\u00a0History Lessons<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to Alan Turing and Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia said this:\u00a0 \u201cThe film\u2019s closing titles tell of Turing\u2019s suicide in 1954, the royal pardon granted to him in 2013, and how his [code-breaking] machine inspired the invention and design of modern computers.\u201d\u00a0 Turing\u2019s suicide followed \u2013 and may well have been caused by \u2013 his court-ordered chemical castration<\/a>.\u00a0 (Turing had been given the \u201cchoice\u201d of spending some two years in prison or taking the court-ordered drug treatment\u2026)<\/p>\n

Wilde on the other hand got two years of hard labor, without a choice<\/em> of \u201ccastration.\u201d\u00a0 And when he tried to speak, his voice was drowned out by cries of \u201c\u2018Shame\u2019 in the courtroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilde was imprisoned first in Pentonville Prison<\/a> and then Wandsworth Prison<\/a> in London.\u00a0 Inmates followed a regimen of \u201chard labour, hard fare and a hard bed,\u201d which wore very harshly on Wilde\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 His health declined sharply, and in November he collapsed during chapel from illness and hunger\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0 He spent two months in the infirmary\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 Richard B. Haldane<\/a>, the Liberal MP and reformer, visited him and had him transferred in November to Reading Prison<\/a>\u2026\u00a0 The transfer itself was the lowest point of his incarceration, as a crowd jeered and spat at him on the railway platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See Oscar Wilde\u00a0\u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0Which brings up the popular notion that some of the world\u2019s best writing has been done in prison.\u00a0 See 12 Famous Writers Who Did Time | Robert Rotstein \u2013 Huffington Post<\/a>, and 10 Great Works of Literature Written in Prison<\/a>:<\/p>\n

When we imagine the places where our favorite authors penned their greatest masterpieces, a jail cell usually doesn\u2019t come to mind.\u00a0 But, whether their writers were prisoners of war or victims of bigotry, the solitude and lack of distractions have produced many a great book.\u00a0 From Oscar Wilde\u2019s apologia<\/em><\/strong> on spiritual awakening to Thoreau\u2019s thoughts on civil disobedience, we survey authors whose great mental escapes from incarceration resulted in some of their most insightful and profound works\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether that solitude and \u201clack of distraction\u201d still applies in today\u2019s prisons is a matter of debate.\u00a0 But a more recent example does<\/em> come to mind, Martin Luther King\u2019s Letter from Birmingham Jail<\/a>.\u00a0 Written on April 16, 1963, this open letter<\/em>\u00a0defended the “strategy of nonviolent resistance<\/a> to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws.” \u00a0the letter “became an important text for the American<\/a> civil rights movement<\/a> of the early 1960s.”<\/p>\n

That brings up the big difference between King’s letter and perhaps the best-known letter that Wilde wrote in prison. \u00a0Near the end of his sentence – between January and March 1897 – Wilde wrote a letter. \u00a0It was\u00a0was sent from \u201cReading Gaol<\/a> to Lord Alfred Douglas<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The title of the letter was De Profundus<\/strong><\/em>, and it was based on the opening line – in Latin – of Psalm 130<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In English, Psalm 130 begins:\u00a0 \u201cOut of the depths I cry to you, O Lord<\/span>!\u201d\u00a0 The Latin for \u201cout of the depths\u201d is De Profundus<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>See De Profundis\u00a0(letter) \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of which marked a drastic change in Oscar Wilde, the person.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 1880\u2019s Wilde had been a popular London playwright.\u00a0 He was noted for his epigrams \u2013 his \u201cwitty, ingenious or pointed sayings\u201d \u2013 and a novel The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/a><\/i>.\u00a0 Then there were the plays, including a \u201cmasterpiece,\u201d The Importance of Being Earnest<\/a><\/i>.\u00a0 Also:<\/p>\n

He wrote Salome<\/a><\/i> (1891) in French in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to the absolute prohibition of Biblical subjects on the English stage.\u00a0 Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Wilde\u2019s world came crashing down when he filed the ill-advised lawsuit that led to his own arrest, trial and conviction for gross indecency<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 In brief, he went from the heights of fame and pleasure, literally<\/em> to \u201cthe depths.\u201d\u00a0 And there, for whatever reason, he found a measure of serenity. \u00a0Wikipedia noted that in the long letter Wilde “discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure.” \u00a0 Thereafter:<\/p>\n

Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain.\u00a0 There he wrote his last work,\u00a0The Ballad of Reading Gaol<\/a><\/i>\u00a0(1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.\u00a0 He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Incidentally, Wilde had to publish \u201cReading Gaol<\/a>\u201d under an assumed name:<\/p>\n

The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers<\/a> in 1898 under the name C.3.3.<\/tt>, which stood for cell block C<\/b>, landing 3<\/b>, cell 3<\/b>.\u00a0 This ensured that Wilde\u2019s name \u2013 by then notorious \u2013 did not appear on the poem\u2019s front cover\u2026 \u00a0 It was a commercial success, going through seven editions in less than two years\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, in a few short years Oscar Wilde went from the highest acclaim to cries of \u201cshame<\/em><\/strong>\u201d in the courtroom.\u00a0 When he was transferred to Reading Prison, a crowd gathered to jeer and spit at him.\u00a0 During his exile in France he had to publish his last work under an assumed name.<\/p>\n

And now he brings tourists to Dublin, the city of his birth\u2026<\/em><\/h3>\n

Aside from his statue in Dublin\u2019s Merrion Square, there\u2019s also an\u00a0Oscar Wilde Centre<\/a>, at Trinity College in Dublin.\u00a0 Which brings to mind what John Steinbeck wrote about another writer\u2026<\/p>\n

In his book Travels with Charley<\/em><\/strong>, Steinbeck wrote of wanting to see Sauk Centre, where Sinclair Lewis was born.\u00a0 It was also the metaphoric setting of Lewis\u2019 satirical novel, Main Street<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Wikipedia noted, the novel was set in Gopher Prairie, \u201ca town modeled on Sauk Centre<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The heroine, Carol Milford, is a free-spirited liberal who disdains \u201cthe town\u2019s physical ugliness and smug conservatism.\u201d\u00a0 The novel itself portrayed \u201cpetty back-stabbers and hypocrites in a small town.\u201d\u00a0 It mocked the prevalent desire to live<\/em> in such \u201c\u2018wholesome\u2019 small towns,\u201d with its \u201cvicious realism and biting humor.\u201d\u00a0 Small wonder then that some \u201csmall-town residents resented their portrayal and the book was banned in Alexandria, Minnesota<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small wonder too that when Steinbeck met him in his later years, Lewis was shrunken, shriveled and constantly cold.\u00a0 So he too took a voluntary exile \u2013 he died in Rome, of advanced alcoholism \u2013 prompted in part by the violent hatred<\/em> his novel \u201caroused in the country of his nativity.\u201d But now, as Steinbeck noted, \u201cThere\u2019s a sign in Sauk Centre all right:\u00a0 \u2018Birthplace of Sinclair Lewis<\/em><\/strong>:’\u201d<\/p>\n

The only good writer was a dead writer.\u00a0\u00a0 Then he couldn\u2019t surprise anyone any more, couldn\u2019t hurt anyone any more\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard he died alone.\u00a0 And now he\u2019s good for the town.\u00a0 Brings in some tourists.\u00a0 He\u2019s a good writer now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s probably some kind of lesson there, for writers and<\/em><\/strong> for bloggers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of\u00a0Oscar Wilde<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>, with the caption: \u00a0\u201cPhotograph taken in 1882 by\u00a0Napoleon Sarony<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The lower image comes from the same article, with the caption: \u201cStatue of Oscar Wilde in\u00a0Merrion Square<\/a>, Dublin:\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

[Merrion Square] is a\u00a0Georgian<\/a>\u00a0garden square<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0southside<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Dublin<\/a> [and is] considered one of the city\u2019s finest surviving squares.\u00a0 Three sides are lined with Georgian redbrick\u00a0townhouses<\/a>; the West side abuts the grounds of\u00a0Leinster House<\/a>\u00a0(seat of the\u00a0Oireachtas<\/a>),Government Buildings<\/a>, the\u00a0Natural History Museum<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0National Gallery<\/a>. The central railed-off garden is now a public park.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The full reference to the movie-lead reference is Imitation Game<\/b> \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.\u00a0 The full reference to the Lawrence case is Lawrence v. Texas \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.\u00a0 The full reference to Turing\u2019s \u201crehabilitation\u201d is Chemical castration \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re: Steinbeck on Sinclair Lewis.\u00a0 See Travels with Charley<\/strong>, Penguin Books (1980), pages 133-34. \u00a0 See also Sinclair Lewis Biography \u2013 CliffsNotes<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cAlthough the reaction of Sauk Centre toward the book was at first unfavorable, there is no evidence that it was ever banned from the local library.\u201d\u00a0 And see\u00a0<\/b>Main Street (novel) \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can see\u00a0the original post on which this column was based at On Oscar Wilde and Psalm 130<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Oscar Wilde in 1882, before he was sentenced to prison for \u201cgross indecency\u2026\u201d   April 9, 2015 \u00a0– \u00a0I saw the movie,\u00a0The Imitation Game, last January. \u00a0It’s a \u201c2014 historical thriller film about Britishmathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing who was a key figure in cracking Nazi Germany\u2018s naval Enigma code which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1775,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}