Damn you, Bosie

[saffronlie]

Have been watching Wilde and being sad and introspective, although not as sad as I was after watching The Hours last week. I own far too many depressing films about writers.

For us there is only one season, the season of sorrow. The very sun and moon seem taken from us. Outside, the day may be blue and gold, but the light that creeps down

Comments

[pandorasblog]

You put so eloquently the kinds of things I've been thinking about lately, having been borderline obsessed with Oscar in recent months. I saw Wilde, I read this collection of trial transcripts, read Oscar Wilde: an Exquisite Life while researching a profile for a mooted series on Irish writers, I listened to the one (supposed) recording of his voice learned that it probably isn't, and I never did figure out why he went back to Bosie.

...an Exquisite Life says that it was because he got piqued by Constance. He was in Europe, and she'd offered to meet him with the children in a year's time if he kept away from Bosie. Oscar asked her to cut it to six months, but when she wouldn't, he got mad and went to Bosie after all. And after that, Constance wouldn't see him, and indeed she died months later. And I keep wondering... was his anger at Constance a cover for what he really wanted to do? Or maybe he was curious. I think that we sometimes have a warped desire to see our tormenters in person, in order to believe things that have happened.

[saffronlie]

I've been puzzling over this Bosie thing since I first saw Wilde. Though the movie isn't necessarily correct, it has Oscar go to Bosie only after Constance's death. The film does, I think, have a bias towards both Constance and Robbie Ross; it certainly wants them to come off much better than Bosie does. I have the Richard Ellmann biography that was the basis for the screenplay, but am not far enough through it to know if that bias is in the book as well. I can imagine the change in the timeline easily being made to present Oscar as more considerate of Constance's feelings.

I just can't get over his behaviour after Oscar's death. What a drama queen he seems to have been! A better man would have refused to comment on the relationship rather than capitalise on it, while at the same time attempting to deny it. It's all very strange.

[pandorasblog]

Yes, there's that tendency in a lot of screenplays and books - that making a character likeable or dislikeable is not just a matter of how they are written, but how those around them are contrasted with them. And when it's real people, then depictions can get subtly warped

[saffronlie]

I agree that Oscar is mainly responsible for his own downfall, which I guess is why it's still so tempting to shift some blame to Bosie. I do think that he regretted his indiscretions and his occasional disregard for his family. He paid the price and had a fitting end, you might say, and so it's almost a neat morality tale in that he was punished for his excesses and met a sad end

[mothergoddamn]

Ew.

I wouldn't tap that.

[rebness]

I am so tempted to write something infuriating, like just:

THIS.

But it's true! I can't bring myself to understand or like Bosie and... well, everything you said in this post.

[hezzabeth]

I used to be obsessed with Wilde and Bossie when I was about thirteen ( OMG THEIR WERE GAY PEOPLE IN VICTORIAN TIMES?) and I was quite horrified that Bossie lead to his downfall when he was supposed to LOVE him.Now that I'm a little older and wiser and have experienced a "bad boy" relationship I kinda get it. THe Bossie's of the world pray upon sensitive arty types feeding into our insecurities and making us feel like they are the only person who appreciate us while at the same time emotionally abusing us.
I personally think Bossie did it because he was a sad little man who had a sad little childhood and was addicted to the fact he had power over such a genius.
I think Oscar went back to him because after his experiences in prison and the letters Bossie wrote he felt like nobody else accepted him.

[ext_185660]

Bosie really was a rather nasty and selfish piece of work. both he and Oscar were extremely self-indulgent, but one feels more sympathetic towards Wilde, even while wanting to shake him!

Hi:"> Bon Soir from here:">

[valoa]

So love to find another pro-WIlde:">
He, along with Lordy Byron and a great numbers of others, is such a BOMB!!!!!:^^"
And I dearly love the overture. Marvel:">