St. Oscar's Letter from the Depths

Brian Whelan’s portrait of Oscar Wilde (above) will be featured on the cover of Wildesday, the second installment in the Erinesque series of novelettes by Mark Will and G.J. Villa

Hey, sugar, take a walk on the Wilde side. . . .

Yes, dearest textual deviants, the textual focus of this episode of Texting is, appropriately enough, Oscar Wilde’s textually deviant jailhouse epistle, De Profundis. The pod begins with an introduction by my sometime co-author G.J. Villa, who provides background on St. Oscar’s trial for “gross indecency.” This is followed by a marathon conversation of more than two hours, during which Tomek and I discuss, among other things, Wilde’s relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie) and the latter’s father (the Marquess of Queensberry), the immortal phrase “the love that dare not speak its name,” sodomy ancient and modern, and the creator of Dorian Gray’s newfound interest in Christ as a precursor of the Romantic movement. Near the end of the pod, there is an awkward moment when Tomek admits to having read only 30 pages of Pilgrimizing, my latest book. Believe me, I was as shocked as you are.

The text of De Profundis has an interesting history. It was originally published by Wilde’s friend Robbie Ross in an abridged form, with sections referring to the Queensberry family completely excised. The text of this version (or some variant thereof) may be found readily online (here, for example). The unabridged version is harder to come by, but there is a six-hour video—which I highly recommend—of Neil Bartlett reading Wilde’s epistola in carcere et vinculis in its entirety at the old Reading Gaol:

(Patti Smith reads the abridged version at the same venue but I suggest you listen to Horses instead.)

Thanks to friend of show Maria C. for sending us this pic, which was taken at an HEB in Houston, Texas:

Anybody know the name of that beautiful Celtic font?

Notes:

• The music heard briefly during G.J. Villa’s intro is from the soundtrack of the 1997 film starring Stephen Fry and Jude Law:

• The Soul of Man Under Socialism was published in 1891, which would have been before Wilde’s trial and imprisonment.

• Hemingway was born in 1899, not 1900.

The Next Text

Join us for S3E3, in which Tomek and I will explore Amiri Baraka’s “Somebody Blew Up America.”