A Paragraph-level 'Claim' about Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

     At first glance, Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" might appear as an edifying novel preaching the importance of leading an aesthetic life. After all, Wilde truly fascinates his readers with Dorian’s attractiveness and Lord Henry’s brilliant sense of speech, in spite of their pursuit of hedonistic lifestyle filled with immorality in the name of aestheticism. On the other hand, Wilde portrays Basil as a coward with no real taste of the ‘meaningful’ things in life who eventually faces brutal death. Taking into consideration Basil’s job as an artist, he is the one who is the most justified to lead a life dominated by aestheticism. However, he nevertheless lives an upright life. The dramatic difference makes a clear distinction between the boundaries of moral and mad pursuit of aestheticism. Basil’s words, “I felt, Dorian, that I had told too much, that I had put too much of myself into it,” indicate that he believes in the different nature of artwork and real life. Dorian and Lord Henry, on the contrary, regard actual incidents in life as mere artwork, an experiment for pure joy and beauty, even. Such attitude is aptly explicated in Lord Henry’s own words about Dorian’s “experimental” love towards Sibyl Bane: “He would be a wonderful study” and “If you want to mar a nature, you have merely to reform it.” Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that this Gothic novel is an ironic work dealing with the need of realizing the discrepancy between artistic desire for beauty and real life. In this sense, the intimate yet somewhat ironic juxtaposition of two types of characters with very different values and attitudes achieves its clear moral of the novel regarding art and life.

 

Adaptation on (a part of) Chapter 16 - The Catcher in the Rye

I decided to write an adaption on the scene in chapter 16 where Holden walks to the Museum of Natural History in New York, wishing that things wouldn’t change and keep their original status-quo. As a student in KMLA, where a bunch of changes are always taking place, and no one really knows for sure what exactly is going on, I often am struck down by sudden changes in academics, relationships with friends and teachers, and dormitory life. I did not follow the exact structures and orders of incidents of the book. Instead, I focused on the essential idea that was being dealt with at the end of chapter 16. So I guess my ‘adaptation’ is more faithful and devoted to the quintessential idea and theme of the original novel than it is to the explicit outside formats and structures. Still, I tried to convey the particular tone of Holden’s use of language in the lines of Albert and use informal language just as Holden would have done.

I recently watched a film which deals with change in human emotions, and I really wanted to blend in some specific features of the film in my adaptation work. The idea of looking at expiration date of pineapple cans is actually from the movie, but I thought it would play a pivotal role in delivering the emotional state of ‘Albert’ in my writing, so I included it anyway.

“Class! We will have a quiz on the material we have just learnt about. I know I told you guys we will have one next week, but I guess we now have a change in schedule. Alright, you have until the end of class.”

Shit.

Another ‘impromptu’ quiz. I hate taking quizzes. I guess I have a thing about them. I mean, who are the teachers to measure our ability based on a piece of paper with nothing more than some ink stains on it? The whole idea of such dictatorial standards just disgusts me, y’ know. What’s more is that they keep deceiving poor students by frequently changing test dates. Those bastards called teachers……

I basically flunked the quiz. But hey, there’s nothing to worry about, y’ know. Today afternoon I have two important plans. A soccer match with my friends in town and a date with my soon-to-be-girlfriend, Aika. These things in life are the real important stuff, and they are probably what people live up to, I guess. Compared to such grandeur values, a quiz? Phew, most likely no more important than just one strand of Aika’s long, dark-blonde hair. It’s funny how people make such a big deal out of such mediocre stuff. Excited and all, I strolled down the hallway toward the exit sign of the school building to go grab my soccer shoes. Then, my phone suddenly rang.

‘Beep, beep~beep, beep~’

“Wai?”

“Huh? Isn’t this Albert on the phone?”

“It is me, you stupid. ‘Wai’ means ‘hello’ in Cantonese.”

“Alright. See why you are so into Cantonese these days. You failed your English Composition class, and now you have a thing for cool foreign languages. Isn’t it, Albert?”

“Stop BSing. Why you called?”

“Oh, our soccer match today, y’ know, it’s been canceled. Change of practice schedules. Sorry.”

“Yeah? Well, here is what I wanted to say, ‘Screw all of you!’ I have schedules too y’ know! Who are you to change my plans for soccer?”

Then he hung up.

Screw them.

I hate people who make changes in anything. Now I have one more reason to be pissed off today. All I had left of today is the sweet date with Aika, I guess.

Shoot.

Aika is a pretty girl from Hong Kong. She has really long, blond hair with the beautiful wave and all. I met her in psychology class. From the moment I saw her, I swear I had a tickling sensation from deep inside of my body. She looked as if Olivia Hussey from the film Romeo and Juliet had come back to her youth right in front of me. I do hate films, but not necessarily the actors and actresses in them-especially the actresses, I think. I knew our date would be no sooner than dinnertime, but I called her anyway simply because I wanted to hear her voice. To make it a surprise for her, I decided to call her not with my phone, but at the public telephone booth.

“Hey, Aika! Guess who it is.”

“Umm. Albert, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah. Listen, about our date this evening”

“Oh, right! Albert, before you say anything else, I think I’ll have to make an apology first. I originally planned to go out with you, but my parents insisted that I spend time with my relatives who came to visit. I’m really sorry for the sudden change, I really am.”

“Aika, I don’t understand. Why do I always have to be your second choice? If I’m not your first priority, then fine.”

“Albie, you know I don’t mean that. Don’t speak like a jerk.”

“You know what? I don’t even want to talk to you anymore.”

I don’t know why I got so angry with her, but whatever the reasons were, I did. She’s the one who first pissed me off, right? Like I said, I hate changes, and I hate people who make changes even more. To be frank, I wish everything had been guaranteed to maintain its current status quo. Changes can hurt people, y’ know. Take me, for instance. I have three reasons to be mad, and all of those three reasons were due to change.

I just wish things would stay as they were, not frequently changing. I headed toward a convenience store about two blocks from where I was. For some reason, I suddenly felt like eating canned pineapple. I remembered that they sell Delmont Canned Pineapple and what not. I bought a whole bunch of pineapple cans, and stared at the colorful labels. The juicy pictures of golden pineapples have been exactly the same since I was a little boy, and they probably will stay that way for the next few decades at the very least. Lucky them, y’ know. Compared to these little canned pineapples, what are we? Always making freakin’ changes, with nothing guaranteed to last. Shit. Who says the mankind is the wisest specie in the world, when we are no better than mere pineapple cans? Liars. If there was an expiration date for human relationships, just like on pineapple cans, I would surely put a million years on the goddam label below the barcode. That way, I could be sure nothing would every change so suddenly, and I wouldn’t get so pissed off like I was today.

While all these thoughts filled my mind, I had already finished a dozen of these cans. I looked up at the sky, and saw a thick cloud floating around. Even the clouds were constantly moving, changing their positions.

“Can’t you guys stop moving, for Chrissake? Why can’t anyone just stay where they are? Ugh!”

I grabbed another canned pineapple to eat, hoping those pineapples would always taste the same with the rich sugary-flavored pulps and all.

Do You Have Your 'Healer' Standing Beside You, Ben X?

• Title: Ben X
• Based on a novel inspired by a true story, Nothing Was All He Said.
• Genre: Drama Film, Documentary, Psychological Thriller 
• Starring:

        Greg Timmermans as Ben

        Laura Verlinden as Scarlite

        Marijke Pinoy as Ben's mother

• Rating: 

<Owl City - Fireflies>

-Good to read with music if you wish to truly dig into the feelings of Ben, 

as a similar toned electric synthesizer melody is frequently used in the film-

Ben X covers a wide range of issues regarding contemporary society: bullying, cyberspace etiquettes, teenage suicide, etc. In this striking film, such societal problems are blended well together with the more fundamental topic of intolerance. The narration of Ben, malicious actions of his ‘friends’ at school, comfort from his imaginary friend and supporter lucidly portrays the significance and necessity of tolerance and empathy in today’s world.

In director Nic Balthazar’s bizzare Belgian-Dutch film Ben X, Ben(Greg Timmermans), a teenage-boy with Asperger Syndrome who acts a bit ‘differently’ from others, constantly gets bullied made fun of in school. His mother(Marijke Pinoy) tries her best to let her son get along well in school by providing him with loving care. However, Ben despises the world he lives in and always escapes to his imaginary world of the game of Archlord, where he becomes a great warrior who usually meets and saves another player by the name of Scarlite(Laura Verlinden). Not able to stand his friends’ bullying anymore, Ben conceives a plan for a suicidal ‘endgame’ to take revenge on his peers.

This is film has a peculiar structure in that there is a documentary film inside the film itself, and the documentary part is the story of Ben’s ‘endgame’. This way, viewers get the sense of involvement in the film because they are technically watching the documentary film that the characters inside the movie are watching as well. The double-structure helps viewers to feel an intimate relationship between Ben and them.

The brilliance of the film is that it not only puts viewers in a close distance with the main character, but also actually lets viewers actually be Ben. Throughout the film, scene after scene, the director continually shows a similar counterpart portrayal of an action as how it would be depicted in an imaginary game world. Also, visual and auditory techniques are used: close-up screenshots of people’s mouths or eyes are constantly showed, and disco and psychedelic style music, with background noise of cars passing by, people shouting, and objects moving, is played very loudly. These two disturbing yet meaningful devices allow viewers to become the eyes and ears of Ben, feeling how hypersensitive Ben would perceive the world.

With the aforementioned techniques and devices, Ben X gradually builds up to its theme of tolerance and empathy. Scarlite, though she is in many aspects an imaginary character, is a kind-spirited individual who cares for Ben from the heart and empathizes with him mainly because she shares with him a part of his independent life-in the world of Archlord. The last words of Ben’s mother at the ending marks the highlight of the thematic tolerance when she says, “He is living”, despite the fact that Ben had been talking to himself all along. Here, viewers are told the moral of appreciating others who are different even if the are hard to understand or fully empathize with. After all, “we can’t play endgames without our healers”, just as Scarlite mentioned.