A Nice Salad of Topics

"It is the spectator...that art really mirrors."

I bought the book A Picture of Dorian Gray (by Oscar Wilde) on Sunday. I read the whole thing yesterday. It was amazing. I had to stop after each chapter and just think about what I'd read because there was so much to it. It was dark, contemplative, focused, and rich with philosophy, both explicit and implicit. The main character is Dorian Gray: a young, handsome man who has his portrait is painted when he's around twenty years old. He wishes that he didn't have to grow old, and is jealous that the portrait will remain beautiful long after he's old and decrepit. (Dorian is also just a wee bit vain.) He's rich and powerful, and due to the influence of an older obsessively-philosophical friend, he takes a strictly amoral, sensual approach to life -- and by that I mean he's extravagantly indulgent of all his senses. Eventually he becomes scabby and selfish and cruel. About halfway through the book, Dorian realizes the portrait is changing to reflect his true soul. The picture becomes cruel, harsh, and bloodstained...while Dorian's own physical appearance remains youthful and vibrant. Horrified at what he has become, he even tries doing a "good" thing near the end of the book, but only sees hypocrisy sneering at him from the painting. The ending was abrupt, but left me speechless in a last-paragraph twist. I'm still trying to process all the aspects of the story. The book reminded me frequently of The Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne), one of my favorite novels of all time. There are many parallel themes such as hidden evil and the effects of secret sins, both on us and those we come into contact with. I wonder if Wilde ever read Hawthorne's stuff. Dorian Gray's portrait hidden in the attic is graphically reminiscent of Arthur Dimmesdale's scarlet letter hidden underneath his shirt on his flesh, both portraying the man's true nature while their outward appearances -- Dorian's glowing youth, Arthur's strict Puritanism -- remain spotless. The evil inside both of them impacts a wide array of people as well as their own hearts. I didn't mean to make this into a textual analysis, but...wow. Literature is alive, people.

I know you all love "a nice salad of topics," so here's one more for the, um, garnish (I guess). I found these two pictures when I was posting on a forum. But they're so cute, I have to post them here too. I love baby goats. I think most of them are cuter than most baby people.