Being an avid video gamer, "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." brings me back to a certain rumor in a video game about a certain character, this might be long, but just hear me out.
*Spoilers?* In the video game Final Fantasy VII, one of your main party members throughout the game, a girl named Aerith, is killed about halfway through the adventure in a very shocking twist that still haunts the gaming industry as an incredibly shocking moment.
Shortly afterwards, rumors started appearing everywhere about a way you could revive her. These involved many outlandish adventures, such as beating certain times and going out of your way to get almost impossible materials. Everyone tried and tried, and some even posted "pictures" to say they succeeded in bringing her back. I even heard a few rumors at school that I tried out.
After a while, the Director of the Game came out and said she was supposed to die, and there was nothing you could do to save her. Despite this, people still looked for ways to revive her and are still looking to this day. There's also a web-series that looks into these "pop-fiction" rumors (Gametrailers (dot) com) and it's really interesting.
Anyways, these kind of "theories" like in "The Portrait of W.H." really brought me back to that story, and definitely helped me realize how everyone loves a good rumor, especially if it involves sexuality and something even a tad controversial.
The beautiful thing about new/radical theories or rumors though is that they force interested parties to reconsider the archive (whether Shakespeare's sonnets or the actions in a video game). In "The Portrait of Mr. W H.", both Cyril and the narrator said they spent weeks combing through the sonnets looking for evidence to support their theory. While introducing a forgery into the archive is not without its ethical issues, it is almost as if it breathes new life into a somewhat stagnant archive, stirring back up thought and discussion.
I think it's my general intrigue with anything Shakespeare that drew me into Wilde's "Portrait of Mr. W. H." Nonetheless, this was a rather interesting read. Perhaps it was Wilde's storytelling skills, but I occasionally caught myself impatiently asking, "Well, is it??" I suppose that's what makes rumors so...riveting.
Take celebrity gossip, for instance. I know I'm not alone when I admit to being a tabloid junky. Yeah, I wait in line at the grocery store, eating up every word concerning new celebrity hook-ups, break-ups, and make-ups. Yeah, I read those undeniably pointless Yahoo! "news" updates, and I'll be honest, I conduct extensive research into every last claim.
And, yes, I do have that much time.
What I find interesting, more than ever after reading this excerpt, is that I understand I will NEVER know fact from fiction when it comes to celebrity news; yet, I still have an insatiable thirst for it. And, like Cyril, I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time researching these loose ends, but unlike Cyril, I am not willing to offer my "life as a sacrifice" (Wilde 152) to this obsession.
Regardless, Cyril's quest for the truth is a fixation that transcends into modern society. And the fact is, it's a fixation we are all familiar with.
This is slightly tangential to the above comments, but I have always been confronted (and even taken part, sadly) in the fascination that stems from one's sexuality. This is especially relevant to cases like Gabriela's, when people obsess over celebrities. I feel like there is a certain pressure in the gay community to PROVE that someone is gay, or has had gay experiences. I think it's validating to the "accuser" (who is usually gay) to prove that someone else is gay. There are a few reasons for this, I believe. I think a big one is that if someone is popular or famous, people naturally want to "knock them down a peg", and proving their sexuality can be a big one. It's kind of saddening that that is the attitude behind this, rather than understanding the difficulty of coming out and maintaining your place in your social circles. Did anyone else experience this? Pressure from the GLBT community to come out? Did you feel like it was more for their own validation and NOT for your own development?
Agreed Gabriella, I honestly don't understand why both Cyril and Erksine decided to kill themselves. That was incredibly overdramatic. This story does, however, remind me of an author that I thought we would be reading in this class actually. I was curious as to the meaning behind a song by Bat for Lashes called "Laura," so I dug around to see what I could find. The music video revolves around an older transgendered male who the singer continuously tells "you're more than a super star," so I looked into any possible queer-related explanations. I came across one that cited 'Laura' as Laura Albert, a controversial American writer. Albert was largely criticized for publishing her books under the 'persona' of JT LeRoy, a transgendered teen that struggled with prostitution, vagrancy and drug addiction. Albert even took measures to have another person make public appearances as LeRoy, later citing this as an 'avatar.' Although the books were clearly written as fiction rather than memoir, Albert was sued for fraud and was found guilty, causing outrage. The issue of free speech in authorship was brought to attention, and other authors are worried that this decision will "have a chilling effect upon authors wishing to exercise their right to write anonymously." Albert was clearly devastated by the attacks on her art, and her 'phantom limb,' JT LeRoy. She claims that by using LeRoy as a 'veil' rather than a 'hoax' she was able to write things she couldn't as Laura Albert. The struggle that Laura Albert had to legitimize her work is very much relatable to the struggle that the speaker in "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." faces in coming to terms with whether Cyril's literary theory was valid. I believe, along with the speaker, that "to die for a literary theory" is one of the worst uses a person can make of their life. Rather than placing all of the value of a literary work on who wrote it and who it was secretly written for, the work should be appreciated for its use of poetic elements and its power to make the reader question their own beliefs.
I realized there some missing pages as I was reading the stroy by Oscar Wilde. It didn't prevent me, however, from grasping the grande idea of the Cyril's investigation on who Shakespeare referred Mr. W.H. as. I was surprised to see where Cyril was going with this due to the fact that I was facing the same question writing for the midterm paper. From what i had been told and taught, sonnet 18 writesbeauty or 'love' toward a certain intangible beauty with reference to the nature. But, the thought that Shakespeare was probably going in a different direction with it engulfed me as I take words with aesthetic values as opposed to "reading technique" of Shakespeare's works. Merely looking at the words and dictions of the sonnets would not reveal the sonnet itself. Rather, digging deeper with some radical assumptions would prove to be more convincing. Evidences are there but this Willie Hughes theory is too much for anyone to handle as to whether Shakespeare was "addressing his Ideal Self, or Ideal Manhood.." It provokes some traditional ideas of how Shakespeare was romantic poet who appreciated a lot of feminine beauty. However, this portrait of Mr. W.H. shatters all the images we had about Shakespeare.
I really enjoyed the mystery to reading "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." It left the reader wondering if we will ever know who boy that Shakespeare's dedicates his poems to was. It did confirm my belief, especially after writing a paper on Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" that perhaps he was writing to a young boy. The sonnet is lighthearted and beautifully written as if it was meant for a pure and youthful person. The story seems to center around the beauty of a young boy. Cyril is described in great detail as being beautiful and feminine and playing all the parts of the women in plays. Maybe why this is why he was so passionate about finding who the boy that served as Shakespeare's muse was. I enjoyed the characters in the story, and I thought it interesting that their convictions switched towards the end, and Erksine ended up with the same fate as Cyril. In my paper I also related Shakespeare's Sonnet to Thomas Mann's, "Death in Venice". It centers around the main characters obsession with a young "god-like" 14-year-old boy. It's a good read!
I really enjoyed the mystery to reading "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." It left the reader wondering if we will ever know who boy that Shakespeare's dedicates his poems to was. It did confirm my belief, especially after writing a paper on Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" that perhaps he was writing to a young boy. The sonnet is lighthearted and beautifully written as if it was meant for a pure and youthful person. The story seems to center around the beauty of a young boy. Cyril is described in great detail as being beautiful and feminine and playing all the parts of the women in plays. Maybe why this is why he was so passionate about finding who the boy that served as Shakespeare's muse was. I enjoyed the characters in the story, and I thought it interesting that their convictions switched towards the end, and Erksine ended up with the same fate as Cyril. In my paper I also related Shakespeare's Sonnet to Thomas Mann's, "Death in Venice". It centers around the main characters obsession with a young "god-like" 14-year-old boy. It's a good read!
I think what I enjoyed most about the story of "The Portrait of Mr. W.H" was again, how it related so closely to a horror movie and or scary story. The notion that this story continues to get passed down and people continue to die just for others to believe it is just fascinating. Similar to tabloids, people get so wrapped up in a story, they being to believe that even fantasy is reality. Relating it back to the story of "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." at what point is this no longer reality? Is it when some may start to believe that Mr. W.H. is non-existent? Or is when people loose faith. Easily compared to tales of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, imagination and the search for the "real" Santa Clause, Easter Bunny or Mr. W.H. is what strives the story to stay alive.
I liked the discussion we had in class about the purpose of this piece, and whether or not Wilde himself considered it relevant that Mr. W.H. was in fact a real person. I would argue that to Wilde, it ultimately did not - personal interpretation and breathing new life and personal meaning into Shakespeare's sonnets was sufficient. I discussed this briefly in my first essay over "Sonnet 20", arguing that it did not matter who Mr. W.H. was, but only the idea that he came to represent for many people; that is, a queer, romantic relationship.
However, I think that the reason people are so interested in specifically identifying and historically proving Mr. W.H. draws from a sense of self-validation. Sort of like when we discussed in class people's tendency to want to "out" celebrities, I think that the idea of proving Mr. W.H. makes people feel assured. Specifically, proving that Mr. W.H. was a romantic interest for Shakespeare may assures queer and straight readers of their own sexuality, and I think may even provide a sense of comfort or normalizing of what society largely dubs as "deviant" behavior.
Being an avid video gamer, "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." brings me back to a certain rumor in a video game about a certain character, this might be long, but just hear me out.
ReplyDelete*Spoilers?* In the video game Final Fantasy VII, one of your main party members throughout the game, a girl named Aerith, is killed about halfway through the adventure in a very shocking twist that still haunts the gaming industry as an incredibly shocking moment.
Shortly afterwards, rumors started appearing everywhere about a way you could revive her. These involved many outlandish adventures, such as beating certain times and going out of your way to get almost impossible materials. Everyone tried and tried, and some even posted "pictures" to say they succeeded in bringing her back. I even heard a few rumors at school that I tried out.
After a while, the Director of the Game came out and said she was supposed to die, and there was nothing you could do to save her. Despite this, people still looked for ways to revive her and are still looking to this day. There's also a web-series that looks into these "pop-fiction" rumors (Gametrailers (dot) com) and it's really interesting.
Anyways, these kind of "theories" like in "The Portrait of W.H." really brought me back to that story, and definitely helped me realize how everyone loves a good rumor, especially if it involves sexuality and something even a tad controversial.
The beautiful thing about new/radical theories or rumors though is that they force interested parties to reconsider the archive (whether Shakespeare's sonnets or the actions in a video game). In "The Portrait of Mr. W H.", both Cyril and the narrator said they spent weeks combing through the sonnets looking for evidence to support their theory. While introducing a forgery into the archive is not without its ethical issues, it is almost as if it breathes new life into a somewhat stagnant archive, stirring back up thought and discussion.
ReplyDeleteI think it's my general intrigue with anything Shakespeare that drew me into Wilde's "Portrait of Mr. W. H." Nonetheless, this was a rather interesting read. Perhaps it was Wilde's storytelling skills, but I occasionally caught myself impatiently asking, "Well, is it??" I suppose that's what makes rumors so...riveting.
ReplyDeleteTake celebrity gossip, for instance. I know I'm not alone when I admit to being a tabloid junky. Yeah, I wait in line at the grocery store, eating up every word concerning new celebrity hook-ups, break-ups, and make-ups. Yeah, I read those undeniably pointless Yahoo! "news" updates, and I'll be honest, I conduct extensive research into every last claim.
And, yes, I do have that much time.
What I find interesting, more than ever after reading this excerpt, is that I understand I will NEVER know fact from fiction when it comes to celebrity news; yet, I still have an insatiable thirst for it. And, like Cyril, I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time researching these loose ends, but unlike Cyril, I am not willing to offer my "life as a sacrifice" (Wilde 152) to this obsession.
Regardless, Cyril's quest for the truth is a fixation that transcends into modern society. And the fact is, it's a fixation we are all familiar with.
This is slightly tangential to the above comments, but I have always been confronted (and even taken part, sadly) in the fascination that stems from one's sexuality. This is especially relevant to cases like Gabriela's, when people obsess over celebrities.
ReplyDeleteI feel like there is a certain pressure in the gay community to PROVE that someone is gay, or has had gay experiences. I think it's validating to the "accuser" (who is usually gay) to prove that someone else is gay. There are a few reasons for this, I believe. I think a big one is that if someone is popular or famous, people naturally want to "knock them down a peg", and proving their sexuality can be a big one.
It's kind of saddening that that is the attitude behind this, rather than understanding the difficulty of coming out and maintaining your place in your social circles.
Did anyone else experience this? Pressure from the GLBT community to come out? Did you feel like it was more for their own validation and NOT for your own development?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Gabriella, I honestly don't understand why both Cyril and Erksine decided to kill themselves. That was incredibly overdramatic. This story does, however, remind me of an author that I thought we would be reading in this class actually.
ReplyDeleteI was curious as to the meaning behind a song by Bat for Lashes called "Laura," so I dug around to see what I could find. The music video revolves around an older transgendered male who the singer continuously tells "you're more than a super star," so I looked into any possible queer-related explanations. I came across one that cited 'Laura' as Laura Albert, a controversial American writer. Albert was largely criticized for publishing her books under the 'persona' of JT LeRoy, a transgendered teen that struggled with prostitution, vagrancy and drug addiction. Albert even took measures to have another person make public appearances as LeRoy, later citing this as an 'avatar.' Although the books were clearly written as fiction rather than memoir, Albert was sued for fraud and was found guilty, causing outrage. The issue of free speech in authorship was brought to attention, and other authors are worried that this decision will "have a chilling effect upon authors wishing to exercise their right to write anonymously." Albert was clearly devastated by the attacks on her art, and her 'phantom limb,' JT LeRoy. She claims that by using LeRoy as a 'veil' rather than a 'hoax' she was able to write things she couldn't as Laura Albert.
The struggle that Laura Albert had to legitimize her work is very much relatable to the struggle that the speaker in "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." faces in coming to terms with whether Cyril's literary theory was valid. I believe, along with the speaker, that "to die for a literary theory" is one of the worst uses a person can make of their life. Rather than placing all of the value of a literary work on who wrote it and who it was secretly written for, the work should be appreciated for its use of poetic elements and its power to make the reader question their own beliefs.
I realized there some missing pages as I was reading the stroy by Oscar Wilde. It didn't prevent me, however, from grasping the grande idea of the Cyril's investigation on who Shakespeare referred Mr. W.H. as. I was surprised to see where Cyril was going with this due to the fact that I was facing the same question writing for the midterm paper. From what i had been told and taught, sonnet 18 writesbeauty or 'love' toward a certain intangible beauty with reference to the nature. But, the thought that Shakespeare was probably going in a different direction with it engulfed me as I take words with aesthetic values as opposed to "reading technique" of Shakespeare's works.
ReplyDeleteMerely looking at the words and dictions of the sonnets would not reveal the sonnet itself. Rather, digging deeper with some radical assumptions would prove to be more convincing. Evidences are there but this Willie Hughes theory is too much for anyone to handle as to whether Shakespeare was "addressing his Ideal Self, or Ideal Manhood.." It provokes some traditional ideas of how Shakespeare was romantic poet who appreciated a lot of feminine beauty. However, this portrait of Mr. W.H. shatters all the images we had about Shakespeare.
I really enjoyed the mystery to reading "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." It left the reader wondering if we will ever know who boy that Shakespeare's dedicates his poems to was. It did confirm my belief, especially after writing a paper on Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" that perhaps he was writing to a young boy. The sonnet is lighthearted and beautifully written as if it was meant for a pure and youthful person. The story seems to center around the beauty of a young boy. Cyril is described in great detail as being beautiful and feminine and playing all the parts of the women in plays. Maybe why this is why he was so passionate about finding who the boy that served as Shakespeare's muse was. I enjoyed the characters in the story, and I thought it interesting that their convictions switched towards the end, and Erksine ended up with the same fate as Cyril. In my paper I also related Shakespeare's Sonnet to Thomas Mann's, "Death in Venice". It centers around the main characters obsession with a young "god-like" 14-year-old boy. It's a good read!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the mystery to reading "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." It left the reader wondering if we will ever know who boy that Shakespeare's dedicates his poems to was. It did confirm my belief, especially after writing a paper on Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" that perhaps he was writing to a young boy. The sonnet is lighthearted and beautifully written as if it was meant for a pure and youthful person. The story seems to center around the beauty of a young boy. Cyril is described in great detail as being beautiful and feminine and playing all the parts of the women in plays. Maybe why this is why he was so passionate about finding who the boy that served as Shakespeare's muse was. I enjoyed the characters in the story, and I thought it interesting that their convictions switched towards the end, and Erksine ended up with the same fate as Cyril. In my paper I also related Shakespeare's Sonnet to Thomas Mann's, "Death in Venice". It centers around the main characters obsession with a young "god-like" 14-year-old boy. It's a good read!
ReplyDeleteI think what I enjoyed most about the story of "The Portrait of Mr. W.H" was again, how it related so closely to a horror movie and or scary story. The notion that this story continues to get passed down and people continue to die just for others to believe it is just fascinating. Similar to tabloids, people get so wrapped up in a story, they being to believe that even fantasy is reality. Relating it back to the story of "The Portrait of Mr. W.H." at what point is this no longer reality? Is it when some may start to believe that Mr. W.H. is non-existent? Or is when people loose faith. Easily compared to tales of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, imagination and the search for the "real" Santa Clause, Easter Bunny or Mr. W.H. is what strives the story to stay alive.
ReplyDeleteI liked the discussion we had in class about the purpose of this piece, and whether or not Wilde himself considered it relevant that Mr. W.H. was in fact a real person. I would argue that to Wilde, it ultimately did not - personal interpretation and breathing new life and personal meaning into Shakespeare's sonnets was sufficient. I discussed this briefly in my first essay over "Sonnet 20", arguing that it did not matter who Mr. W.H. was, but only the idea that he came to represent for many people; that is, a queer, romantic relationship.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that the reason people are so interested in specifically identifying and historically proving Mr. W.H. draws from a sense of self-validation. Sort of like when we discussed in class people's tendency to want to "out" celebrities, I think that the idea of proving Mr. W.H. makes people feel assured. Specifically, proving that Mr. W.H. was a romantic interest for Shakespeare may assures queer and straight readers of their own sexuality, and I think may even provide a sense of comfort or normalizing of what society largely dubs as "deviant" behavior.