#istg i have heard the exact same sentiments leveled at fanwriters

[ripeteeth]

This dude would have loveddddd purity culture in fandom today.

“Mr. Oscar Wilde has again been writing stuff that were better unwritten; and while The Picture of Dorian Gray, which he contributes to Lipincott’s, is ingenious, interesting, full of cleverness, plainly the work of a man of letters, it is false art — for its interest is medico-legal; it is false to human nature — for its hero is a devil; for it is false to morality — for it is not made sufficiently clear that the writer does not prefer a course of unnatural inequity to a life of cleanliness, health, and sanity. The story — which deals with matters only fitted for the Criminal Investigation Department or a hearing […].”

Notice in the Scots Observer, edited by W.E. Henley