thepalaceofsans-souci

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

The lab tech who took seven vials of my blood gently grabbed my arm as I left the room she said “Boy, you look 12. Hold on to your youth.” and I can’t stop thinking about that? Like the phlebotomists was telling the truth but what made her think of it?

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Gay people have a very long and proud history of not being able to sit down properly in chairs. It can be argued that Oscar Wilde in fact was fundamental in the creation of this aspect of gay culture. In this essay, I will

Wilde we know you’re gay but please

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

how I feel about Oscar Wilde

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Hedonism as a concept is so dope and yall gotta unbrainwash your religious upbringing nostalgia and realize that life IS about kicking back and eating grapes around a fire in nothing but a swim suit and drinking margaritas. A little hedonism never hurt nobody

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

“I love you, I love you, my heart is a rose which your love has brought to bloom, my life is a desert fanned by the delicious breeze of your breath, and whose cool springs are your eyes; the imprint of your little feet makes valleys of shade for me, the odour of your hair is like myrrh, and wherever you go you exhale the perfumes of the cassia tree. Love me always, love me always. You have been the supreme, the perfect love of my life; there can be no other.”

— Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas, 20 May 1895 (via fuckyeahhistoricalloveletters)

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

So I was just thinking about the ending of The Picture of Dorian Gray and I feel like there could be more to the stabbing of the painting. I know most people interpret the end as he stabbed the painting and in magic parallel also stabbed himself at the same time, so that the painting turned young and the knife appeared in him.

But what if the cry and the crash heard was Dorian stabbing the painting and nothing happening? Stabbing a visual representation of his sins and corruption would not absolve him of those sins and corruption, and it wouldn’t make his knowledge of them disappear, and it wouldn’t magic their consequences away. By stabbing the painting, he tried to kill the painter’s work, but really it was his own (and Henry’s) doing that made him what he is, not Hallward’s.

So what if he stabbed the painting and nothing happened, so he turned the knife on himself? The only true way to get rid of his sins and conscience would be to get rid of the self that houses it, not the visual reminder of it. And when he does that, the painting is then purified back to its original state, not because he tried to destroy the painting, but because he turned the knife on himself and destroyed the soul to which the painting was attached and therefore representing.

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

“What is a healthy, or an unhealthy work of art? […] From the point of view of subject, a healthy work of art is one the choice of whose subject is conditioned by the temperament of the artist, and comes directly out of it. […] An unhealthy work of art, on the other hand, is a work whose style is obvious, old-fashioned, and common, and whose subject is deliberately chosen, not because the artist has any pleasure in it, but because he thinks that the public will pay him for it. In fact, the popular novel that the public calls healthy is always a thoroughly unhealthy production; what the public call an unhealthy novel is always a beautiful and healthy work of art.”

— Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Have a midlife crisis at the tender age of 20 after an older man gives you a passionate speech that completely changes your perspective on life and makes you realize you’re hella gay.

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

In fact Vampire Weekend’s whole second album (Contra) is inspired by Brideshead Revisited:

1. The title “contra” is a reference to Sebastian saying that him and Charles are “contra mundum” (ie gay)

2. Julia is mentioned by name in a couple of songs but who gives a fuck

3. Arrows is basically just a retelling of key scenes from brideshead revisited set to the melody of the theme song to the tv series from the 80s

4. Diplomats son is about how two male best friends fuck and it’s about band member Rostam’s relationship with a dude but also is it a coincidence that we find this song on an album loosely based on brideshead revisited?

Also remember how their album was called contra and that this was a reference to Charles and Sebastian being gay?

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Also remember how their album was called contra and that this was a reference to Charles and Sebastian being gay?

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Me about the theme song for brideshead revisited: wow this is a pretty decent remix of Arrows (2008) by Vampire Weekend

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

This is half a joke but also I seriously could not remember her name and had to look it up bc...... gay

Remember when vampire weekend made a song about brideshead revisited and it’s only about the relationship between Sebastian and Charles being gay? Bc I do. Who Juliette? Julienne? Juilliard?

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Remember when vampire weekend made a song about brideshead revisited and it’s only about the relationship between Sebastian and Charles being gay? Bc I do. Who Juliette? Julienne? Juilliard?

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

The imagination will concentrate itself on the waistcoat. Waistcoats will show whether a man can admire poetry or not.

— Oscar Wilde

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

Oscar Wilde’s last words being “either the wallpaper goes, or I do” always makes me laugh cause I imagine it like an interior designer that’s really overprotective of their work just having enough of Oscar’s bullshit

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

*me seeing any body of water larger than a puddle*

sharks in ther.

[thepalaceofsans-souci]

smash or pass; you find the love of your life in your first year of uni & you have two years of absolute bliss together where you sunbathe nude together & shit but it falls apart as he turns to alcoholism & internalised homophobia and the homophobic climate of the 1930s drives you to marry a woman and then treat her like shit and have affairs and even that doesnt work out and youre divorced & serving in wwii and you just miss sebastian flyte so much

fucking S M A S H bc i’m gay and live for the charles ryder aesthetic