
Oscar Wilde’s talk inspired his rise and led to his downfall - lermontov
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/oscar-wilde-s-talk-inspired-his-rise-and-led-to-his-downfall-1.3917086
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DoreenMichele
The 1973 movie _Papillon_ talks a bit about how terrible it is to be sentenced
to silence. It's based on an autobiography and was supposedly fairly accurate,
though it is about a French colonial prison system, not the English system.

My maiden name is Irish in origin. My father was quite the raconteur. My
German mother was one of twelve children. Talk was a very big thing at home
and it seems to get me in plenty of social hot water.

My expectation that online discussion forums are places for in depth
discussion appears to generally be out of step with the expectations of most
denizens of the internet. I've worked at toning it down, but remain baffled
that actually talking with people gets so many negative reactions.

I enjoyed the article. It felt like a tiny slice of my own life reflected back
to me and explained to some degree.

~~~
godzillabrennus
I encourage debate on my Facebook page between differing ideologies because I
grew up in a home where that kind of discourse was not only expected but
encouraged. There are people who start throwing death threats at one another
when they disagree with their ideas.

We are definitely living in interesting times. I remain uneasy about the
future of the freedom I so enjoy.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Yeah, it's also shockingly common for people to hang weird and hostile
interpretations on any statement whatsoever. I have seen conversations that
went roughly:

"I love my hometown of Denver for thus and such features."

"Hey, asshole. Why are you talking trash about my hometown of Columbus,
Ohio?!!!"

Um, dude. He said nothing at all about your city. Get a grip already.

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dnlbyl
> “the golden rule of conversation” was “to know nothing accurately.”

I've witnessed so many fun conversations killed by someone looking up the
facts on their phone.

~~~
dr_dshiv
"Never let facts get in the way of a good story"

~~~
m463
Being factually correct is probably not the best way to get someone to go home
with you.

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rabidrat
> Among the many hardships of prison life, perhaps the greatest for Wilde, was
> the absence of talk. The “silent” system then in operation, condemned men to
> a solitary existence in their cells; and even during the short interludes of
> exercise and divine worship all talking was forbidden. Without talk Wilde
> lost part of his own identity.

The 'silent treatment' of this prison system indeed seems cruel and unusual.

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B1FF_PSUVM
One of the "Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries" by Gyles Brandreth is set in the
convict years of Oscar Wilde, and goes into detail about the prison life.

The period settings seem quite well researched, and are rather grim. But the
writer also managed to make a decent whodunnit out of it.

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bryanrasmussen
Dramatization of the after prison time is also grim - I recommend
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melmoth_(comics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melmoth_\(comics\))

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ncmncm
I always had the feeling, reading Wilde, of him standing in the firelight
surrounded, on all sides, by slavering beasts staring and waiting for him to
stray a just a step too far.

At least HH Munro's end was quick.

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neonate
That's a haunting image, but it's so close to the premise of this classic
Monty Python sketch that my mind leaps immediately to it anyway:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycsfu4574w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycsfu4574w).

~~~
ncmncm
Hadn't seen that. Tx.

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lb1lf
Work is the curse of the drinking class.

-Oscar Wilde.

The man is the undisputed king of one-liners.

~~~
inflatableDodo
_Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else 's opinions,
their lives a mimicry, their passions, a quotation._

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cafard
In his _Autobiographies_ , Yeats is most interesting on Wilde as the talker.

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solidsnack9000
_It is important to keep always in mind that Wilde had been born into a world
of talk. The sound of human voices – vital, informed, humorous, provocative –
flowed around him from the moment of his birth..._

This is such an odd truism. It is like saying a young chef's early life was
redolent with food, or that a young interior decorator was born into a home
filled with furniture.

~~~
coldtea
You'd be surprised how many households have not many "voices" flowing around
-- but silence, solitude, anger, confusion, addiction, and other issues.

And even less have "vital, informed, humorous, provocative" voices flowing.

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arkades
This is true.

Since my first child was born and I suddenly had the responsibility of
modeling conversation so that they could learn to speak, I became acutely
aware of my and my wife’s inclination towards comfortable silences.

