The Picture of Dorian Gray

After reading almost exclusively non fiction this year I decided it was time to start reading some fiction. I had recently read about Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray in several places so thought this may be a good place to start.

The Picture of Dorian Gray tells the story of an extremely good looking young man who make a pact that enables him to keep his youthful looks throughout his life. Instead of him growing older the effects of his life and the effects of his sin are not seen in his body but in a portrait of himself.

Dorian under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton enters into a double life. While maintaining a respectable reputation within society he secretly begins a lifestyle in search of endless pleasures regardless of the cost. With each step further into a depraved life the only outward sign is the painting (that is carefully hidden in his house)becomes more and more aged and marred.

Wilde does have a way with words and their is some very clever and witty writing. At times I feel he gets a bit carried away with philosophical discussion between Lord Henry and Dorian. While some of these are quite amusing as Henry explains his hedonistic view on life, at times they are rather drawn out.

Overall this is a fascinating tale that looks at human nature, sin and the cost of living simply to pleasure oneself.

If anyone is looking to read this I highly recommend getting the Penguin Classic edition as it also includes some interesting articles written about how the book was received when it was released in the late 1800's

In Rainbows - that's how we can see the music world, thanks to Radiohead

The Band of the 90's, was not short-lived Nirvana - but ground-breaking Radiohead. Written off as one-hit wonders after 'creep', they moved onto an album of perfect but un-heralded britpop ('the bends') before releasing the monumental 'ok computer', the album that brought rich desolation, rock and art to the mainstream. So good was it that they've been able to do what they like since - including the jagged electronic rock of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac', the lesser 'hail to the theif', and now their new album 'in rainbows' thats been released as a download first - its also a first for the music industry in that you can buy it for - whatever you like - whatever you think its worth.

I paid 1 pound actually! For this I got every track (Radiohead don't allow for the album to be bought as seperate tracks ala most downloaded music) at a just average quality 160kbps MP3, and without artwork. Like many, I expect I'll buy the real cd wth full quality tracks at a future date, but for now, being able to get the tracks so soon and try them out is brilliant.

So did I get what I'd paid for? No - I got a lot more - 4 stars for this one - beneath the 5 of 'ok computer', but it is really good - with a combination of their jagged electronica and desolate but rich rock - it has jarring moments, but they make the soaring ones so much better - particularly on 'weird fishes', 'jigsaw' and 'all i need'. Some parts sound like bjork, or even some other band doing 90's as the retro sound it'll be in a few years.

So why not drop them a pound yourself, even if just to stick it to the music industry big wigs. For more opinion on the album and its unique release, I'd reccomend the comments at my favourite music blog, horse latitudes, from where you can also find the link to buy the album.
Go here: http://www.horselatitudes.co.uk/

nineteen eighty-four

nineteen eighty-four, by george orwell

you tell yourself that you should read these classic books, and you put it off because even though they are classics you really have no idea what you are going to encounter. i think 'moby dick' has a lot to answer for in this respect. i started reading that book expecting to be absorbed by a rollicking tale of a captain hunting down a particularly nasty white whale. instead, it ended up being 'everything i know about whaling, by herman melville'. terrible tedious stuff with tiny bits of narrative thrown so that melville could claim it was a story. perhaps i've judged too harshly - i never did reach the end (although i intend to one day). but this 'moby dick' gives classics a bad name.

however, i'm into futuristic sci-fi movies and i had an inkling that '1984' was a predecessor to that narrative form. and one day anna was going down to the library and asked if there was anything i wanted. and i thought, "now, what were the books i was going to read?" and i remembered this one.

i started reading it immediately and was pleasantly surprised that 1984 is nothing like moby dick - in fact it is very readable (nearly 200 years of development of the novel form has clearly paid off). it was published the year before orwell died in 1949, and is one of orwell's two most famous novels - the other one being 'animal farm'. as is usual with orwell, the work is very political and allegorical, but that is carried along by good novelistic devices that make the story absorbing.

the book gets a little bit bogged down in one section and part 3 (the last part) is not quite so action-packed. that's all ok though, because the aim of the book is not really to entertainment, but to paint a picture of the distopia that could develop under a socialist totalitarian system. unfortunately the book doesn't have a happy ending, but that suits the story so is probably the best conclusion.

i wouldn't read this if you need cheering up, but if you're into narratives about the future (like me) then definitely get into it. the volume i got was the 'complete novels' and i think i might be back to read more of orwell later.

warandpeace-o-meter: 785/981 (volIII, bookXIII, chapI)