Love in the Time of Banned Books #13 | "Here and Queer: Oscar Wilde's Aphorisms In Defense Of Gay Literature" by Madeline Rosales
- julian32019
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
Art by Pooja Verma
"Here and Queer: Oscar Wilde's Aphorisms In Defense Of Gay Literature" by Madeline Rosales
"She Will Hang the Night with Stars" by Pooja Verma
Note: This piece was previously published on the artist's social media feed: https://www.instagram.com/magnolia._stars/
Pooja Verma is a junior at Irvington High School in the Bay Area and adores painting with acrylic paint and even watercolor, striving to tell intimate stories that only art can convey. In her self-taught artistic journey, Pooja has garnered publications in a myriad of literary magazines (like Polyphony Lit- she's so excited to be involved with this project!), received the Special Award for visual art in the Bay Area Creative Youth Foundation's awards, and even recently gotten an Honorable mention from Scholastic Art and Writing awards for poetry! Aside from these types of art, she is a multi-international award-winning classical flautist and musician, spreading her creative expression by multiple means :)
"Here and Queer: Oscar Wilde's Aphorisms in Defense of Gay Literature"
by Madeline Rosales
Oscar Wilde was nothing less than a romantic visionary. Unmatched wit. Flamboyant in nature. An absurd fashion sense. His embrace of 19th century queer identification and culture was a focal point of his nature, thus his artistry. These fascinating inclinations were embodied brilliantly in his magnum opus, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a story which speaks unapologetically to the artistic soul with conviction and eloquence.
However, it was his queer identity that was the catalyst for his unjust downfall. In 1895, Oscar Wilde was tried and imprisoned for “gross indecencies,” accused of being a sodomite and soliciting young male prostitutes. It is said that when the jury admitted its guilty verdict, some in the courtroom exclaimed "Shame!" in celebration. After serving his time, Wilde commented on behalf of his shame “on having led a life unworthy of an artist.”
Wilde’s 1800s audience was beyond eager to enjoy the spoils of his extravagance and flamboyance until it disagreed with their sensibilities. His modern audience is no different.
There are currently circulating works of Oscar Wilde’s that are heavily edited to remove any parts that may suggest queer characters or relationships. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a stolen story — it has been gutted of the themes his readers dislike, the themes that challenge their beliefs, leaving only what they can weaponize to pretend that every author and literary character was perfectly heterosexual and fit their paragon of moral purity.
Banned literature, in a broader context, has seen no improvement as well. In 2021 and 2022, the American Library Association reported record-breaking attempts to ban books and more than 30% of the titles challenged included LGBTQ themes. And in the first eight months of 2023, more than 47% of challenges targeted LGBTQ titles, preliminary data shows. Have we truly not yet become more socially progressed enough since Wilde’s time? Are we still limited by the derision of a condemnatory society? And what would Wilde himself discern about the current state of purity in literature? The only clues we have to point us towards that answer are his comments from his short series of trials and his De Profundis. However considerably brief, these comments are utterly eloquent and powerful, and thus definitely capable of withstanding two major themes of censorship in the 21st century.
On Shame
Ricardo Martinez, CEO of LGBTQ+ political advocacy organization Equality Texas, commented, “Book bans internalize a sense of shame and isolation within young LGBTQ+ people, especially as many struggle to find self-acceptance and self-love.”
Oscar Wilde similarly once wrote, “To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
Wilde’s hedonistic tendencies were not unknown to the public during his lifetime. In fact, it seemed as only another feather in his cap. Why one should feel ashamed for enjoying joy and pleasure when it is presented was unfathomable to him. So it’s conclusive that to the feelings of shame purported to LGBTQ+ youth, Oscar Wilde would question why some individuals take it upon themselves to adamantly keep others from enjoyment.
It’s become socially accepted for communities to be shamed for finding love and happiness in unapproved sources. But who decides what is “unapproved?” What constitutes a love that is worth loving? Why should it be reasonable for an individual to repress their happiness for reasons they don’t fully understand?
Let LGBTQ+ youth love themselves at will. What a horrible sort of social reality we are living in, in which we choose to hate love of all things.
On Sexual Topics
The Washington Post notes, “The top reason people challenged books was “sexual” content; 61 percent of challenges referenced this concern.”
However, Oscar Wilde refutes, “[This love] is beautiful, it is fine … There is nothing unnatural about it.”
In the 21st century, “unnatural” tends to connote any form of physical intimacy that deviates from heteronormativity. While it’s understandable that parents should be wary of the graphic content available publicly, it’s equally understandable as to why this argument fails to extend as far as some outspoken critics of sexual content in books believe it should. Heterosexual intimacy is frequent, almost expected, in most literature, and while there are some cases in which books have been contested for such content, they are hardly ever banned.
If we bear in mind that heterosexual intimacy belongs in commonplace media, then why should we assume anything different for homosexual intimacy? They’re about equally natural; policies to condemn queer writers are not entirely condemning sexual content, only depictions of homosexual content.
During Oscar Wilde’s time, even private and consensual acts of homosexuality were illegal—but what is logistically horrible about it? Sexuality isn’t a planet one can stake their flag upon, rather it’s a medium to express affection. Men, women, and everyone in-between should have every right to experience and write about such affection.
To Close
Homosexuality will exist regardless of public opinion: it can not be eradicated nor genocided. So long as there is human life, there is love, and there is a woman who loves another woman and a man who loves another man. And they can take comfort in the knowledge that their sexuality need not defend itself from a society that has already made its judgment.
As Oscar Wilde put it, “Society, as we have constituted it, will have no place for me, has none to offer; but Nature, whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undisturbed. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.”
Footnotes
1: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/us/queer-liberation-library-combats-lgbtq-book-bans-reaj/index.html
About "Love in the Time of Banned Books"
In this series, we seek to celebrate LGBTQ+ identities and experiences, while critically examining book bans and how they impact the LGBTQ+ community.
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