j

english 311g | research portfolio | jake meador

a dialoguere*

The intent of th

is project w

as to explore th

e various w

ays Wild

e and Goethe understood art

and romanticism

. The cover art was in

spired by sim

ilar work by a graphic desig

ner named

David Carson. A

s I consid

ered the project, I

realized that I w

as dealin

g with tw

o men very

much dedicated to art b

ut who worked th

rough strictly

literary m

ethods – or at le

ast they

are known for th

eir literature. So with

the project I w

anted to experim

ent with

blending

the line betw

een text –

the m

edium of Wild

e and Goethe – and visual art,

which introduces

new ways of sp

eaking of art. The cover e

specially is driv

en by the idea of u

sing te

xt as a

rt,

not for it

’s communicativ

e power (something explored m

ore fully in th

e portfolio its

elf ) but

merely on an aesthetic level. W

hat happens if

you arrange lette

rs in different w

ays? We’re

used to arra

nging them in lin

es to create words. B

ut what if

we stack th

em? Or sc

ramble

them? The re

sult is less c

lear, to be su

re, but is it p

erhaps more compellin

g? It all c

omes

down to so

mething Carson sa

id – “Don’t m

istake legibilit

y for communicatio

n.”

about 2

cont

ent

3

02 - ex-planation of cover

03 - toc

j

ere

thidiffntly

04/05 - goethein brief

06/07 - wilde in brief

08/09 - in their own words

10/13 - in dialogue14/15- (citations) and explanation

nk

4

Goethe’s Wurther 5Goethe’s literature represents the early move to romanticism near the end of the 18th century, a time in which the neo-classicism of Pope and Swift is only recently passed. Neo-classicism treated art in a more scientific fashion - a good pastoral poem adhered to the rules of pastoral poems and its merits were based on the extent to which it was able to do that successfully. Emotionalism was treated with suspi-cion by these writers. In fact, the excesses of popular movements like the Methodists was reviled by British satirists, like Hogarth.

Into this world of order and propriety stepped Goethe, who said of Wurther that he killed Wurther to save himself. It is difficult to overstate what a radical departure from convention Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther truly was. It exalted the emotional. In fact, the novel simply wouldn’t exist if it assumed a neo-classical attitude toward emotions. More than that, the novel exalted in the mundane. Neo-classicism retained a more traditional approach to heroes, always exalting kings, lords, or other forms of nobility. In Goethe’s romanticism, that entire structure is discarded and a love of the ordinary replaces it. This is seen in a broad overview of the era’s art and in Goethe’s work specifically. Consider Wordsworth’s pastoral poem “Michael,” which focuses on an ordinary man rather than a classical god or hero. Looking at Goethe’s novel, you see the same interest in the banal. What inspires Wurther’s love for Charlotte are ordinary things - seeing how she relates to children, how tender she is in her interactions with invalids. One might even describe this beauty as sacramental in that it is a physical representation of what is, to Goethe, divine realities. Descriptions of her physical appearance are actually scant, what Goethe focuses on is the beauty of her character seen in her interactions with others. For much of the novel it is this beauty that is the chief motivation in all of Wurther’s actions.

What is going on, then, is an exaltation of beauty as that which motivates our actions, driving us to behave in certain ways. The concept of behaving in a given way simply because that is the proper way of behaving is quickly dissipating. To Goethe it would be absurd to compose a poem in a given style simply because that’s the societal expectation or because that’s the way it’s always been done.

As if he needed to prove the extent of his devotion to beauty, Goethe creates a character who through-out the novel speaks of suicide in neutral - if not outright positive - terms, as if there’s nothing signifi-cantly wrong with the act itself, should one ever feel compelled to such action. But he explains that Charlotte’s singing and the possibility of gaining her affection motivates him to go on living. When he realizes he will never win her heart, then the only logical response is suicide. That which sustains him has been taken away, so the only reasonable behavior is suicide. Charlotte even seems to understand this since she is the one who gets the pistols off the mantle and gives them to Wurther’s servant.

Here we can even return to the language of sacrament - physical behaviors meant to represent deeper realities. Wurther’s source of life is gone, so it only makes sense that his physical life would end. Indeed, it seems Goethe himself wants us to make this sacramental connection, making bread and wine the final meal Wurther has before shooting himself.

6Wilde’s Lord HenryThe transition from Goethe to Wilde might be likened to the transition from modern certainty to post-modern relativity. In one sense, it represents a complete and utter deparature from what came before. Yet in another sense it is actually the most extreme form of what preceded it. In the case of post-modern relativity, it is often held to with a very modern sort of dogmatic certainty, despite the fact that relativity seems like a complete rejection of rigid certainty. In the case of Wilde it is the value of art that has been so exalted, all other possible values dissipate. On one level, this seems like a total repudiation of Goethe’s romanticism, which saw art and beauty as the source of meaning and significance in the world. The value of the world is inextricably linked to beauty. Wilde completely rejects such an idea because art should not be subjected to such utilitarian ends. But Wilde has merely taken the romantic worship of beauty and isolated it from its real world context. And that is why art cannot give value to life. Indeed, the concept of value itself seems to disappear in Wilde’s preface quoted on the following spread. It is only that which is useless that ought to be praised, and indeed, “all art is quite useless.”

Wilde’s characters reflect this unabated devotion to beauty, principally through Lord Henry who then imparts his convictions - if they may be called by such a bourgeois phrase - to Dorian Gray.

For this project, I wanted to develop a couple ideas from Wilde. First, I wanted to experiment with what his beliefs might do to someone like Wurther. Wurther doesn’t realize it, but Wilde has simply taken his affection for beauty and detached it from its original setting. Wilde is just as devoted to beauty as Wurther/Goethe - he just doesn’t understand why anyone would do something as bizarre as give their life for it. To him, the two are totally unre-lated. Second, I wanted to juxtapose Goethe’s understanding of beauty with Wilde’s fondness for art, a fondness which leads him to place art in a vacuum. Nothing else exists, so to speak, so Wilde gives himself to art. For Goethe, beauty illuminates everything else, animating it and chasing the darkness of life away. It is Wurther’s adoration of the beautiful Charlotte that sustains him for the latter half of the novel until he kills himself, though one could even argue that Charlotte kills him - after all, she it is who rejects his final advance and it is Charlotte who gives the pis-tols to Wurther’s servant, fully aware of what he intended to do. Wilde, on the other hand, sees art simply as exist-ing on its own terms, so he becomes a major proponent of “art for art’s sake,” and says in the preface to Dorian Gray that a book is either well written or badly written and “that is all.”

In writing it, my main challenge with Wilde was replicating the inimicable voice of Lord Henry Wotton, one of the most quotable characters in English literature. In trying to understand him I came to a few conclusions: First, Lord Henry is a character that beauty has completely emancipated from the emotional excesses of someone like Wurther. So he can debate the most profound topics and do it all with a light, flippant air. This realization liberated me to focus more on the stylistic elements of the character rather than the actual ideas being presented. Lord Henry is not the sort of character who is thoroughly consistent in presenting his ideas - this immunity to all forms of vulneraability or weakness invites flippancy, which invites contradiction. Second, Lord Henry’s epigrams serve a couple functions - first, they simply provide a short statement of belief. Next, they make that belief memo-rable. Finally, they epitomize that belief by conveying fondness for beauty in a rhetorically beautiful phrase. In other words, his language is always working on a variety of different levels.

With all these considerations in mind, I began to write Henry’s character, focusing on style primarily with secondary concerns for the ideas being expressed.

7

The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

the world of wilde8

the world of wurther9

How my heart beats when by accident I touch her finger, or my feet meet hers under the table! I draw back as if from a furnace; but a secret force impels me forward again, and my senses become disordered. Her innocent, unconscious heart never knows what agony these little familiarities inflict upon me. Sometimes when we are talking she lays her hand upon mine, and in the eagerness of conversation comes closer to me, and her balmy breath reaches my lips,- when I feel as if lightning had struck me, and that I could sink into the earth. And yet, Wilhelm, with all this heavenly confidence, - if I know myself, and should ever dare - you understand me. No, no! my heart is not so corrupt,- it is weak, weak enough - but is not that a degree of corruption? She is to me a sacred being. All passion is still in her presence: I cannot express my sensations when I am near her. I feel as if my soul beat in every nerve of my body. There is a melody which she plays on the piano with angelic skill, - so simple is it, and yet so spiritual! It is her favorite air; and, when she plays the first note, all pain, care, and sorrow disappear from me in a moment. I believe every word that is said of the magic of ancient music. How her simple song enchants me! Sometimes, when I am ready to commit suicide, she sings that air; and instantly the gloom and madness which hung over me are dispersed, and I breathe freely again.”

Having become the possessor of this document through a strange coincidence of friendship with those involved, I feel compelled to justify my possession of these records as well as explain the manner of how they came to exist. I first met the youth Wurther when he came by my studio inquiring as to the possibility of having a portrait made. However it was not long till the precocious youth turned our discussion toward other matters – art, romance, beauty, and the like. Having many opinions on the subject, we soon fell into comfortable discourse, him praising the works of Goethe and Wordsworth, while I extolled the virtues of the painting of Joseph Turner. From these conversations, we quickly developed a fondness for each other, as the amiable young lad paid me frequent visits in the coming weeks. On one occasion, my friend Lord Henry Wotton was also in the studio, and the two soon began to discourse on the arts and the nature of beauty. As the following will make abundantly clear, the two seldom agreed, yet maintained a warm relationship despite it. Wurther seemed to admire Harry’s resolutely-held opinions, perhaps finding some sort of comfort in such inflexible conviction – even though it differed greatly from his own beliefs. The following is a brief sample of their discourse. After some time, Wurther returned to Germany. He reported wishing to visit his friend Wilhelm. I received occasional letters from him after his departure. The first several were rather analytical in nature, probing meditations about the nature of art and beauty, a topic that you by now realize we were both partial to. He also spoke of a woman named Leonora, reporting an unfortunate misunderstanding with her that compelled him to leave Wilhelm. After that, his letters became more infrequent. Of the few we received, I seldom believed them to be genuine. They certainly possessed the warmth and passion of my friend, yet they were more erratic in nature. He reported meeting a woman named Charlotte and both the contents and the tone of the letters reflected his deeply-rooted – nay, mad – affection for her. I was deeply saddened to learn recently of his suicide. I received a brief letter from Wilhelm, to whom he had mentioned me on several occasions, explaining the nature of Wurther’s tragic demise. In the letter Wilhelm mentioned his desire to publish the letters he received from Wurther beginning after his departure following the unfortunate episode with Leonora. Upon learning of these plans, I thought it may be helpful to also make public the conversations I was audience to between he and my friend Harry. Perhaps in their reading the public may learn something of the maddening power of unrequited love and in so doing might learn something of the discipline one must have in pursuit of beauty. A lack of discipline in these matters – perhaps we might call it disciplining one’s heart – can be fatal, as my dear friend’s suicide proves.

Reader, my hope for you is that you may learn from Wurther’s sorrows and save yourself from similar experiences. Already reports are reaching my ears of similarly-distraught youths killing themselves in like fashion. May these dialogues spare you from a similar fate. One final addendum I wish to add – while I find the detached opinions of my dear friend Harry to be a helpful corrective to the excesses of Wurther, I do not unambiguously endorse them. It seems to me that my friend represents the opposite error of Wurther – a complete and total immunity to human emotion. I do not commend such excesses of either kind to my readers.

- Basel Hallward, 18— 10

“My dear Basel, you simply must read this lovely poem I’ve found. It is another of Goethe’s and it is simply remark-”“Not right now Wurther! I’m terribly sorry, but I’m finishing an important project and cannot be bothered with another of your poets – though I’m sure it’s a marvelous poem.”As the sound of my words still hung on the air, my friend Lord Henry Wotton entered the room, sat down and promptly began to smoke a pipe. Between puffs he greeted me, inquiring about my current project. Being unwilling to allow yet another unwelcome visitor to distract me, I promptly introduced the two men and asked both of them to entertain the other while I finished my project. I then subtly escorted them out of my studio into a neighboring drawing room and directed them to the fireplace, where a kettle of tea hung. At that point I left the room, upon my return in hour later, I found them plunged into conversation about the nature of beauty, which I have recorded below to the best of my ability:

“You think her beautiful?” asked Lord Henry.

“The most beautiful woman in the world,” responded Wurther.

“Well then my lad, it’s quite simple. You must never again see her or speak to her.”

“But I just told you I consider her the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“Precisely, my naïve friend. If you wish her to stay so, you must avoid her. The easiest way to destroy beauty is trying to own it.”

“But her beauty is all that compels me to continue living. Were I not willing to die for it in my quest to win her heart, I would not be willing to live.”

“But of course, it is a fine thing to strive to win the heart of a beautiful women. The only thing more difficult is losing it after it’s been won.”

“I am growing tired of your aphorisms Lord Wotton.”

“Please, call me Harry, it’s what everyone calls me – even Basel, and we both know he is not one for informality.”

“Very well, but I still tire of your cynicism. Beauty is precious; it is light. Should we not be willing to die for it?”

“You misunderstand beauty.”

“How so?” 11

“That for which one would die cannot in any sense be considered beautiful. It is only for ugly things that we die.”

“You lie.”

“Not at all,” said Lord Henry with a carefree laugh as he took a puff of his cigar.

“Beauty is without meaning, it simply is. And as such, it is only to be admired for its uselessness. There is nothing more foolish than to die for art’s sake. One should neither live nor die for art, doing either is ascribing a moral value to it, but once that is done, art ceases to be. It is only the ugly, detestable things of the world for which one will die – silly things like one’s idealistic conception of ‘ethics’ or – blissful phrase – “for love”! Always be wary of those who would tell you what to live for – the only people willing to make such statements are those who have not learned how to live their own lives yet still believe themselves qualified to demand certain behaviors from others.”

“Oh Henry, how I pity you! If you cannot live for beauty, it is of no value. Beauty’s value is in its ability to fill our souls till they are ready to burst – and, wonder of wonders, sometimes they do! Should I ever encounter such beauty I should dedicate my life to its enjoyment and adoration! I should write the finest ballads ever written for her, oh, the paintings I would paint! They would become the standard by which all art is judged. But they would only be so because the women they were given to would be the epitome of human delicacy and elegance – in a word, beauty.”

“You poor fool… you limit beauty to being the consequence of love and then insist that art be judged by its ability to replicate the outcome of that love. Surely you see there is nothing more destructive to beauty than love?”

“Again you resort to aphorism to hide the threadbare nature of your defense! Where you resort to aphorism to defend your convictions, I willingly would write mine in my own blood, should it ever come to that!”

“Only great truths merit short arguments. Never trust a man incapable of explaining himself in a sentence. Such men are guilty of the greatest imaginable sin.”

“At last you speak of something being good or bad. And what is their sin, Harry?”

“Boredom. The only ones to whom much time should be given are those who have no use for it. If a man cannot express himself in one minute, then you certainly should never give him thirty. Conversely, the man able to state his beliefs in seconds is worth giving a great deal of time to – for that time will be put to its best use – uselessness.”

12

At this point, there was finally a pause in the conversation as both men noticed my presence and Wurther sighed deeply. “Your friend is great fun Basel, you must invite him more often,” said Harry. “My home and time are eternally at your disposal,” I responded. Wurther – who was visibly agitated – then made his way toward me, shook my hand briefly and left without another word. “You’ve been filling his poor head with your rotten theories again, Harry. You should be gentle with him.” “It is only the vulnerable that merit such force, Basel.”I sighed, knowing that Harry’s resolute cynicism could not be shaken, no matter what way I tried appealing to him. The man was immune to all manner of human emotion and spoke only in epigrams. I had accepted this long ago. “So did you finish the project?” Henry asked. I told him that I had, which then led to him asking me what my next project would be.“A private portrait, actually. I’m quite excited for this project.”“And why is that?” asked Lord Henry.“I’ve only met the subject once, but there’s something about him… a sort of sublime innocence that I find stunning,” I said. “He must never meet you, I’m afraid. You would ruin him!”“We are never ruined by other people Basel, it is only our own humility and meekness that ruins us. You know that. Might I ask the boy’s name?”“Dorian Gray,” I replied.

13

An explanation of the project:My goals in this project were two-fold: 1) To reiterate what was discussed this semester in terms of the value and intent of art and 2) to reimagine some of that by trying to apply the underlying concepts of the era - namely a desire to challenge traditional standards by pushing - or sometimes altogether ignoring - generally-accepted boundaries. Because of the idea of redoing, reimagining, reiterating, and the like, I titled the project “Re*, a Dialogue” as indicated on the cover.

To accomplish these goals, I brought in an outside artist - Wilde - who wrestled with similar issues but came to different conclusions and then tried to approach the goals from several angles. First, I wanted a visual element that communicated the intent of the project effectively. For this part of the project, I turned to graphic designer David Carson’s work. Principally I drew on his work in his book The End of Print and also looked at some samples of his work I found online. He provided the inspiration for the cover and the distinc-tive use of text I went for throughout the project. Additionally, the project is using the idea discussed by Mar-shall McLuhan that, “The Medium is the Message.” Put another way, I tried to break down the distinction between design aestethic and rhetorical content. To accomplish this, I tried using text as art, which is seen especially on my cover design and on page 3, where I essentially reverse everything about the cover for my table of contents. What surprised me about pursuing this visual aspect is the way the project took on a life of its own through the use of art. When I was designing the last page, I found myself at a loss as to how to handle it. So I decided to just play with the rough circles design I used on page 2. It looked decent but it still felt empty. So I then decided, “it’s the last page, let’s put the endings of both novels in there.” When I did that, I realized both novels end with the protagonist - who has exaggerated the author’s ideals - committing suicide. That struck me as an interesting feature I had to comment on in some way. The route I then adopted was to use text to communicate the message propositionally and artistically. The text reads “the shared fate of the aesthete and the romantic.” That sums up the point nicely, but to reinforce it I arranged the text to look like chains that are joining the two circles, which now become manacles. This then indicates the trapping effect of ideals taken too far and also harkens back to Blake’s line describing “mind forg’d manacles.”

The second angle I tried to develop was simply describing the artists themselves. I included pictures because I find it generally helps if we see an image of the artist before discussing them - it reinforces their humanity and quite literally gives a face to the ideas being discussed. In both one page sketches I wanted to get at some of the key ideas being presented by both men in their respective texts. For Goethe, I wanted to look at ideas about art and life - because I don’t think the two can be separated for Goethe - expressed in The Sorrows of Young Werther and for Wilde I wanted to look at similar ideas in The Picture of Dorian Gray. With that context established, the next two pages are meant to let both authors speak for themselves, through the use of excerpts from the selected texts. The final angle I then develop in the project is the dialogue printed on the concluding pages.

14

15

(citations)• Carson, David. The End of Print. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001.• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther. Mineola ,

NY: Dover Publications, 2002.• Lasn, Kalle. Design Anarchy. Vancouver: Adbusters Media, 2006.• Philipps, Davidj P. "The Werther Effect." Sciences 25, no. 4 (July/August

1985): 33-41.• Valiunas, Algis. "Goethe's Magnificent Self." Commentary 125, no. 1

(January 2008): 45-49.• Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Barnes and Noble

Classics, 2003.

With the dialogue, I had a few considerations in mind as I developed it: First, I wanted to write it in a style that complemented the era. For that reason, I opted to treat it as a narrative being presented by Basel Hallward, a main character in Wilde’s novel. I opted to place Wurther in Wilde’s context rather than Hallward and Wotton in Goethe’s because I felt that by moving it forward I had more options in terms of historical development - simply put, more had happened by the time of Wilde so it seemed advantageous to bump Wurther up 100 years, then pulling Wilde’s characters back a century. Additionally, by bringing in Basel, I could introduce a third perspective, besides the two rather extreme views advocated by Lord Henry and Wurther. Basel is an exceedingly moderate character in Wilde’s novel and so he was an ideal foil to the emotional excess of Wurther and the detached cynicism of Henry. Once I had finished Basel’s preface, the challenge was writing in a way that still sounded like something from the period and especially finding a way to replicate the inimicable voice of Lord Henry. The man spoke in aphorisms and I found this part of the project to be very difficult. However, after some time working on it, I felt reasonably comfortable with the product. The goal of the final dialogue was to present in narrative form what had already been presented visually, in the author briefs, and in the excerpts from the authors - the varying ideas about art and beauty that we have looked at during the semester.

In terms of resources used, a full list is below, but a brief summary would be that I used several journal articles, a few magazine articles, a couple books about design and - obviously - my personal copies of Goethe and Wilde’s texts.

“When they entered they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loath-some of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.”

A neighbour saw the flash, and heard the report of the pistol; but, as everything remained quiet, he thought no more of it...

his pulse beat but his limbs were cold...

The steward and his sons followed the corpse to the grave. Albert was unable to accompany them. Charlotte’s life was despaired of. The body was carried by labourers. No priest attended.

the sharedfates of the aesthete

and the romantic