Will Self on Oscar Wilde, Part One (Great Lives on BBC Radio 4)

Will Self nominates Oscar Wilde. He and Matthew are joined by Franny Moyle, author of a biography of Oscar Wilde's wife. Actor Simon Russell Beale reads Wilde's De Profundis.

[@Jeremyramone]

thanks kindly for sharing these videos, two of my favorite writers. cheers from san diego

[@TheChannelofaDisappointedMan]

"The letter wrote from Reading gaol..." Wrote *in* Reading gaol, but sent *after* Wilde's release.

[@stephenconlon653]

He was a one-off

[@MrDoremouse]

Oscar Wilde was Irish. Will Self isn't !

[@thomasallan3187]

I never said will self was Irish . I don't even know the guy . I only came across his name recently . What gets me is how you and your gay boyfriend's are going Wilde to bend over backwards to defend Wilde .

[@thebohemian.]

Will Self is unfriendly, yukky person. I have had the misfortune of meeting him three times.

[@jalijali8448]

@@thebohemian. Why didn't you avoid him after the first time?

[@thebohemian.]

Jali Jali because it was part of my job! He came to the archive centre I work at.

[@thomasallan3187]

In this excerpt alone from Wilde's De profundus, he admits he was perverted . What is so difficult for his devotees to accept him on his own words ? As for asserting that Victorian attitudes were hypocritical towards sodomy ; no they were not . The same " attitude " prevails to this day the world over. So it is not heterosexuals who are " Victorian " , supposedly to mean that straight people are old fashioned or out of date with " modern thinking " is itself well out of date . what we have here is celebrities pandering to trendies in order to be acceptable to an audience for their own trendy ends . And there is nothing at all modern in that .

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

He doesn't admit he was perverted, he says he descended into perversity. By that he doesn't mean homosexuality, he meant sordid casual sex rather than a loving relationship. You've twisted and misunderstood his words to suit your own agenda.

[@thomasallan3187]

Wilde is responsible for " twisting " his own words to suit himself . I don't have any " agenda " . I couldn't care less about the dead poet . As for saying he wasn't a pervert, but " descended " into perversity, you are hardly exonerating his memory . In fact you are only stating what the pervert stated for himself .

[@thomasallan3187]

In fact I just remembered, Bosie Douglas and other friends of Wildes petitioned the queen to have mercy on him as he was a victim of a a horrible mental illness called " erotomania " ! And this of course was what Wilde wanted people to believe . In other words , he was a pervert and needed care and attention for his terrible " illness " never mind his victims . The queen of course ignored the petition .

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

You keep calling him a pervert but you haven't established he was one. You clearly do have an agenda, the Homophobia Agenda. And Wilde did not twist his own words - that doesn't make sense. He used words to express what he meant. Twisting people's words can only be done by others. And if you couldn't care less about Wilde, may I suggest you don't post comments on videos about him and in fact don't watch them in the first place?

[@thomasallan3187]

Just as you are attempting to twist my words . You obviously love the pervert .