Stephen Fry - The Price of Pleasure

if um Oscar Wilde is the sort of idealized Prince of Bohemia of students and all that kind of good stuff all that kind of garbage yes yeah wait where did this order well it's a sort of corruption in the latter half of Dorian Gray sort of seep into that kind of image if it does at all in your opinion this very very good question him during great so he's this I've raised him up to a picture perfection which no human being could possibly achieve and of course what's extraordinary mad Oscar was that he had the most prophetic gift I think about his own life he instinctively and at base knew all his weaknesses he puts it in De Profundis what were paradoxes to me in the sphere of the mind became per versus perversities to me in the sphere of the body I I became careless of other people and I forgot that the smallest act we do in the darkness is revealed in the light of day he's incredibly hard on himself in De Profundis and extraordinarily in his first and only novel a picture of Dorian Gray he's very hard on himself - he's hard on the set that he represents Lord Henry Wotton is a character that very much is like wild makes his very amusing characters sort of remarks you know you're talking about Americanism you know we have so much in common and he murmurs except of course language and that's the first use of that that's very very sort of common distinction between England in America but he knew that every pleasure must be paid for as it says in Twelfth Night it has its price and you cannot escape that appalling calculus there's kind of scales and and in the Victorian time there were even more clear because of what I mentioned earlier syphilis from which Winston Churchill's father died was one of the most glorious figures of his age now largely forgotten because of the glories of Winston but law Randolph was Home Secretary the most brilliant man of his time the most brilliant orator of his time became a gibbering trembling appalling ill-tempered wreck who disintegrated in front of his adoring son's eyes who all he wanted to do Winston was being his secretary and it's the most tragic story of the usual thing which is the son trying to live up to his imperious father but there's an example of the price that you pay for pleasure which we have less people would say that the AIDS epidemic was a reminder of that to some extent as any sexually transmitted disease is a reminder that that particular kind of pleasure of course has its price but so so do other business when you toy with people's affections it isn't free in all we all know that even and you know at any age we all know that and Wilde knew it and in his children's children's stories he which are absolutely sob making Lee brilliant when she wrote for his two sons he he always comes again The Selfish Giant the very title The Selfish Giant is Oscar himself and it's so heart-rending that he knew that he was somehow a the other another one wonderful title the remarkable rocket which is in which he gives life in a fantastic anthropomorphic way to a rocket and who's one of the what is the most sort of full of himself in a box full of fireworks and who of course has one explosive moment thinking this is it you see I told you I was the most glorious figure in the world I told you I told you how great I was and then a dead stick falls to the ground and that's you know we poor it's so true and so obvious like all great art it's of course we knew that but we need to be reminded and he did he did no I I can't quite cope from memory but it's nearly from memory they thought the like the final paragraph of the great Richard Elmen biography if I can say this without weeping I've tear a deep breath he comes to us now his life freed from shame a greater figure than ever a towering figure laughing and weeping full of fables and paradoxes belongs to our age more than that of Victoria here he is so wise so right so true look and I think he understood himself doesn't better than anybody but a good question you've given me your coffee buttons you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 84,378

Rating: 4.9201679 out of 5

Keywords: Union, Society, University, Debates, Debating, Interview, Stephen Fry (Celebrity), Pleasure

Id: HRwnAUVY9l0

Length: 5min 21sec (321 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2015