oscar wilde vs. ronald firbank

I don't know Firbank at all; all I can say is that I thought Dorian Gray was terribly dull and didn't bother finishing it. But I like the tight-lipped aphorisms in the plays, at least.

with firbank you need to read it five times over to find out what it's all aboutand then the giggling starts, while with wilde you know what's going to happen after five minutes and the laughing is over.

"I often laugh when I'm alone" he said.

if wilde = liberace, who's pop musics equivalent of firbank?

now if firbank must had the influence of oscar wilde, concludes that momus got influenced by liberace!

take it away, skottie!

*and for that skottie got muffined to death by momus-fans*

;-)))

I don't know where to begin with this sentence. It would only be slightly less ridiculous to say "Karl Marx is obviously the best of the Victorian conventional bourgeois political theory of his day."

I love Ronald Firbank, but I think he wrote mainly for his own pleasure rather than for the pleasure of an intended audience, so his stuff can seem a little inaccessable. For me, I think you have to read it sheerly for the pleasure of the language and for the big laffs--if you go looking for a thrilling plot you're going to be stymied pretty quick. His characters also have some of the funniest names in the history of English literature. Miss Miami Mouth?

Anyone else think Evelyn Waugh's books "Vile Bodies" and "Black Mischief" are fairly direct apes of Firbank's style?

(Speaking of Momus, I think he actually started a C/D thread on Firbank a couple of years ago)

I think I started it then, but momus hijacked it into a discussion on child abuse by priests...(cardinal pirelli to blame)

miss wetme! is a favourite of mine.
I never liked waugh. read brideshead. found it extremely boring.

"his books were watched for, but without impatience"

Also, you should check out Alan Hollinghurst's amazing novel The Swimming-Pool Library, which has a great subplot about Firbank and his books

Do you mean Pr@nc1ng N*****? I was going to mention that one in the N!&&er and the Narcissus thread. This originally appeared in the U.S. as Sorrow in Sunlight, and I often wish that title had stuck.

At any rate, PN is collected in Grove Press' Five Novels and Vainglory is in 3 More Novels; as Antexit mentions they are readily available secondhand. Santal is the only mature novel/la not collected in these publications, but I've seen it published separately.

but I think he wrote mainly for his own pleasure rather than for the pleasure of an intended audience
-- antexit
cf
His writing is so over the top, so without regard for the possibility of publication or performance
-- Skottie

Waugh like Wilde wrote exclusively for an audience. As big as possible. And of course publishing was in Waugh's blood, so he was aware, often painfully, of how the game was/is played.

I went through my Firbank phase just before I went through my Djuna Barnes phase.

"even my teeth are a bit phallic" beardsley was supposed to have said.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Museum/Artists/b/Aubrey_Vincent_Beardsley/OtherImages/small_photo.jpg

classic english face

http://www.goreydetails.net/images/items/jpeg1063951218.jpg

and jugendstil hands