Petronella Wyatt is spot on in quoting Oscar Wilde on morality in art; “books are either well written or badly written,” they are not “moral or immoral”
In the preface to his philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote: “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.”
Shared on Twitter by the witty journalist and author Petronella Wyatt at a time when ludicrously Gone With the Wind is under attack even, this is a timely reminder that works of art should be subjected to aesthetic judgment rather than moral judgment.
The bosses of the BBC and Netflix would do well to remember such.
Pictured top: Ben Barnes starred as Dorian Gray in the 2009 British fantasy-horror adaptation of 1890 novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’
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Petronella is right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please send her Down Under!!!!!!!!!! I like the look of this Sheila!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I like the sound of her views!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The BBC are behaving ridiculously as are Ant and Dec. Never know which is which but both of them are irritating. Rather than stopping Backing Up, they should just stop altogether. Didn’t they get made famous by Donna Air? She didn’t make very much money compared to them though, did she! They should redistribute their wealth back to their Byker Grove co-star!
Could Petronella not please have. Word with her ex lover? Boris needs taking in hand.
Oscar and Petronella the mind buggles