dandydilettante

dandydilettante

Anyone watched those Back to the Future films lately? 
          
          It's an uneasy privilege to have been the same age as Marty McFly back in 1985. And forever more, in a sense, and in a Delorean-less sort of way... 
          
          There are (honestly) worse things than watching your forties recede into insignificant history... 'the future's what you make of it' and there's plenty of that concept to go round really. 
          
          Better still, there's more to make of motivation than status attitudes left over from the 80s!
          
          Doc Browne had the right idea: do your own thing and never grow up! That's the only real way to travel through time (apart from YouTube, obviously). 
          
          Meanwhile the first flying car completed its test flight this week. Seems the future's running a bit late but aren't we all... 
          
          ''If you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything' within reason: and now's the time...
          
          
          
          (so best stop reading this rubbish!)   

dandydilettante

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
          
          We're still talking about you Oscar, many, many celebrities later.
          
          Alas, there are times it may be better to escape discussion by others; especially those that dwell amidst the often scathing sphere of Dandyism. 
          
          Dear old Oscar would doubtless have cared as little about the barbed views of detractors during his lifetime, as he's likely to do in dead mode. 
          
          Noel Coward was the first subsequent dandy to struggle with being amused by Wilde's plays. A diary entry during 1946 remarks "Am reading more of Oscar Wilde. What a tiresome, affected sod."
          
          While Quentin Crisp - an exhibitionist and contemporary of Coward - lived in the shadows of the latter's fame until the 1970s. However his lectures on Life Style are beyond brilliant and his sentiment towards Wildean ways (after much analysis) essentially the same: "At the very time when his style should have saved him it abandoned him, because it wasn't anchored in sincerity." 
          
          (Mr Crisp developed a unique variant of 'Wildean' wit which became unknown as 'Crisperanto' - well worthy of study in all its wry realms).
          
          Meanwhile present day dandy par excellence Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen could not help but observe that Wilde was "handicapped at birth with a very large face indeed."
          
          Mr Wilde might well have expanded his own remark with some such caveat as '... not being talked about - unless the speakers are striving to reach your stature.'  
          
          Let's put it another way: shall his critics be widely talked about over a century after their time? And where does that leave the rest of us dismal creatures? 
          
          Happy in our here and now, let's hope: with the rich legacy that great books and characters have brought our way. 

Davidstewart85

I signed up to this platform for the sole reason of complimenting you on a wonderfully written piece about Beau Brummell.

dandydilettante

@Davidstewart85 Thanks very much David! 
            
            If Dandyology is your thing, there may be a few posts on Brummell and other such souls on a blog/Facebook account still active and linked from my main Wattpad page.
            
            Thanks again for going out of your way to find this place ... it's well worth exploring too   
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