"An idea is always a generalisation, and generalisation is a property of thinking. To generalise means to think." Hegel
Were Wilde alive today, and not in gaol for child sex offences, his beautiful aphorisms it would be met with, 'Oscar, you can't generalise'.
And all the other aphorists would meet the same response from the dreary spirit of our pseudo-scientific, egalitarian-puritanical age.
Oscar Wilde didn't commit any more sex offenses than most.men of those times (i.e. it was perfectly normal to pursue and marry a girl under 18 and sometimes even under 16).
ReplyDeleteThe age had been twelve for girls until not long before his arrest. There was a reference at his trial to a boy who looked 14 but other witnesses said he looked older. We can't possibly know about how young his prostitutes were.
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