Arts+and+values

**Carson (attorney) **--Am I right in saying that you do not consider the effect in creating morality or immorality? **Wilde **—Certainly, I do not. **C **--So far as your works are concerned, you pose as not being concerned about morality or immorality?
 * TEXTO 2: On art. ** Extract from Oscar Wilde’s transcript of the libel trial, from URL> []

 **W**—I do not know whether you use the word "pose" in any particular sense. **C **--It is a favorite word of your own? **W **—Is it? I have no pose in this matter. In writing a play or a book, I am concerned entirely with literature—that is, with art. I aim not at doing good or evil, but in trying to make a thing that will have some quality of beauty. […] **C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--This is in your introduction to Dorian Gray: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written." That expresses your view? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—My view on art, yes. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Then, I take it, that no matter how immoral a book may be, if it is well written, it is, in your opinion, a good book? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—Yes, if it were well written so as to produce a sense of beauty, which is the highest sense of which a human being can be capable. If it were badly written, it would produce a sense of disgust.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **C**--Then a well-written book putting forward perverted moral views may be a good book? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--A perverted novel might be a good book? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I don't know what you mean by a "perverted" novel. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Then I will suggest Dorian Gray as open to the interpretation of being such a novel? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--That could only be to brutes and illiterates. The views of Philistines on art are incalculably stupid.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **C**--An illiterate person reading Dorian Gray might consider it such a novel? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—The views of illiterates on art are unaccountable. I am concerned only with my view of art. I don't care two pence what other people think of it. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--The majority of persons would come under your definition of Philistines and illiterates? **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—I have found wonderful exceptions. **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">C **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Do you think that the majority of people live up to the position you are giving us?

**<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">W **<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 10pt;">—I am afraid they are not cultivated enough. ** ACTIVIDAD ** 2. ¿Tiene el artista la responsabilidad de reflexionar sobre los valores, las creencias y las actitudes de su época y lugar? 3. ¿Hasta qué punto tienen los artistas la obligación moral de evitar o de tratar temas controvertidos que pueden escandalizar a la mayoría de la gente? 4. ¿Es importante para el espectador la intención del artista?