I spent the last couple of weeks on holiday, back home in Nairobi, hence my blogging hiatus. True to form, the city offered up more temptations than I knew what to do with. In fact, I am still reeling and not quite back down to earth.
Temptations aren’t always a bad thing. I’ve been reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, and if ever you needed justification for any hedonistic and utterly extravagant desires, this is the book for you. At least the first few chapters are. One of the protagonists argues that the only way to rid oneself of a temptation is to yield to it. I’m not so sure that’s ridding oneself of the temptation or rather, the power it has over you. You can get back the hours you spend endlessly thinking about ‘what it would be like’. He also argues that in order to become young again, one should remember great errors of youth, and do them all over again. This will in the very least save one from death due to a creeping common sense, and aid the realisation that one never really regrets their mistakes. So in essence, give into temptation to remain young. I like it.
So this holiday, I did just that. I gave into temptation. I met new people, something that I am not particularly famed for. And guess what, I liked it. I spent time with old friends, and again, I really liked it. I allowed old flames to be re-ignited, and that my friends, along with stolen kisses, a fleeting romance, a wandering hand and a lustful eye, I really really liked. [Also, just so you know, there’s nothing quite as enticing as a 19th century lustful quote off to start the day. Tell me something naughty in Shakespearean English and... Shakespeare and his boys were very naughty.]
It appears that the last 6 months I’d started to die of a creeping seriousness, as Oscar Wilde would put it. This break was necessary, if not to save me from my tedious self, then to remind me that sometimes, being young means being a little clueless (very occasionally reckless, within reason of course), and embracing the unknown. Hmm... now I’m not so sure reading this book again is good for me, from a moral point of view.
here i was thinking you'd go into some detail... give me MOAARRR!!
ReplyDeletelooks like you had quite the holiday though.
enjoy.
I want to read that book, you seem to have a vast library that I should just raid one of these fine days. On temptations, well, I plead the fifth.
ReplyDeleteooh camaaan! No details? Just a whiff? Camaaaan!
ReplyDeleteO_o!! Guys...promise, a bit more in way of deets next post. Promise :-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting piece...when people look back, they mostly think about how they would do it 'right' but I like the fact that reliving one's youth may just mean reliving the errors...it is the folly of life that makes it interesting sometimes (so long as the errors are not tragic).
ReplyDeletewe miss you and you repay the kindness by teasing and "micing " the details. tsk tsk
ReplyDeleteThe people want to be told about temptations! People power!
ReplyDeleteActually, the point of Dorian Gray is that hedonism and aestheticism only lead to self-destruction. Dorian is only beautiful at the beginning of the book when he is innocent, simple and not self-aware. He only maintains his youth by the destruction of his soul, and Wilde is commenting on the view that aestheticism is a false, shallow surface to beauty, but not actually beauty itself. If you'd like to end up like Dorian does at the end of the book (spiritually dead, self-loathing murderer), I'd suggest continuing the pursuit of new pleasures and every possible experience just for the sake of feeling something. Dorian and his life are definitely not supposed to be a role-model in any sense, unless it's a role model for what *not* to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for spoiling the end for me, Anonymous .(and then, you're anonymous. Really?)
ReplyDeleteB, post?
I've really....really missed your writing. now, be a darling.
ReplyDelete!
ReplyDeleteLOL. Wow. Anonymous up there missed the satire huh?! He he he. Thanks either way :-)
ReplyDeletewow this is so sweet article
ReplyDelete