Samantha Wilson
“No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.”
– Oscar Wilde
When Wilde put this aphorism in his preface, the meaning was to stand that artists do not make a piece of work to establish a connection to anything but to create beauty. By making a connection, the artist is proving something or even promoting an idea by taking the beauty away. The second part of the aphorism means we can prove things that are not true but also things that are true. It is unlikely that true things are proven as we normally intended to prove false things, as Wilde added the word “Even” to interrupt this statement. I fall in the middle with this aphorism because I disagree with the first part but agree with the second part. I don’t agree with the first part because I believe that every artist’s work is proving something. Even if they didn’t intend to prove anything, they still desire it in a way. To desire something means that the artist would have a strong feeling or a wish. I think you can desire something without knowing. Here, an artist desires to prove anything but more in a way of not knowing. For example, most artists want to be successful or to have their work known. Artist desire to be successful and by creating their works, they desire to prove that they are successful. This makes me think of the singer Noah Kahan because when he started his career, he wanted his fans to feel something and learn from his songs. Since his big album in 2022, Noah Kahan’s music has touched and inspired many of his fans who can relate to his songs. This is seen through his tour of 2023 being completely sold out and his songs standing as anthems for many young fans. The impact his music has on fans is proof of the unwanted desire and goal. He wanted to leave an impact as an artist and his music proved that he could do that. This leads me to believe that artists do desire to prove anything even if it is something small, like an idea or something big, like success, but it still leaves the beauty of the work through its popularity or impact. I agree with the second part because we can still prove things that are true. Typically, we see we prove things that are false to be true, but we can also prove true things are true. One thing that contradicts this statement is that because we can prove both false and true things, then an artist shouldn’t care to prove things. On this part, I disagree because artists are making statements in different ways to prove something is false or true. This makes me think of the singer Christina Aguilera. A life lesson that seems to be true is that you need to love yourself. In her song “Beautiful” she proves this lesson to be true even if we already know or think that it is true. She uses the line “Words can’t bring you down” and describes feeling insecure to prove we don’t need to be ashamed but accept the truth that we are “beautiful” and love ourselves.
This was really well written! I like how you worded your analysis of what the aphorism actually meant. It also helped me understand the aphorism a little better too since I struggled to understand it because of the phrasing. The mention of Noah Kahan and Christina Aguilera is very fitting for this particular aphorism as they are music artists themselves and that creates an in depth connection.