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Nobody Reads Books, Except for Oscar Wilde on the Q Train
Filed under: Little Words Tagged: books, fiction, Oscar Wilde
Here’s something to make you feel better: The other day I was on the subway, and noticed that the person standing next to me—a fairly conventional-looking 20-ish girl—was reading something by Oscar Wilde. Looked closer, and it was The Picture of Dorian Gray. Pretty standard, but heck, Wilde on the subway is still cool. Then I looked around the car and happened to see a guy a little ways away, also reading. And what was he reading? The Picture of freakin’ Dorian Gray! I’m tossing any possible explanations for this, and enjoying the craziness of the unlikelihood of such a thing ever happening.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
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Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Stuff like this always reminds me of Martin Amis’s The Information. There’s a scene (actually appears in the March 6, 1995, issue of The New Yorker as well) in which, on a transatlantic flight, the main character makes his way from coach to first class, and observes the reading material on the way — which plummets from George Eliot and Tolstoy (coach) to unreadable airport thrillers (business class) to no books at all (first class).
Point being: the subway is exactly the place to find people reading OscarWilde!
I agree with Martin’s comment. The subway is one my favorite reading spots. And I think it’s a wonderful place to watch readers. To wonder if they’ve chosen the book they’re reading for reasons of vanity, to impress girls/guys, to actually read for pleasure, etc. In a recent episode of MAD MEN, AMC’s 1960’s period piece about the ad world, the women pass around a dog-eared copy of, I think, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, or some such volume; it’s finally passed to the “new girl” with the proviso, “Don’t read it on the train. It’ll attract the wrong element.”
Reminds me of a New Yorker cover within the last year. We see a female 20-something reading a certain book in a subway car. Through the windows into the car adjoining, (both cars are stopped in the station), is a male 20-something, reading the same certain book. Their eyes are meeting.
Alex
Alex: You’re referring to Adrian Tomine’s cover for the issue of November 8, 2004.
Any ideas what book they’re reading? We learned later on that Tomine has a thing for Salinger.
I’m an idiot. It must be The Picture of Dorian Gray!