Reasons Why Oscar Wilde was Made of Awesome

1. He was a writer who wrote poems, books and plays, mostly dark comedy. He used the rules of the Victorian era as a joke in most of his works, hence "satire". The Victorian era was obsessed with rules and courtesy, and the works of Oscar Wilde are obsessed with criticising them.

2. His works are actually really funny. You can look at them as social criticism, but it's not hard to simply appreciate the humour as well, though the subject matter may in fact be rather dark (like blackmail, for instance).

3. He was a style pioneer. He invented the style "dandy" in the Victorian era. You work those giant bow ties, Oscar Wilde.

4. He was gay. Now I'm not saying he was awesome just because he was gay, because it actually really irritates me when people do that  - you're not equalizing gays when you do that, you're actually belittling straight people when you claim that you're automatically cooler just for being gay - but the thing is that he was arrested for it at the time, because this was, you know, the Victorian era. After he was set free he moved to France, because they were, let's say, more open-minded. But I kind of admire him for this because even being arrested for his sexuality didn't stop him from expressing it, he just went somewhere where it wouldn't be an issue. 

5. I guess you could kind of say from all of this that his life was kind of devoted to defying the social conventions of Victorian Britain. And not in an anarchal way, he wasn't trying to overthrow the goverment, which would inspire less respect from me. But just by writing about it, and in doing so spreading his message to a wider audience and letting them recognize the absurdity of some of the things the Victorian era did, which is much more admirable just because it's smarter. This is a man who was intent on expressing himself.

6. This is somewhat less deep, but it's kind of my favourite thing. Supposedly, when he was moving to America, while at customs they asked if he had anything to "declare". You know, items and stuff like that. To which Oscar Wilde responded, "I have nothing to declare, except my genius." 

Which is totally his style, and that just makes me grin every time. 

And that's why Oscar Wilde has become one of my heroes. 

P.S That's actually one of my favourite quotes of all time, right up there with Bram Stoker's "I sometimes think we must all be mad, and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats" and Spike's "love's bitch" speech on Buffy.