Letters From My Friend: Debut Response

And now, my response to the debut of Letters From My Friend. Enjoy!

Ah! Dearest K.,

As I sharpen my metaphorical quill to dip into my metaphorical inkwell to respond to you, I must admit that I am presently relishing one of the brownies I baked after our most recent conversation. Chocolate cravings arise suddenly and madly and often last for days, as you well know. A question now forms in my mind: Dear Heavens, what ever would I have done to satisfy such a craving were I living in Dorian's time, or worse, Uncle Tom's time? Brownies were quite non-existent, and I daresay chocolate were not altogether easy to come by. I would have been a woman undone. Undone, I say.

But to respond to your initial inquiry. I understand all too well the mental conflict that two antithetical characters in two books being read simultaneously can cause. Truly, Uncle Tom and Dorian oppose one another in almost every way. Let's examine the oppositions:

1. Uncle Tom = elderly, Dorian = prime of youth

2. Uncle Tom = swarthy and wrinkled, Dorian = rosy-cheeked and smooth

3. Uncle Tom = indigent, Dorian = wealthy

4. Uncle Tom = passive and gentle, Dorian = active and violent

5. Uncle Tom = hopeful realist, Dorian = hopeless romantic

The list can surely go on. More disturbing than their utter antithesis is their quite realistic possible responses to you. Uncle Tom's advice on remaining enslaved is just as intolerable as Dorian's apathy towards you due to your particular dusky orange hue. But may I be so bold as to suggest that an earlier Dorian may have looked past your sienna just as he looked past Sibyl Vane's class?

Notwithstanding, none of these postulations or observations resolves the war taking place in your cerebral cortex. Perhaps it would at least calm the war, if not completely end it, if you were to look at these two fictional chaps in their particular contexts. Perhaps it would help to have sympathy towards them if you viewed them both as victims of their time and circumstance. Uncle Tom's dependency and passivity are a result of his being brought up to believe that he is sub-human property as a part of an institution American society allowed to exist. Dorian's debauched state is a result of being a part of an indolent, self-obsessed, hedonistic aristocracy that English society allowed to exist. You see, were we in Uncle Tom's or Dorian's shoes would we have been the better?

And a bit of advice: Don't fling yourself too liberally on any divans or chaise lounges in the presence of Lord Henry. We've previously discussed his corruptive designs.

Yours truly,

Chantell