Is there another literary figure on a par with Oscar Wilde in terms of wittiness? The man was a living bon mot-machine

Bierce

Samuel Johnson or Voltaire

>Takes truism.
>Reverses it.

Oh, Oscar, you're so witty!

I suggest you check out the Buckley Jr. versus Vidal debates from 1968. They're still a blast to watch all these years later and show Vidal during one of the highest points in his career.

youtube.com/watch?v=UxXW6tfl2Y0

why did he choose to be gay?

Voltaire btfos himself in a masterful display of meta-wit. Top that shit.

Pierre motherfucking Caron motherfucking de Beaumarchais

>nobody mentions Dorothy Parker

Like Eminem in the climax rap battle of 8 Mile?

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hahhaahahahaha

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because it was edgy

Alexander Pope

most english are gay they're just closeted

>no mention of the Algonquin Tound Table

Really though all of these witticisms get attached to characters who were supposed to have been witty. Usually they didn't actually say half of what gets attributed to them

>As such, and because he thought that men and women potentially are bisexual, Vidal rejected the adjectives "homosexual" and "heterosexual" when used as nouns, as inherently false terms used to classify and control people in society.
I thought I was the only one who believed this. I like this guy already.

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the picture of dorian gray

is this book good?

de la Rochefoucauld

Definitely Dr Johnson

Wasn't a fan of Dorian Gray. But for some reason I want to like Wilde. Is there anything else he's written that could potentially reverse my negative opinion?

The importance of being earnest is quite witty and humorous

Ambrose Bierce may be a contender, though more sardonic

Shakespeare is the wittiest man ever to have lived

Read the Narratives of Empire series. Unbelievably good, genuinely enjoyable, frequently hilarious, irreverent (overly so, in my opinion) and an excellent American history course to boot.

I didn't like Dorian Gray either. But I do love his plays. Ernest is the best place to start. You might be put off by reading a play (maybe not), but read it. You'll just laugh the whole time. Easy to find a good audio performance too. Read along with it. The jokes will be delivered as they should be. It's fast-moving and smart. Nothing complex. Just hilarious.

I might get around to it, but nonfiction isn't something I'm generally inclined to read.

This. Reading Dorian Gray right now, enjoying it, but Lord Henry's (Wilde's mouthpiece) aphorisms are just inversions of cliches.

Still, the prose alone is worth it.

Did Twain and Wilde ever meet? They were contemporaries, more or less, and both spent significant time in the other's country.

Read Foucault

His essays

>ctrl+f
>no mention of Max Beerbohm
He may not be the kind of bon mots, but his essays are pretty gud if you want wit.

I don't believe they did, but Whitman and Wilde met, and possibly fucked.
>Stoddart tactfully left the two poets alone. ‘If you are willing – will excuse me – I will go off for an hour or so – come back again – leaving you together,’ he said. ‘We would be glad to have you stay,’ Whitman replied. ‘But do not feel to come back in an hour. Don’t come for two or three.’ Whitman opened a bottle of elderberry wine and he and Oscar drank it all before Whitman suggested they go upstairs to his ‘den’ on the third floor where, he told Oscar, ‘We could be on ‘thee and thou’ terms.’

How scandalous.

Fascinating. Maybe Twain was there watching and jacking off.

This. Amazing in both wit and looks.

Check out Best of Enemies.

Boris Vian might compare

For all his autism, John Stuart Mill could be quite witty at times, particularly his forays into public debate.

Try reading his take-down of Burke or the slavery apologists of his day without smiling.

He was Irish m8

Nigga, please.

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you mean pic related Gore Vidal? He's so wooden when he sits down you can't tell which is the chair. His gravelly voice, mechanical movements and offputting facial features mean he shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the great Wilde.

that is because he is dead

Good post

vonnegut?