Oscar Wilde died of cerebral meningitis in Paris on November 30, 1900. On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of his death,
his tomb in Paris at the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery has been restored and a new glass barrier erected around the monument to stop visitors from making out with it.
The practice began in the late 1990s when a woman kissed Wilde’s tomb leaving a red lipstick print. Because people are easily influenced, that one lip print started an unstoppable trend. The tomb was soon covered in red lips.
“which is a beautiful thing in my estimation and it should never stop”
how depressing. I think Wilde would have liked it better with the lipstick.
I always love graves or monuments that become living tributes, growing and/or changing over time. It is a beautiful way to connect visitors and mourners not only with the person who is dead, but with each other. Oscar Wilde is dead, and has been for a very long time, things like this allow modern day fans and admirers to interact with him in a removed way, and it is the only way outside of reading his works and studying his life, which no matter how fascinating you find a subject, can get rather dull. Visiting his grave, touching the monument (even if you don’t leave your lip print behind) is our only way to commune with the person buried inside. Let people have that.
The art and monuments of the world will not last forever. People should be allowed to interact with things and places while they still exist. There should be no velvet rope, no glass barriers around art and beauty. They are a part of the human experience, and we should all be allowed the chance to interact with them. Maybe not to leave greasy lipstick prints behind when we do, but maybe if all the world’s art were available to anyone who might want to admire it, any time they pleased, maybe our urge to destroy by way of leaving a piece of ourselves behind wouldn’t be so strong.
This is a grave from the Victorian age when a fear of zombies and vampires was prevalent. The cage was intended to trap the undead just in case the corpse reanimated.
Some also use to have bells that were connected to the coffin itself so if the dead awoke, the bells would go off and everyone nearby would be alerted one of the deceased was in fact alive and craving flesh.
Screw the corsets and hoop skirts, I love the Victorian’s paranoia and superstitions!
(Source: thenotebooktoremember, via eyesfullofketchup)
Victor Noir’s tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris-
Myth says that placing a flower in the upturned top hat after kissing the statue on the lips and rubbing its genital area will enhance fertility, bring a blissful sex life, or, in some versions, a husband within the year. As a result of the legend, those particular components of the oxidized bronze statue are rather well-worn.
