Christa Giles

wilfulness and to affectation. Its origin is
rather to be found in the complexity of the
new problems, and in the fact that selfconsciousness
is not yet adequate to explain
the contents of the Ego. 186
It is for this reason that Wilde appreciates Browning’s
poetry, for it was not ˝thought which fascinated him, but
rather the processes by which thought moves.˝ 187 Similarly,
what attracted Des Esseintes ˝was the writer’s personality,
and the only thing that interested him was the working of
the writer’s brain, no matter what subject he was
tackling.˝ 188 The dandy suggested this problem of the self –
his analytical bent and his embodiment of the observer and
observed connects this self-consciousness with the creation
of an artifact – himself. Further, the dandy embodied the
ethic of individualism, which both Wilde and Huysmans
identified with art and artistic expression. For all of these
reasons he became a creature of paradox, a connecting link
between art and life – living in both worlds but never fully
belonging to either.
69