The Substance

The Substance

From Don't You Dare To Think Out Loud! by Javier Truben

November 2, 2025 · 10 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the themes of beauty and its consequences through the lens of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray and a modern film adaptation.

Physical beauty must be the most bitter of gifts because it carries the seed of its own destruction, and its absence mortifies more than any. We all more or less know how the young and handsome Dorian Gray had problems to deal with this, and whoever does not should stop listening this literary podcast right now, shake off the mental sloth, and dust off the master of paradoxes, the great Oscar Wilde, who remains still undefeated a century later, so unparalleled and unique was his genius. Some French film director has lifted a big fuss with a movie that shamelessly pinched that character from Wilde–they call plagiarism now to be inspired by–changed the gender in order to cater to a feminine audience and moved Dorian Gray from Victorian London to the show business in LA. Coralie Fargeat, the director and writer of this satirical film, had the audacity to convince one of the most iconic movie stars of the 90s, Demi Moore, to take on the lead role. This meant portraying her as an old, broken toy of cable TV, but not in a way we’ve ever seen before. No, this was a fresh take on Demi Moore, one that showed her naked, humiliated, and degraded in front of the last of the nepotistic…

People in this episode

Host: Javier Truben

Topics covered

  • beauty
  • literature
  • Oscar Wilde
  • film adaptation
  • Dorian Gray
  • satire

Keywords

  • Dorian Gray
  • Oscar Wilde
  • Coralie Fargeat
  • Demi Moore
  • satirical film
  • beauty
  • literature

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: A Clockwork Orange, Sex, Lies, and Videotape

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