Salome was a really engaging book to read and analyze. I thoroughly enjoyed this week and presenting. Wilde's text for Salome made me reminisce about childhood as "The Nightingale and the Rose" was one of my favourite fairy tales and I was also exposed to various biblical tales (including the one that inspired Salome).

I was mildly surprised to discover that "John and Salome" was censored from the original print, however, its critique and commentary of attitudes towards alterity and identity politics was subversive for the cultural moment. Considering that the 1907 version, released with the full accompanying illustrations by Beardsley was published post-humously, it seems to stand in direct opposition to Wilde and Beardsley's lives; Wilde through the harsh punishment for his sexuality and Beardsley for his sexual stylized imagery which was often diminished as being infantile. I found the portrayal of simultaneously turning toward and turning away from imposed personification in "John and Salome" to provide a critique of the hypocrisy in exoticizing and fetishizing alterity while punishing it through legislation (such as having sodomy as a crime) as well as  discrimating against it culturally (especially since the Second Industrial Revolution highly strengthened Britain's power as a Colonizer).

As a side note, I also loved Beardsley's illustration "The Toilette of Salome" for its direct allusions to texts that also comment on sexuality. Unfortunately, I have only read one of the books referred to, and that is The Golden Ass, a Greek text that includes positive references to homosexuality.

Salome was a surprisingly culturally relevant read with relations to our own cultural moment in its commentary on sexuality and alterity. While attitudes have generally become more accepting and welcoming towards cultural differences and differences in sexual preferences, we have also experienced a rise in extremist views towards this. It has been a constant battle to counter these sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic views in society. While we have made progress in providing welcoming communities and rights (which are basic human rights and should have never have been violated) it has been not near enough. We still suffer discriminatory legislation and discrimination culturally. This year especially has been terrifying. I think if Salome was released this year, it would be met with admiration by communities that suffer from the exoticism and fetishism of alterity whilst being slandered by those holding the views it combats. In short, its reception would not be much different from what it was originally. As a society, we need more subversive texts like Salome to combat the prejudices that have been built over time.