I really enjoyed our discussion on Oscar Wilde's Salome: Tragedy in One Act. While the book was censored in 1892 due to Aubrey Beardsley's nude illustrations, I found it quite surprising that the book was uncensored in 1907 to a conservative twentieth-century audience. Beardsley's illustrations were unlike any of the artwork we have studied thus far in term and that made it especially interesting, One, it was quite interesting to learn that Wilde himself did not like many of Beardsley's illustrations. Two, in my opinion, many of Beardsley's illustrations were actually more interesting than the text itself. This is an anomaly as it is quite rare for an illustrator to upstage the author and the text itself. I think the reason Beardsley's illustrations are so interesting is that they are very conceptual instead of literally illustrating parts of the text. In this way, the illustrations offer their own commentary and produce their own meaning. One great example brought up today was the beautiful peacock skirt illustration. In this image, Salome's nude body is not on display but Beardsley still illustrates the male gaze looming over her through artistic elements such as her large peacock dress. This is especially interesting when you consider the fact that male peacocks use their colours to attract a mate. Beardsley's use of the peacock dress implies her seductive sexuality and how Salome is looking to find and attract a new mate. The idea of the male gaze seems to be a reoccurring theme in these illustrations and is also seen with Salome and John gazing at each other, emphasizing her exotic "otherness" and beauty. I think these illustrations would be even more powerful if they were in colour and I would be very interested to see how Beardsley would use colour to enhance the meaning of the illustrations. To my knowledge, a coloured version of the text does not exist but I think it would be interesting to see one!