The pen is truly mightier than the sword.

When profit defines art, when purveyors become arbiters of taste, it is inevitable that reproductions of 'congenital deformities' - a gorgeous savage thrust, by the way - that shock and repulse command top dollar. Nadja, one of the priestesses of the "cultural moving zeitgeist of our urbanity", admits it.

It's up to Dorian to decide whether he wants to be christened into the movement, which involves selling his artistic soul. He is repelled. Yet he needs food, rent...perhaps a boat like his father?

He creates what appears to be a compromise: a painting that repels him and is inspired by a stolen photo. It is inspired, too, by the ''mercurial fairy who held the last sprinkle of Dorian's artistic credibility".

Has he compromised too much?

And if he has, will the painting sell?