F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Works, The Life discussion

Don't know. Asking. Well, asking how succinctly, if there is a pervasive theme, it can be expressed.

Recently spent a great deal of time in The Great Gatsby. I believe the psychological apex of that book is in Chapter 8, when Nick, who has been a faithful narrator who rarely took part, or inserted himself, in his memoir, Nick cries out, "You're worth the whole bunch put together." In the first chapter of The Love of the Last Tycoon, one character writes to another "You are the best of them..."

I haven't had time to search (goodness!) his work to see if a phrase like this, where nobility is found in ambiguous circumstances, occurs again.

What do you think? Not only about this particular phrase which caught me, but what pushed him to write?

AnnLoretta wrote: "Nick cries out, "You're worth the whole bunch put together." In the first chapter of The Love of the Last Tycoon, one character writes to another "You are the best of them..."

... where nobility is found in ambiguous circumstances..."

The idea that where there is real life, real living, well, as Fitzgerald himself says about The Great Gatsby: "those illusions that give such color to the world that you don't care whether things are true or false as long as they partake of the magical glory.”

Copied from another thread I posted to today

I suppose I keep going back to my first impressions of The Great Gatsby. The book is less character driven or plot driven than it is the voice of Nick, our narrator who speaks volumes about becoming disillusioned after setting out on an adventure only to return back to where he started from, something important taken from him. He watches as other people who come from the same place as he (the midwest) all see their dreams shattered in one way or another, or, rather, the thin but rather opaque veil that protected them from reality has been lifted and there is no going back. For me, it is this voice that resounds in the book. The characters, relationships, and situations, they all sit in the background, completing the picture, but in no way encroach on center stage.

I suppose I see a theme of hope and disillusionment in his work. And the rather extreme hope and disillusionment he experienced in his own life may have pushed him to write.

James wrote: "Copied from another thread I posted to today

I suppose I keep going back to my first impressions of The Great Gatsby. The book is less character driven or plot driven than it is the voice of Nick,..."

I am so glad you're copying here. I've wanted to so very often!

Where is that quote from? I love it.

It is from another letter Gatsby wrote to Ludlow Fowler in August 1924 - 2 months before finishing the novel and one month before Zelda may or may not have tried to commit suicide, and in the same letter he mentions the Jozan betrayal.

James wrote: "It is from another letter Gatsby wrote to Ludlow Fowler in August 1924 - 2 months before finishing the novel and one month before Zelda may or may not have tried to commit suicide."

Got it. Thanks. I needed that intro phrase, "Thats the whole burden of this novel". And the sentences leading up to it in that paragraph. I don't have "The Vegetable" and have never read it. I'm trying not to acquire any more books, and it's not in my collected works. But I know it's failure broke his heart. Damn. Here I go.

AnnLoretta wrote: "James wrote: "But I know it's failure broke his heart. Damn. Here I go."

Engineering is applied science. Science is applied math. Math is applied poetry. Perhaps a poet should not expect to be a successful mathematician any more than the other way around.

How succinct. Looking at The Beautiful and Damned, there is so much in its structure that is play-like, the bare dialogue.

AnnLoretta wrote: "How succinct. Looking at The Beautiful and Damned, there is so much in its structure that is play-like, the bare dialogue."

Reading a play in book form is very different from watching people act it out under the lights. It's like the two guys I saw walking down Columbus Avenue a long time ago. Both wearing identical tee-short, jeans, and Doc Martin boots. Works on one, not on the other.

Works on one, not on the other. ."

I'm sure you're right. I read a lot of plays, so I guess I schlep from one to the other more easily. Drama major, don't you know. So maybe my mind puts a blazer on the guy who could benefit from it before he knows he needs it.