fun home: a family tragicomic. alison bechdel (298)

so i messed up!  when i went to nyc in may, there was buzz about a new broadway show called fun home.  i didn't research it, but from what i had seen, it seemed like a show about a family, and it didn't seem like something i would be into, so i didn't go.  however, after watching the fun home performance at the tony's, i realized that i made a huge mistake.

i, later, discovered after reading an article about a girl that was trying to get this work plus persepolis banned from her college course (talk about ignorance), that the broadway musical i missed out, was based on a graphic novel/memoir!  double regret.  so i decided to check out the novel, and hopefully catch fun home on my next nyc trip.

so from the tony's performance, i discovered that fun home was about a woman that discovered her father was gay after she came out to her parents.  i have to admit i was very excited when i got to the part of the book that tony's was based on.  it performance stayed trued to the memoir, and really wish i had seen it on broadway.

the story of alison's sexuality was complicated, because after sharing she was a lesbian with her parents, her mother told her the truth about her father.  in addition to this, her father's response was awkward and soon after he died when struck by a car.  alison believed that it may have been a suicide based on what had occurred with her.  i have to add that with no disrespect to alison, i didn't think her father committed suicide.  yes, he was reading that camus work at the time, which made a convincing case.  however, i felt that instead of wanting to commit suicide, he would have sought a new life, as a openly gay man.  kind of like hannah's dad on season 4 of girls.  he had lived so long with his secret, though he did get caught of it a handful of times, and his wife was fully aware that to suddenly end his life didn't make sense.  i feel that if that accident hadn't happened, he would have came out, he did express to alison that now was different for gays and lesbian now, that they were able to experience a freedom, he could not.  i feel he would have been hopeful about being there for his daughter versus wanting to end it all.  he did give her colette, which helped her realized she was a lesbian.  he wanted to help his daughter.  i think the reason why he was so distant initially, was to allow her to understand her sexuality in her own terms versus being forced upon by her dad.  being a gay father, he didn't want people to think that perhaps she made him gay.  again i feel bad for typing this, because alison seemed to think it was a suicide.  but i mean life is horrible and sometimes bad things just happen.

overall, i really enjoyed this memoir.  for those of you curious, the title fun home, came from alison's family for the funeral home that they ran.  speaking of the fun home, i, like the kids, loved the story of their grandmother about their father wandering out of into a field.  i also delighted in their delight of the oven part!  but that being said, i want to revisit this work, after i read the literary works that alison referenced.  i have never read ulysses so that went over my head.  i also need to read the importance of being earnest.  

on the topic of literary works, i absolutely loved alison's dad's love of the fitzgeralds.  just like him, after reading both of their works, i became obsessed with them.  there is something so glamorous about their wild times.  i need to read this side of paradise, but loved that we had both loved nancy milford's zelda biography.  i will also look into reading some colette.

this was an interesting read and i look forward to reading it after i visit the above works, to hopefully get a different take on the memoir.

superzelda: the graphic life of zelda fitzgerald. tiziana lo porto and danielle marotta.

i was so excited when i read about "superzelda", a graphic (love the pun!) novel about zelda fitzgerald! it had to be amazing!  and it was!! 

this is the perfect introduction to people new to the amazing yet tragic mess that is zelda fitzgerald.  it covers all of her life. the high points when she was the world's favorite flapper to the low points with her mental illness.  essentially it is pretty much is an illustrated cliffnotes for nancy milford's "zelda" but i mean what is wrong with illustrated cliffnotes?

i will say that i did learn one new thing from this graphic novel.  i knew scott wasn't allowed burial in a catholic cemetery but didn't know that decision was reversed and he and zelda were moved.

here were my favorite parts:

i always admired zelda for being her own person.

their partying was notorious but love the inclusion of josephine baker in his drawing.

this was a recipe harper and brothers included in "recipes of famous women".  zelda was kind of cook!

the perfect ending to this book.

if you love zelda fitzgerald, you should check this out.  her life was quite amazing and this is a good overview of it.

call me zelda. erika robuck. (121)

yes, another zelda book, though "call me zelda" is not directly about zelda fitzgerald but told from the perspective of her fictional nurse, anna howard.  the novel is set during zelda's time at phipps psychiatric clinic and though based on real incidents in zelda's life, it is about anna's life which was affected my zelda.

i came across the novel while googling about other zelda books so i didn't know anything about it until i read the first page.   i have to admit that i was a little disappointed that the protagonist was nurse anna and not zelda.  i am not a fan of fan fiction and this is kinda borderline fan fiction (though it did open my mind, i am going to give "the paris wife" a chance, though the fact that i found it for $1 was a huge factor as well).  i guess it's more like historical fiction, but regardless of what you call it, i wasn't a fan.  i found it overly sentimental, predictable and unimaginative.  

at first i thought it was cute how anna was the one that suggested zelda write for the doctors and also sent off zelda's manuscript to scribner's (both which occurred in real life).  however, other than that i didn't approve of anne's relationship with zelda.  it was extremely unprofessional and she crossed a handful of lines that could have been detrimental to zelda's recovery.  instead of being a nurse, anna turned into a sad schoolgirl trying her best to befriend the popular girl.  i mean she told her parents the instant she could about zelda being institutionalized (isn't there some client confidentially thing?).  she also became obsessed with zelda which was not healthy for either one of them.

and i hate to sound soulless but i felt that anna's missing-in-action husband and dead daughter was too cliché of a storyline.  though we saw the world via anna's eyes we never got into the inner workings of her soul.  i mean her husband and daughter were constantly brought up but simply as a way to know anna gave up on life but never complex enough to know what she truly struggled with it.

i also disliked how anna's life cleaned up so nicely.  i mean really, her husband's best friend shows up and they fall in love, but wait her husband might have been found . . . but no he didn't, now she can marry his best friend and not feel like she is betraying him!  all is well in the world.

last but not least, i absolutely abhorred anna's journey to find zelda's journals.  i have no idea why the author decided to focus on these journals, i doubt it would have been a wish of the real zelda to have them back.  i know real life zelda had issues with scott using them in his novels but wouldn't having them physically add to her anguish rather than relieve it?  and then finding them in the basement of their connecticut home?!?! really????  again, way too tidy of an ending.

another issue i had was the use of the polaroid camera on anna's journey.  she explained that her husband paid a fortune for it, but how could they afford that and not daily phone calls? in addition to that, i am sure the camera cost a lot but i can only imagine how much the film cost.  the cost of film made me think that anna's scrapbook for zelda was extremely unlikely.

the only thing that did genuinely shocked and impressed me was that the author included zelda's death in the novel.  but i will be judgey and say oh what a blessing that anna got the journals to zelda in enough time to give her peace before her death.

i hate to be a book snob but this was the worse of the zelda novels i have recently read.  everything in the story cleaned up too nicely, i can't handle movies with the hollywood endings, and the same goes for my novels.

the last tycoon. f. scott fitzgerald. (115)

i have read all of f. scott's fitzgerald's novels with the exception of "the last tycoon".  i skipped it because it was published posthumously.  novels that are published after an author's death seem incomplete to me.  sure there are notes and outlines that can help complete it but what if while the author was writing a new idea struck him/her than those outlines and notes would be pointless.  a novel should have the author's stamp of approval before it is released to the world.  

however, after reading nancy milford's "zelda", i decided to give in and read "the last tycoon".  while reading "zelda" i realized that all of fitzgerald's novels are pretty much autobiographies so i needed to read "the last tycoon" to get a glimpse into his life when he was in hollywood and zelda was institutionalized.  also milford mentioned that the love interest in "the last tycoon" was not based on zelda but fitzgerald's mistress at the time, sheliah graham.  due to this i felt i had to read fitzgerald take on his affair.  in addition to this it would also help give some background for my next fitzgerald read "beautiful fools" a novel by r. clifton spargo about a trip scott and zelda.  the trip takes place during the time period scott was living in hollywood and graham was his mistress.

though zelda did not know of graham, she knew kathleen was not modeled after her, as all of the previous fitzgerald female characters had been.  milford explained in her book that zelda did not like the heroine of "the last tycoon", kathleen.  and maybe all of my recent zelda reading has made me biased but i also did not like kathleen.  kathleen was unworthy of stahr's love, there was no piazza or wow to her other than her resemblance to his dead wife, minna.  oddly enough, milford explained that graham had a striking resemblance to zelda.  (i will expand on this in a bit).  there seemed to be no real chemistry between stahr and kathleen other than a physical attraction.  also kathleen seemed to have no backbone or heart, she didn't read as mysterious but a coward.   i didn't like how she kept her engagement a secret from stahr. i felt like  she played with stahr's emotions because she liked being in proximity to power.  the narrator explained how kathleen was "un-hollywood" but she still played games like she was part of the hollywood set.  kathleen was also a bit of a bore, she had relationships with interesting men but was not interesting herself.  maybe fitzgerald would have developed her more but as kathleen is, she does not deserve to be the object of stahr's affection.

however, if you read "the last tycoon" as autobiographical than the lack of actual chemistry between stahr and kathleen is a good thing because it demonstrated that fitzgerald's love for graham was superficial.  in the novel, stahr is a widow and his initial attraction to kathleen is because she looked like his dead wife.  as mentioned before, in real life graham looked like zelda, though zelda was not dead, her institutionalization must have felt like her death to fitzgerald.  stahr does not seem to be in love with kathleen but rather with the sentiment that she arose in him based one her likeness to minna.  it must have been the same for fitzgerald and graham.  as shown in milford's book, zelda's institualtionalizations was a burden on fitzgerald but he still loved her.  and though i do not condone fitzgerald's infidelity, i do not think he really loved graham.  i think she was a placeholder for his actual feelings for zelda, just as kathleen was for minna.  fitzgerald like stahr was not content with life and grasped onto a girl to hopefully find fulfillment.  even more odd, fitzgerald died without resolving his novel just like stahr died so we never get a resolution on his affair with kathleen.  however, i am going to say that stahr and kathleen's relationship would have amounted to nothing because like zelda for scott, minna was stahr's true love.  (i can and will admit that my interpretation of stahr's superficial love for kathleen is my need to have scott and zelda be the true love i think of it as, i mean i know they were a mess but there was something magical about them.)

"the last tycoon" also focused on hollywood and it's politics, not only in terms of the country (their is talk anout who is "red") but also within studios.  it was interesting to read about it though i didn't find it completely enthralling.  i also liked the narrator, cecilia, she reminded me of nick from "the great gatsby" both have an endearing naivety to them though cecilia does have a bit of a conniving streak.  

i also enjoyed reading the notes f. scott fitzgerald left for it.  it's amazing to see all the prework that goes into writing a novel.  i was shocked that he gave himself a word limit.  he wanted to keep it short like "the great gatsby".  i also loved how his characters have such depth backgrounds though we might not be shown all of it, fitzgerald at least saw them as a complete person.

i do wish fitzgerald was able to finish it.  i am not sure it would have been on the level of "the great gatsby" but i think not would have made for an excellent film.  one was made in 62, i think, i want to see it but it probably would have been better if it was based on a completed novel,

z: a novel of zelda fitzgerald. therese anne fowler. (113)

of course with the release of the latest film version of "the great gatsby", there would be a resurgence of interest in the fitzgeralds.  so when i heard about "z" by therese anne fowler, a novel about zelda fitzgerald, i had to check it out!

my interest in the fitzgeralds came via woody allen's "midnight in paris". the fitzgeralds especially zelda with her "lets go i am bored" demands were a delight.  and of course, all the myths about their partying intrigued me.  as a result, i read his novels (except the last tycoon) and hers plus a handful of their short stories.  and as a result of that read their wikipedia page to find out what was true in their books and it seemed like their novels were pretty autobiographical.  though intrigued by their life, i never picked up a bio or a book of their letters.  but i wish i had.

if i had read a bio, i would not have spent the whole novel thinking, did this really happen? i mean i know it is a novel but i hadn't realized zelda had called off their engagement though "this side of paradise" alludes to that.  i also didn't realize that the housekeeper from "the beautiful and the damned" was real.  also the squirrel coat really existed too!  or that the actress from "tender is the night" was based on lois moran, i knew the novel's affair was based on a real affair but didn't realize it was based on an actual actress that young (i had to google her, and she will only be famous for her literary counterpart).  i wanted to read nancy milford's bio of zelda which has been sitting on my bookshelf but since "z" is due back at the library on thursday didn't think i had the time.  oh well, this has sparked my need to read that, reread "save me the waltz" and another novel called "beautiful fools" about scott's last affair.

so back to "z", though interesting, i will admit that at times i did get a bit bored.  i mean i got it, scott was an alcoholic and as a result was a horrible husband.  in an afterword, fowler discussed how there are two camps "team scott" or "team zelda" when it comes to who was the victim in their destructive relationship.  i have always been team zelda, i mean, have you read a "tender is the night" and "save me the waltz"?!?! both novels discuss the same period in their life and i read scott as the destructive one.  sure nicole and alabama were instituationlized but its known some women were instituationlized for having "crazy" thought of independence and rejecting the cult of domesticity versus actual

illness.  

this point of view of zelda's bouts in mental institutions was interested and i appreciated fowler's presentation of it as such.  as i read about z's (i'll use z for the character in the book and zelda for the real zelda) time in institutions it demonstrated how she was not crazy but just rejected the traditional female roles society forced upon her.  she didn't want to stay at home and live a life of leisure.  she wanted to participate in the social sphere.  in addition to that,  she wanted to be seen as an individual from her husband.  and what did scott expect? the very spirit and personality he fell in love with was the same one he tried to mute later in life.  and plus with all the alcohol involved plus the partying its no surprised they had issues (see:  my life 2007-10).  also it was sad to see how writing was good therapy for z but she was not allowed to do it.  

in the afterword, fowler also mentioned zelda was probably misdiagnosed and today would be diagnosed as bipolar.  also her meds harmed her more than help.  though i think it was the time period that was against her versus any mental illness, it reminded me of the book "girl interrupted", these women were not crazy only had too progressive thoughts for the time period. z's "illness" was really just an unwillingness to conform to female gender roles.

though i did appreciate fowler's painting of z's institutionalization, there were some things i could have done without.  one being all the hemingway nonsense. i get that hemingway and zelda hated each other but that scene when hem made a pass at z was way too graphic for my liking.  z had her outlandish moments but that seemed really out of character.   also i did not enjoy all the fairy talk.  i know cole porter was questationable (i did see "de-lovely" and fairy or not he is one of my favorite songwriters) but did people really question ernest and scott's relationship?!?  and then the scene with scott's moaning?  i think that was all done in poor taste.

[author's note:  so i just finished reading in nancy milford's biography,"zelda", that the moaning incident did occur.  and there was talk of hemingway and fitzgerald being faires!]

and my last critique is that fowler's "z" wasn't as colorful as the real zelda.  zelda's works are always filled with clever little lines and musings but there wasn't too much of that in "z".  i mean fowler tried but didn't succeed.  also i got tried of z interrupting awkward moments with a comment about dancing.  though i guess she was the epitome of the flapper girl.

all in all, glad i read it since it sparked a new interest in the fitzgeralds.  but left me wondering what really went on.  and as a result,  i plan on reading alot more about f. scott and zelda.

ps i totally forgot.  so the book is divided into parts and have an epigraph.  all of them were quite delightful:

always be drunk:

thought this quite clever since scott was a wordsmith:

and of course how great was the dedication page:

the great gatsby. movie version.

i never get to say this about film adaption of books so excited to write this: this was a wonderful adaption of "the great gatsby". most films based on books leave me upset because they normally ruin stories that i love or cut out my favorite parts or lines but this was great. kudos to the screenplay writer/adapter.

there were two incidents at the beginning which let me know the film was going to do the novel justice: the green light shining across the bay and when toby maguire described gatsby as being as sensitive as an earthquake machine (one of my favorite lines). i loved that most of the great lines of the novel were included in the movie like daisy's quote about a girl being a fool, and jordan's large parties quote. i think most of the quotes i listed in my post about the novel were included in the film.

i was also impressed with so many of the events in the book finding moments in the film. the scene when nick first enters the room with daisy and jordan in it was just like the novel with the exception of jordan sitting like a statue but the billowing curtains were spot on. i was surprised by the inclusion of the clock incident when daisy and gatsby meet for the first time and of course the scene when gatsby and nick cross the bridge with the white driver and the black people partying (this was also one of my favorite music scenes). these little details proved that everyone working on the film actually read the novel. though i will add that the scene at the party in the library would have been better if the man talked about how the books were real and he had gone to the library to sober up because he had been drinking for three days straight. but other than that a wonderful adaption.

the movie even helped me understand some parts of the story better. for example, i never got tom's reference to drugstores when they switch cars until the movie. also the film did a lovely job of showing how gatsby could not grasp that love is fluid. that though daisy did not love tom at that moment, it didn't mean that she had never loved him. gatsby was so insistent on daisy's love being only for him but sadly that is not how the world
works. we have different degrees of love for people in our lives and though we may fall out of love with someone we never truly stop loving them because you can not erase the past. it was heartbreaking to see his lack of depth when it came to love when it seemed that his whole life was driven by his love for daisy.

i think the casting was great. leonardo did an excellent job as gatsby (though a little old). my favorite scene was when he was so nervous about meeting daisy. i also loved how well he played gatsby's need to impress daisy, there was a slight desperation to his gatsby that is seen throughout the book. i thought that carey mulligan did lovely as daisy, she did the voice described in the novel justice. but i will add that i couldn't handle her hair long in the flashback scenes. also my inner modest reader did not read daisy's blossoming as her "blossoming" but i guess it was. lol.

and the fashion was amazing!!!! i wanted jordan baker's hat from the first scene party scene. and of course daisy's crystal dress!!! and all of her headpieces. i already looked on etsy, a headpiece like that will cost me $200 (#poorgirlproblems).

and those parties! where do i get a giant champagne bottle that shoots out confetti!!! i really missed out not being around for the 1920/30's.

last but not least the "eyes of god" billboard was perfection.

but even with all of this gushing, i can not give "the great gatsby" my stamp of approval. the reason being the one thing that i was certain was going to be amazing ended up sucking, and that was the soundtrack. baz luhrmann has utilized some amazing songs for his movies "kissing you" in "romeo and juliet" or "roxanne" and "like a virgin" in "moulin rouge". granted "moulin rouge" is a musical, i was expecting gatsby parties to have a great soundtrack like the "because we can can can" of moulin rouge but everything was lame. i should have known it was going to suck when i heard that awful cover of amy winehouse's "back to black" with beyonce and andre 3000. i liked the part in the apt with myrtle and the scene on the bridge but everything else was ho-hum. the lana del ray song was good but used too much. the first party song was such a snoozefest. and between the gerswhins and cole porter, lurhmann could have put together some good covers or mash ups. but nada. the soundtrack was a serious letdown and i thought it was going to blow my mind. oh well, i can't get to judge-y because at least he didn't destroy this "the great gatsby".

all in all, "moulin rouge" is still my favorite of his but at least he didn't kill gatsby well figuratively speaking.

the great gatsby. f. scott fitzgerald.

before i start, seriously how tender is the dedication page. it's about as tender as night is.

so as i explained in my previous post i wasn't impressed with my initial reading of "the great gatsby". looking back, it's probably because instead of getting a great love story between daisy and gatsby, i got a lesson on how one should leave the past in the past. and since i was looking for love and came up empty handed, i reacted like the cold hearted person i am, indifferent. it wasn't bad but it didn't make leave a lasting impression on me. plus "the great gatsby" is always always claimed as an important american classic but i didn't seem that great to me.

however, on my second read i had a greater appreciation for "the great gatsby". i am embarrassed that on my first reading, i neglected fitzgerald's beautiful prose. i remember finding so many great lines in "this side of paradise" (which was my second fitzgerald read) but didn't find any lines interesting on my first read, but that definitely changed on my second. maybe it's because i have become a more avid reader of the classics and also have read more of fitzgerald's works so am now more qualified to identify great lines. here are some of my favorite:

“if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promise of life, as if he related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away."

“i hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

“there are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”

“and I like large parties. they’re so intimate. at small parties there isn’t any privacy.”

“i wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”

“let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.”

"it was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.”

“in his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”

“thirty--the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
(god, it sucks getting old).

and of course with this more careful reading, i realized how great of a novel
"the great gatsby" is.  the story line had so many twist and turns. first there is the mystery and suspense of "who is gatsby". my favorite tale was of the girl who ripped her dress at his party and how he sent her a replacement. then, of course the story of love lost then found. and last but not least the surprising ending of gatsby and the demonstration of how horrible and cruel people can be. unfortunately, gatsby's ending was for the best because as horrible as tom was, daisy would have never left him. and loke i said before it is so sad how daisy and tom ruined people's lives and then just moved on with their own.

in my usual fashion with love stories (see: anna karenina, wuthering heights) i could not indulge in gatsby's love for daisy. instead of finding it romantic, i found it pathetic. yes, i believe that everyone has one great love in their life but if life doesn't work out for you than that person was not your true great love. trust me, i spent years pining after one person in my twenties and realize now that i was not in love with that person but in love with the idea of him. and that is what happen with gatsby, he wasn't in love with daisy but the memory of her. daisy was no longer the young girl from louisville, gatsby fell in love with but he couldn't grasp that. gatsby's inability to understand this is because he got stuck in a moment (to quote U2). and that is the saddest part of the book, even more sad than his death. whereas daisy went on with her life: got married, had a kid and lived; gatsby stayed trapped by his love for her. he spent 5 years trying to impress her, some may call this romance but i call it a waste of time.

but of course, it's unhappy ending is what makes it more true. i know i hated it at first but in actuality it is what makes the story great. and my sincerest apologies to f. scott, it is great but still think it would have been more compelling if i read it at an earlier age.

ps. flavorpill had an article about reading "the great gatsby" for the first time at 37 article about reading "the great gatsby" for the first time at the age of 37. it best describes why one should read it at an earlier age though it is good at any age.

re-reading the great gatsby.

since baz luhrmann's film adaptation of "the great gatsby" is coming out tomorrow, i thought i would do a quick rereading before i see the film. (and quick, right now i'm in the middle of "beloved" and need to finish that because i just got a new novel about zelda fitzgerald at the library.)

so before i start my reread, though i would jot down my initial impression of the book before i do my rereading.

so i have to admit that in my humble opinion it should have been called "the not so great gatsby" or "the decent gatsby". my life was not altered after reading it for the first time. though i will admit that it could have been due to my age. i read it when i was 28 instead of the usual early twenties. i remember talking to my cousin jonathan who was/is 8 years younger than me and it seemed to have left a bigger impression on him than me.

and don't get me wrong, jay gatsby's character is great and deserving of that title. his unwavering love for daisy is swoon worthy though the stalking aka buying a house near her, and the scheming, aka throwing lavish parties to get her attention, was creepy. wait i take that back, i want a man that will throw lavish parties with lots and lots of champagne to get my attention. and talk about great parties!!!

sidenote on the parties: so the fitzgeralds are notorious for their partying and i really feel that if i was alive during their era we would have been BFFs. i am an exotic mix, they would have invited me to add some color.

but other than the novel didn't move me. i hated the fact that daisy went back to her husband. and in the end the two of them come out of the horrible messes they made unscathed. they ruined people's lives and then went back to their marriage as though nothing was wrong. daisy especially since she was responsible for the end of myrtle and jay. i guess that is what i didn't like, is that she doesn't suffer the consequences of her actions. granted she had to live the rest of her life with her horrid husband who probably continued to cheat on her but at least she is alive. daisy didn't deserve a love like gatsby and maybe that is why i didn't enjoy the novel. i don't know. we'll see how i feel after this second rereading.

this side of paradise. f. scott fitzgerald (3)

i read "the great gatsby" and thought it was not all that great.  it should have been called "the good gatsby" or maybe "the decent gatsby", but great seemed like a misnomer.  but people love their f. scott fitzgerald, so i decided to pick up another of his books to see what he was all about.  i decided to start with his first work "this side of paradise".

and i have to say "the great gatsby" did not do fitzgerald justice.  "this side of paradise" was filled with so many great lines, but then again i think i'm made of the same cloth as f. scott and zelda fitzgerald.  people made of that cloth simply want a life of leisure, constantly in the pursuit of not only happiness but entertainment as well, even if it beyond their means.  

fitzgerald stringed these pearls of wisdom throughout his book.  the thoughts and opinions of his two character amory blaine and rosalind:

i'm a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires”- armory


"i'm as restless as the devil and have a horror of getting fat or falling in love and growing domestic." -amory
(this is seriously my biggest fear in life)

"her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others."
(i try to seize the day (though not the responsible day), but am pretty lack when it comes to other people's lives, do what you want.)



i like sunshine and pretty things and cheerfulness-- i dread responsibility."-rosalind 
(i swear his words not mine.)



i googled f. scott to find out more about his life because i admired his words of wisdom.  and i now get all the fuss over the fitzgeralds.  who doesn't want to party all night and lead glamorous lives.  i also learned a little something about "the lost generation" and just like i thought i was a beat before i feel more aligned with this generation. (coincidentally, there are many similarities between the two. both were disillusioned by the world wars and had looser and less conservative values/morals than prior to the war.) 

as i was reading i couldn't help but think history does repeat itself.  armory said of himself, "i'm a cynical idealist", and i think this is an adequate description of my generation.  i remember reading an article once about how my generation, the millennials, are extremely skeptical about the government.  we don't trust the government especially when it comes to war.  however, even though we are cynical about how our country is ran, we are extremely hopefully.  i mean that obey giant obama hope poster worked on us like no other (i own a shirt).  we are also extremely optimistic about what the future holds for us.  so i guess that would make us cynical idealists?

the major similarity between us, the lost generations and the beats was that a war left us all disillusioned.   though we didn't have a great war, i think that 9/11 and the war against terrorism has effected my generation the same way that world war I effected the lost generation.  for millennials, we were "lost" or confused because the enemy we were fighting wasn't necessarily the country that attacked us.  furthermore, we wanted to be patriotic but couldn't support a war that in our eyes wasn't justified.  fitzgerald's generation was lost because they fought a world war and came back to lives in turmoil.  in addition to this, what the lost generations and my generation also share is a period of economic turmoil; the great depression and our current recession.  as resulted both could be considered "lost." this loss of faith for fitzgerald's described as:

"we want to believe. young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their congressmen, countries try to believe in their statesmen, but they can't. too many voices, too much scattered, illogical ill-considered criticism.”

this description is also relevant today. we want to have faith (our hope) but know it is impossible.  as i read i armory's viewpoints on politics and the economy i couldn't help but draw parallels to the way the world is today.

but not everything stays static.   i was surprised by the whole hotel checking in incident.  its crazy to imagine a time when the only man and woman pair that could stay at a hotel room was husband and wife!  not that i'm a floozy but its difficult to imagine having to show paperwork to prove you can stay in a hotel room with a woman!

in addition to this words of wisdom on life and politics, fitzgerald impressed me with his clever descriptions and writing style.  he opened book two with a clever description of a mess in a girl's room.  he wrote:

"great disorder consisting of the following items (1):  seven or eight empty cardboard boxes, with tissue-paper tongues hanging panting from their mouths; (2) an assortment of street dresses mingled with their sisters of the evening, all upon the table, all evidently new; (3) a roll of tulle, which has lost its dignity and wound itself tortuously around everything in sight . . . "

i bolded my favorite line.  it was almost like a poem in the middle of the novel.  an ode to a messy room.  i also enjoyed book two because fitzgerald switched styles and wrote it like a play, which i found interesting because everything that surrounded rosalind was melodramatic.

i thoroughly enjoyed "this side of paradise".  i found him clever, wise and delightful.  and i am glad i gave him another go versus just keeping "the great gatsby" as the only book of his that i read.