Hi. I don’t think I have ever been this vulnerable in my entire life. So, I discovered your channel through your analysis on ‘The Bell Jar’. Honestly, I could relate to every word you spoke especially when you were talking about the branches of the fig tree and the fear Gloria faced about losing her youth. I turned 27 in December and I am nowhere in my career, love/relationship and life in general. I have been indecisive and anxious. There was this expiration date that has passed and there is no hope left.
Hi ❤️ I’m 27 too, and I totally understand. Something in my brain changed when I passed 25. Like, somehow I always thought I could run away from aging. Like my late 20s (and my 30s and 40s etc) couldn’t catch me. It’s scary, and I often feel like I’ve already passed the point of being useful or interesting. I’m hoping to face each new year of my life with grace, and patience with myself. I may not know what I’m doing or where I’m going, and that’s ok. You’re not alone!!
I feel the same way you do about his characters...they're too often self-absorbed, self-pitying, narcissists full of ambition for recognition and status. They have as much depth as a postage stamp. And they can be mean.
Quite the coincidence to come across your page. The last two books me and my best friend finished were the beautiful and the dammed and hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. I also have read through Fitzgerald in 2021 and find his main characters incredibly compelling and moving as a young man trying to find himself in society. Deep down with a longing to be understood loved, these self centered characters display a sentimental mood toward human connection that is centered around a self pleasure which is the significance social change of the 20’s that has shaped our culture to this day. Fitzgerald has eloquently relayed the human condition through the means of incredible prose. Beautiful and damned is the saddest book I have ever read showing the deceitful lure of cleverness which I find in my life a provocative demon.
For most people rebelling is a stage of life not so for Anthony and Gloria. Spoiled children,spoiled adults. F.Scott loves to pick on Catholism however a belief in God and understanding we are here to help our neighbors would have saved the characters and the author from being shallow and damned.
It's a tough read due to the subject matter. However, after reading this book I never discuss the weather but rather exchange aphorisms about the fluctuations in the mercury.
Many a congrat on succeeding with a unreliable computer to tell us such an interesting reaction Saoirse! I have not, and don't intent to, read this FSF book, and you've given me several good reasons not to... I read a huge amount of existential lit when I was at uni, and your discussion/analysis could be applied to considerable degree to that whole genre. But I LOVED to torture myself with such writers, mainly cuz a meaningless life made a lot of sense to me. Finally, perhaps cuz I grew up in the late 60s, I never got the multiple choice & indecision you seem to take for granted. I just followed one opportunity at a time, almost on a lark, and wound up a cultural anthropologist prof/researcher for 25 yrs. I never sought that life as some kind of goal, among many possibilities. Rather, it was merely the road I travel. Love to listen to you talk about books&you. Thanx
OK - I can't keep up !? I do love his works...you have a long way to go before you have to worry about getting 'old'. FYI - the older you get, the older 'old' gets. lol I do tend to like a lot of authors/books from that particular Era. As for age: Be accepting and age gracefully, do not try and re-live or assume an image of youth. IMHO
I’m 71: you're . . . 27. So I thought, What will she know about The B and the D? But I was wrong. I agree with all that you say. Scott and Zelda were pretty worthless people. So are Anthony and Gloria. You have to give Scott top marks for self-awareness, which is one of the reasons he was indeed a great writer. He loved and must have loathed Zelda. Montgomery, Alabama, where she spent much of her life, has an awful history of racism, of which all the members of the wretched cast of her life seem to have been impervious. Her mother was alive when Rosa Parks did her bit for humanity. My reactions to B&D were the same as yours except that the ending and last chapter are a cop-out. Gloria and Anthony ought to have got their come-uppance (a la Trollope, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Fowls etc., etc., etc.). Anthony mad and Gloria 'unclean' are not good enough. Scott wasted his talents (and, knowing it, drank). His short stories are his best things. He wrote some of the best ever written: whatshername bobs her hair; the crystal (glass?) bowl. Don't worry about time and aging. Consciousness creates and endures (read The Grand Biocentric Design by Robert Lanza and tell us what you think about his writing style ~~~). You will write something very good yourself between the ages of 35 and 40. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Hi. I don’t think I have ever been this vulnerable in my entire life. So, I discovered your channel through your analysis on ‘The Bell Jar’. Honestly, I could relate to every word you spoke especially when you were talking about the branches of the fig tree and the fear Gloria faced about losing her youth. I turned 27 in December and I am nowhere in my career, love/relationship and life in general. I have been indecisive and anxious. There was this expiration date that has passed and there is no hope left.
Hi ❤️ I’m 27 too, and I totally understand. Something in my brain changed when I passed 25. Like, somehow I always thought I could run away from aging. Like my late 20s (and my 30s and 40s etc) couldn’t catch me. It’s scary, and I often feel like I’ve already passed the point of being useful or interesting. I’m hoping to face each new year of my life with grace, and patience with myself. I may not know what I’m doing or where I’m going, and that’s ok. You’re not alone!!
I feel the same way you do about his characters...they're too often self-absorbed, self-pitying, narcissists full of ambition for recognition and status. They have as much depth as a postage stamp. And they can be mean.
That is that era though, no doubt
Quite the coincidence to come across your page. The last two books me and my best friend finished were the beautiful and the dammed and hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. I also have read through Fitzgerald in 2021 and find his main characters incredibly compelling and moving as a young man trying to find himself in society. Deep down with a longing to be understood loved, these self centered characters display a sentimental mood toward human connection that is centered around a self pleasure which is the significance social change of the 20’s that has shaped our culture to this day. Fitzgerald has eloquently relayed the human condition through the means of incredible prose. Beautiful and damned is the saddest book I have ever read showing the deceitful lure of cleverness which I find in my life a provocative demon.
there is definitely an idea of nihilist in both of those books I find.
For most people rebelling is a stage of life not so for Anthony and Gloria. Spoiled children,spoiled adults. F.Scott loves to pick on Catholism however a belief in God and understanding we are here to help our neighbors would have saved the characters and the author from being shallow and damned.
Thanks for the sharing. Your thoughts just hit so hard.
It's a tough read due to the subject matter. However, after reading this book I never discuss the weather but rather exchange aphorisms about the fluctuations in the mercury.
Many a congrat on succeeding with a unreliable computer to tell us such an interesting reaction Saoirse!
I have not, and don't intent to, read this FSF book, and you've given me several good reasons not to... I read a huge amount of existential lit when I was at uni, and your discussion/analysis could be applied to considerable degree to that whole genre. But I LOVED to torture myself with such writers, mainly cuz a meaningless life made a lot of sense to me.
Finally, perhaps cuz I grew up in the late 60s, I never got the multiple choice & indecision you seem to take for granted. I just followed one opportunity at a time, almost on a lark, and wound up a cultural anthropologist prof/researcher for 25 yrs. I never sought that life as some kind of goal, among many possibilities. Rather, it was merely the road I travel.
Love to listen to you talk about books&you. Thanx
OK - I can't keep up !? I do love his works...you have a long way to go before you have to worry about getting 'old'.
FYI - the older you get, the older 'old' gets. lol
I do tend to like a lot of authors/books from that particular Era.
As for age: Be accepting and age gracefully, do not try and re-live or assume an image of youth. IMHO
I’m 71: you're . . . 27. So I thought, What will she know about The B and the D? But I was wrong. I agree with all that you say. Scott and Zelda were pretty worthless people. So are Anthony and Gloria. You have to give Scott top marks for self-awareness, which is one of the reasons he was indeed a great writer. He loved and must have loathed Zelda. Montgomery, Alabama, where she spent much of her life, has an awful history of racism, of which all the members of the wretched cast of her life seem to have been impervious. Her mother was alive when Rosa Parks did her bit for humanity. My reactions to B&D were the same as yours except that the ending and last chapter are a cop-out. Gloria and Anthony ought to have got their come-uppance (a la Trollope, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Fowls etc., etc., etc.). Anthony mad and Gloria 'unclean' are not good enough. Scott wasted his talents (and, knowing it, drank). His short stories are his best things. He wrote some of the best ever written: whatshername bobs her hair; the crystal (glass?) bowl. Don't worry about time and aging. Consciousness creates and endures (read The Grand Biocentric Design by Robert Lanza and tell us what you think about his writing style ~~~). You will write something very good yourself between the ages of 35 and 40. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
I like the decadence of the Jazz age. :)
Damn, I've just turned 30 this year. It's kinda fun though. You give less fucks once you're on this side.
Hy 🌹😊