The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Jeff Wrangler:
I am getting a huge kick out of the previously unpublished F. Scott Fitzgerald story in the March 20 issue.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on March 28, 2017, 01:26:58 pm ---I am getting a huge kick out of the previously unpublished F. Scott Fitzgerald story in the March 20 issue.
--- End quote ---
Good to know! I'll read it.
I was really into F. Scott when I was in about 8th or 9th grade. I think I read all of his books at the time. But I haven't read more than a couple of his short stories.
I also really like his essay "The Crackup." I bought another collection of his essays a year or two ago, but didn't get as into it. I think they were purposely curated to counter any negative impressions caused by The Crackup. Hence, they weren't as interesting.
There's a big annual Fitgerald Society conference in St. Paul in June -- only the second time it has been held in his hometown. I may try to go to some of the events.
http://www.fitzgerald2017.org/
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on March 30, 2017, 11:02:54 am ---I was really into F. Scott when I was in about 8th or 9th grade. I think I read all of his books at the time. But I haven't read more than a couple of his short stories.
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately I developed an aversion to Fitzgerald that I've never been able to overcome. Or, never made an effort to overcome. My memory is a little vague now, but my mother gave me a copy of The Great Gatsby when I was still an adolescent--I have no idea why she did that, and probably I was too young for it, or to appreciate it, or to understand it--and I just remember really not liking it. I've wondered whether my mother really knew what she was doing when she gave me that book. It never did sound like the sort of thing she would read. But that soured me on Fitzgerald, and so the short story has been a bit of a revelation.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on March 30, 2017, 12:09:03 pm ---Unfortunately I developed an aversion to Fitzgerald that I've never been able to overcome. Or, never made an effort to overcome. My memory is a little vague now, but my mother gave me a copy of The Great Gatsby when I was still an adolescent--I have no idea why she did that, and probably I was too young for it, or to appreciate it, or to understand it--and I just remember really not liking it. I've wondered whether my mother really knew what she was doing when she gave me that book. It never did sound like the sort of thing she would read. But that soured me on Fitzgerald, and so the short story has been a bit of a revelation.
--- End quote ---
The first thing of his I read was This Side of Paradise. I can't remember why I liked it so much. I was kind of a 1920s buff, I guess.
The Great Gatsby is his classic, of course (though it received petty meh reviews). But my favorite of his was unfinished, posthumously published The Last Tycoon, perhaps because it was a fictionalized portrait of the producer Irving Thalberg, who was another part of my 1920s fixation.
My son, in college in LA, just received something called the Mary Pickford Scholarship. I explained that she was the Jennifer Lawrence of the 19-teens, and founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. I had forgotten (perhaps subconsciously on purpose) about D.W. Griffith's involvement, but my son, though not familiar with Mary, actually knew that part.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on March 30, 2017, 03:40:54 pm ---My son, in college in LA, just received something called the Mary Pickford Scholarship. I explained that she was the Jennifer Lawrence of the 19-teens, and founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks. I had forgotten (perhaps subconsciously on purpose) about D.W. Griffith's involvement, but my son, though not familiar with Mary, actually knew that part.
--- End quote ---
Yes, you mentioned that somewhere around here.
But it's funny that today you should mention an actress that your son--and probably lots of other people in his generation--knows very little about.
After seeing the road company of The King and I last night, today I was doing some reading on the history of the play. Although it ended up making a star of Yul Brynner, I already knew it was written to be a star vehicle for Gertrude Lawrence. She was a big star in the Forties, but how many people today have even heard of Gertrude Lawrence? (Julie Andrews played her in the movie Star, which was a huge flop.)
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