The Feminization of American Culture: Ann Douglas: 9780374525583: Amazon.com: Books

[bandwraith at aol.com]

I like Fitzgerald- but then I'm partial to Keats. Two scenes stand out
for me from the otherwise wonderfully masochistic
deconstruction of Dick Diver in Tender is the Night:

the scene in Switzerland  from the balustrade, looking out into the
visto- It might have been something like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Lauterbrunnental_train.jpg

where the space is suddenly transected by filamentous tendrils of
lightening. It reminded me of GR, when Slothrop is on the lamb, either
in Geneva or Zurich, I can't remember which, and the narrator remarks
on how this Swiss venue is a magnet for genius: Joyce, Einstein... He
could have listed others- Shelly, Jung, & etc.,  just something about
the place.

And such a wonderful contrast- the cerebral north with the warm, mellow
Riviera, and the dinner tables floating into the night.

Then there is another- quirky scene- where Dick is taken to a "parlor"
of sorts, and clearly the people there are smoking hemp, and suddenly
everything is very futuristic, not at all weighed down by The
Depression, despite  the impending horror of WW II. Very Mod.

It's not hard to see (and feel) the Fitzgeraldean influence on Pynchon,
and that without even mentioning the intro to "Been Down So Long...."




-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
To: malignd <malignd at aol.com>; pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Mon, Oct 1, 2012 1:21 pm...
Subject: Re: The Feminization of American Culture: Ann Douglas:
9780374525583: Amazon.com: Books



> Gatsby is a marvel, but it's one small book.

While Gatsby always appeared symbolically overloaded to me - "the green
light at the end of the pier" and everything -, I consider Tender is
the Night to be one of the best American novels ever. Fitzgerald's
skills do better unfold on the long distance. The rhythm, the
experience of time. Here the author treats some of his basic themes
like love, addiction and psychosis more convincingly than anywhere else
in his work. And the book really breathes the Mediterranean aroma.
Although I read the novel carefully several times, I still don't know
how Fitzgerald manages to evoke that positive feeling in the reader
(the tenderness the title mentions) until the very end despite
everything - the second water-ski scene is simply heartbreaking -
falling into pieces. It's really magic (I know no other word here).
Together with Gravity's Rainbow and Moby Dick it's my favorite American
novel.  

What is it that you don't like about it?

On 01.10.2012 00:15, malignd at aol.com wrote:

It's Faulkner for the 20th century; for the first half, in a rout.
 Hemingway wrote great stories (so did Faulkner) but only one great
novel, and that was his first.  Try to read Across the River and
Through the Trees without laughing.  Gatsby is a marvel, but it's one
small book. Kerouac?  Please ....