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

[alice wellintown]

This is one of the best essayson Gatby I've come across; and, for
those interested in the luddite issues, and in what Tanner The
American Mystery, and the use of light agaist the day, this is a
wonderful essay.

The "constant flicker" of the American scene

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=englishfacpubs

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 5:57 AM,  <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:
> 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 ....
>
>
>
>
>
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>