All of this, and: there's another critical ingredient to the Fitzgeralds' failed marriage, and that is the way it established an uneven and ultimately exploitative relationship between two people with creative aspirations. Nancy Milford's biography, Zelda, is a haunting anatomy of how this unfolded. The short version is: Fitzgerald regarded everything Zelda said, did, and wrote as his own property, to be used, as he wished, and at will, in his own work. He was a plagiarist of his mostly unpublished wife, extracting from her language, stories, ideas, energy, and using them in his own work to push his fame forward. She was wild and difficult, yes. She was also strip-mined for her brilliance by her husband, who, when she was used up and no longer worth anything to him, put her away in an asylum, where she continued to try to create, and where she finally died in a fire, alone.
To be fair, I too disliked Gatsby on my first read through too… but looking back on it today, I have to disagree. The book is a masterpiece. Might do a post in the future defending my argument lol
Another great piece! Thank you Sean!
Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate you reading 🙏
Forget college, there should be four years of required training to be a good, functioning, healthy adult before marrying and having children.
I would not be opposed 😂🙌
All of this, and: there's another critical ingredient to the Fitzgeralds' failed marriage, and that is the way it established an uneven and ultimately exploitative relationship between two people with creative aspirations. Nancy Milford's biography, Zelda, is a haunting anatomy of how this unfolded. The short version is: Fitzgerald regarded everything Zelda said, did, and wrote as his own property, to be used, as he wished, and at will, in his own work. He was a plagiarist of his mostly unpublished wife, extracting from her language, stories, ideas, energy, and using them in his own work to push his fame forward. She was wild and difficult, yes. She was also strip-mined for her brilliance by her husband, who, when she was used up and no longer worth anything to him, put her away in an asylum, where she continued to try to create, and where she finally died in a fire, alone.
Never got F Scott Fitzgerald. Great Gatsby is boring
To be fair, I too disliked Gatsby on my first read through too… but looking back on it today, I have to disagree. The book is a masterpiece. Might do a post in the future defending my argument lol