Posted by caitlin Mc Veigh on May 09, 19101 at 09:40:43:
In Reply to: Fitzgerald read in Europe posted by Chris on May 20, 1998 at 08:41:43:
: A few years ago I read several books by F.S.F.
: (Great Gasby, Last Tycoon, Diamond as big as the Ritz
: and other stories). I wondered what the hell made
: him famous, so famous that there were several
: screen adaptations (which is often sort of proof
: for "famousness", isn't it). - However, I don't
: like the movies too much. It is the books that - at
: least to me - seem to convey a mixture of melancholy/
: sadness and as a counterpart to this, the belief in
: something, e.g. love, often ending in exasperation.
: The characterizations of the protagonists (e.g.
: The Great Gasby) seem to personify this
: conflict. They are men who made their way, achieved
: a lot in their lives (at least from the point of view
: of money and success), and yet they are not happy, in
: fact not nearly so. They are driven by an emptiness
: that may be as timeless as mankind and this would
: be a reason to call F. a classic.
: Is it F's criticism of this orientation towards the
: outside world, indicating that the inside world,
: man's psyche is at least as important as success
: and money or even more important?
: I think if F. wouldn't have lived a life similar to
: that of his main protagonists the books would of
: course be totally different. But he is convincing
: as he himself was part of the Hollywood world.
: What do Americans think about F.?
: Is he still much read in USA?
: And what do you think about F.?
: I'm very much interested in what you think about it!!