As I posted earlier, I am reading all things Fitzgerald, combining the faction novel of Zelda Fitzgerald with all of the works that F. Scott wrote as well. (And, in horror, discovered that Zelda was advised to send in her own writing using Scott's name so they could get more money for them.)
Like any narcissist or ego-maniac, Scott doesn't do well if he's not wildly popular and well loved by the masses. What struck me, as I have been delving into this project, is he isn't so much an amazing writer as he is a great marketer.
I am struggling to get through his first novel, I really am. It is like a bunch of things strung together with no real story, more thoughts and events, but no real meat. I have also read that that is exactly what the book is -- and that he did just that, put together journal entries and new writing to create a book as quickly as he could so he could win his bride. Hey, one of my biggest criticisms in school was spending time talking about what the author MEANT when he wrote the book. Drove me crazy, I felt it was a true waste of time, and while I am doing that to a certain level here, it is different in that I am taking many different pieces and drawing a conclusion based on those. Obviously the majority of his work is based on his life or how he perceived his life to be or how he WANTED his life to be. Nothing out of the ordinary there, no, but weave in the time period (the roaring twenties) and also the roles that were defined for women and men which wouldn't and couldn't work in this new flapper world, and what you get are a lot of though-provoking situations.
So here is my premature analysis, as I have only just begun to read all of the material (but I have read a lot of magazine and newspaper articles of the time) and what I have concluded at this juncture is that the Fitzgerald's were reality TV stars of their time. They would have LOVED to have cameras follow them around and report their everyday lives. They thought they were great, they sold that to their friends and acquaintances, they had no idea what they were doing but they didn't care because they found themselves on magazine covers, and that just felt right. They were a product of a society in the midst of change -- and to those housewives stuck at home, their scandalous world was titillating and exciting, and to those men, home from war, starting their new lives and jobs and feeling the weight of all of those responsibilities, it might have given them pause .... ahh, if only I was a creative and able to live off my art and be irresponsible and gay ... all the while knowing that they were in a better place, for parties always end. They just do.
Here is a husband, in the public eye, encouraging his wife, a mere 20-year-old southern girl, to be crazy. They liquored themselves up, they adorned luxurious outfits, and they went out into New York City and traipsed around in public fountains, or made public nuisances of themselves, in reality, but no one cared! Just like that Jersey Shore crew ... it's all pretty disgusting, but it sure makes good TV! And the press followed them because, well, I think we all know by now that that is what the press does! And Scott capitalized on that, and while he may not have been the greatest writer of all time (my opinion of course) he sure as hell was the greatest manipulator of those forces that could be combined to make he and his wife more than. More than they really were, for in the end they were just a man and a woman in a union for better or worse. Not a new story, not a story of the ages, just one that we know about because it was important for HIM to be known.
It would be interesting what he would have done in this time to make a name for himself -- this time being a world flooded with gifted authors, publishers who only care about making a ton of money and could care less about literary achievement, and a world where acting crazy isn't going to make you stand out. At all.
I suspect he would be a nobody, just like you and me. Though I don't consider myself a nobody -- so I've already got that going for me, whereas he did not. He was one of a million regular fellas who figured out how to market himself. Kudos for him. Not sure it worked out all that well, for really he was probably just an alcoholic. But he wrote novels that our parents have read, that we have read, and our children have read, and that is really something, even if that wasn't the reason he wrote at all.
To be continued ...!
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