Comments on: Last Lines

By: Paul Marchbanks

Paul Marchbanks — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 12:58:00 +0000

Oh, no–I totally agree with your reading of those lines: memory as current we usually row against, though sometimes it’s far easier to let it carry us back into the rosy haze of the recreated not-now.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 02:26:00 +0000

Paul,Yes, Fitzgerald's Gatsby is a *perfect* book. I've had the pleasure of teaching it a number of times. There's nothing like teaching something for learning it.I am fascinated by memory, too, and am working heavily with it in my creative *project*. We looked at memory a bit in a modernist course I took; I really enjoyed Proust's treatment of memory in Swann's Way, and hope to look at that more in depth.But I don't take Fitzgerald's last line as a willing surrender to memory, preferring it to the present or even the future. To me, it reads that memory is the current -- we are naturally drawn backward, even though we set our boats "against the current"; almost trying to avoid it?Help me if I've got that wrong.And-- for heaven's sake!-- read Charlotte's Web!!!!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:43:00 +0000

Paul M, you MUST read Charlotte’s Web! I’m not sure how many times I’ve read it, Rebecca, but I know I’ve not read it to Madelyn, so it’s time for another go at getting through the last paragraph without tears!

By: Paul M.

Paul M. — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:32:00 +0000

Oh, and though I've never read Charlotte's Web, I did play the role of Templeton in a community production of the play once upon a time!More good memories you're provoking!

By: Paul Marchbanks

Paul Marchbanks — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:31:00 +0000

You're so right--this novel's like poetry (as I told my wife after my last reading of it a few years ago). I've read fewer that were better written.Thanks for the quick stroll down memory lane (yeah, I suppose the pun's intended). Haven't been able to read much American fiction since my first year in grad school, but fondly remember teaching Gatsby a few years ago, as well as working back in undergrad on the self-deception and memory manipulation of various American literary figures (including Gatsby). An interesting question, to what degree we should value the past. T. S. Eliot and Faulkner would say there's little else to know, but then, we're sure not supposed to let *live* in it (anyone familiar with the enormous photo gallery I've created for our family will hopefully laugh at my hypocrisy here). Fitzgerald's metaphor sure is the right one, isn't it? It's so much easier to release the oars and get swept back into what it's so easy to romanticize.Some good readin' you got goin' there.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 12:46:00 +0000

Happy to oblige.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 03:52:00 +0000

Thanks for the tingles.