MIKE: This post comes just a day after my previous post because I've finished reading chapter two and want to read chapter three. To be honest, I read the first three pages of chapter three and started thinking about elements of it that I'd want to comment on and then I realized all my ideas are running together and that I really need to post my reactions to chapter two. So here I sit, fifteen minutes removed from hipsters, a double-Joe-to-go and the white noise of Small World Coffee to the nearest computer I could find at Princeton Public Library.
Chapter 2 begins in typical Fitzgerald-speak.
Anywho.
I was really intrigued by Amory's first place of residence and so I took a little field trip. It seems there isn't (and never has been) a 12 University Place. There is a 10 and and 11 but no 12. You know the spot, though. It's right on the corner of University and Nassau. I took a couple of pictures from the street:
Knowing Princeton has made reading this book a different experience, to say the least. He also makes reference to Lawrenceville Road and the Lawrenceville Prep School and a lot of other familiar locations. It makes me wonder if my images of the story are influenced by the close proximity. Does it affect your reading?
I think we're now reading a story of an almost joyless and discontented Amory in his first years at Princeton. He has this unyielding urgency "to be one of the gods of the class". Despite liking Amory as a character, I can't identify with him at all with the exception of location. So why do I like the guy? As it turns out, I like him less as the chapter continues.
Amory hopes the War will be "long and bloody". He is so far removed from the rest of the world. Does the title, TSoP, indicate his missing humanity? Where is Fitzgerald's Paradise? Is it the 1% or the 99%? When Tom tells Amory he wants to leave Princeton Amory replies:
Did you notice how even more appropriate our blog title is? The Princeton boys drop the word 'phony' half a dozen times. I hope my school librarian appreciates the writing in her book. I underlined each use of our title. Because, you know?
It is also in the chapter that we meet Isabelle, the 16 year old girl who is allowed to go to parties with college boys and to homecoming on the other side of the country. That seems like good parenting to me. Oh, and how scandalous were those petting parties? I had to look up what 'petting' meant in the early 1900s. Apparently it's just kissing and hugging. I thought we were encroaching on first and perhaps second base. Nope.
The chapter ends on a semi-sad note. For the second time in chapter, Fitzgerald says Amory "realized that he was enjoying life as he would probably never enjoy it again". This is it. This is his peak. At twenty years old he's as happy as he'll ever be. And he seems to know it. Where did funny thirteen-year-old Amory go? What are we in for next?
Chapter 2 begins in typical Fitzgerald-speak.
At first, Amory noticed only the wealth of sunshine creeping across the long, green swards, dancing on the leaded windowpanes, and swimming around the tops of spires and towers and battlemented walls. Gradually he realized that he was really walking up University Place, self-conscious about his suitcase, developing a new tendency to glare straight ahead when he passed anyone.Yep. He's in Princeton alright. Until we had our first child, I'm not sure anyone in Princeton ever made eye contact with us. It seems Amory caught on quickly to life here. It's been over 90 years since he wrote TSoP and yet Princeton seems to be little changed.
Anywho.
I was really intrigued by Amory's first place of residence and so I took a little field trip. It seems there isn't (and never has been) a 12 University Place. There is a 10 and and 11 but no 12. You know the spot, though. It's right on the corner of University and Nassau. I took a couple of pictures from the street:
Where 12 University Place SHOULD be.
One of the spires? I think this is Memorial...it's the big tower on the corner.
Knowing Princeton has made reading this book a different experience, to say the least. He also makes reference to Lawrenceville Road and the Lawrenceville Prep School and a lot of other familiar locations. It makes me wonder if my images of the story are influenced by the close proximity. Does it affect your reading?
I think we're now reading a story of an almost joyless and discontented Amory in his first years at Princeton. He has this unyielding urgency "to be one of the gods of the class". Despite liking Amory as a character, I can't identify with him at all with the exception of location. So why do I like the guy? As it turns out, I like him less as the chapter continues.
"Oh, it isn't that I mind the glittering caste system," admitted Amory. "I like having a bunch of hot cats on top, but gosh, Kerry, I've got to be one of them."
"But jut now, Amory, you're only a sweaty bourgeois."
Amory lay for a moment without speaking. "I won't be-long," he said finally. "But I hate to get anywhere by working for it."When Amory and his friends go to the shore in a car that is not theirs, they eat and restaurants and only pay a tiny portion of their bill. They find a homely girl on the boardwalk and use her as amusement. They collect money from strangers for French War Orphans and then use it for themselves. These are not good people.
Amory hopes the War will be "long and bloody". He is so far removed from the rest of the world. Does the title, TSoP, indicate his missing humanity? Where is Fitzgerald's Paradise? Is it the 1% or the 99%? When Tom tells Amory he wants to leave Princeton Amory replies:
"You can't, Tom...wherever you go now you'll always unconsciously apply these standards of 'having it' or 'lacking it.' For better or worse we've stamped you; you're a Princeton type!"I almost feel as if I'm watching these strange creatures from a one way mirror. Who are these young men I can't stop watching? I also wonder if my voyeurism indicates a desire to join them. If I came from money, would I be any different? I mean, I am a fat-cat teacher. But still.
Did you notice how even more appropriate our blog title is? The Princeton boys drop the word 'phony' half a dozen times. I hope my school librarian appreciates the writing in her book. I underlined each use of our title. Because, you know?
It is also in the chapter that we meet Isabelle, the 16 year old girl who is allowed to go to parties with college boys and to homecoming on the other side of the country. That seems like good parenting to me. Oh, and how scandalous were those petting parties? I had to look up what 'petting' meant in the early 1900s. Apparently it's just kissing and hugging. I thought we were encroaching on first and perhaps second base. Nope.
The chapter ends on a semi-sad note. For the second time in chapter, Fitzgerald says Amory "realized that he was enjoying life as he would probably never enjoy it again". This is it. This is his peak. At twenty years old he's as happy as he'll ever be. And he seems to know it. Where did funny thirteen-year-old Amory go? What are we in for next?
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