through the books

"You've been with the professors now,
And they've all liked your looks.
With great lawyers you have discussed
lepers and crooks.
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books..."

[Bob Dylan. "Ballad of a Thin Man." Album:

Highway 61 Revisited. 1965. Columbia Records]

Haven't been through all of Fitzgerald's books, but some.

The Great Gatsby.

That's the one to read if you're selecting only one. It's representative.

When I was in college (majoring in English Literature) I read Fitzgerald books and short stories on my own time, + a biography or two. The Roaring Twenties was the background of his life and his stories.

And at that same time in my life, discovering the music of Bob Dylan: and when I heard Dylan sing that line about "F. Scott Fitzgerald's books" -- I was like, "Whoa!"

(The "Roaring Twenties" were weird. Alcohol consumption and sales had been outlawed -- a federal law, I think, an actual amendment -- strange when you think about it. And once it was against the law more people than ever proceeded to drink more than ever. One of those Reverse Psychology situations. That slice of American history provides a grounding for some of the arguments in favor of legalizing marijuana....)

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This morning, remembering the experience of reading those books of short stories by F. Scott, while in school, I recalled sitting -- or standing -- on public transportation, reading F. Scott Fitzgerald. Buses; subways; trolleys. Going to work; going to clubs to hear bands.

Once on way home from a day working at a real estate appraiser's office during the summer, I got sitting-space on a long bench on an old trolley car on the Red Line. When you sat on those during commuting week-day hours, it would be crowded -- rare to get a seat, and you're squooshed right next to a person on each side of you (unless you're at the end, in which case, one person on one side of you).

When you have to be that close to people you don't know, you don't look. I rode about 7 stops that day, reading (either Fitzgerald or Gone With The Wind) and when arrived at my stop in Cambridge, got up, and the person right next to me got up too -- he was one of the guys who lived in the apartment right across the hallway from my roommate and me !

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