Summer Heat with James Gatz, Marcel Proust, Punk Rock and More.

As seen from my title, I recently finished “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I won’t even attempt to do a book review, since I’m sure most everyone has already read it in high school. I remember when I read it in high school (or at least pretended to) I was not a fan of the book. Because of that, I found it annoying that it ranked #2 on Modern Library’s Top 100 Books of the Twentieth Century, ranking inbetween two books by my personal favorite, Mr. James Joyce (the list can be viewed here http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html). However, upon reading it the past few days, I really enjoyed it, and was glad I gave it another shot. I think it also helped that I just finished a Maymester class on American Literature 1914-1945. However, that being said… I still don’t know if I’d say it is #2. I don’t think I would rank it in my top ten books I’ve read. But, if you haven’t read it, then you should… after you read “Ulysses” by James Joyce, that is.

I also recently finished the second volume of Marcel Proust’s novel: “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” (also translated as “Within a Budding Grove”). In this volume, Proust deals with the theme of young love over the course of 500+ pages, in both Paris and the vacation resort of Balbec. It introduces many characters that (according to the introduction) will become very important during latter parts of the novel; each time he introduces a major character, he does it in a very clever and sometimes unusual way. Another theme which is common in many modernist works and also really stood out for me is the idea of a build up to something great that doesn’t get resolved and turns out to be a let down. Proust introduces this theme early on when the narrator gets a chance to go to the opera to see his favorite opera star. The narrator is extremely excited (much like modern rock fans would be excited to see their favorite band for the first time) and cannot wait to see her sing; but when he finally gets to see her, he is thoroughly disappointed by her performance and does not see what all the fuss is about. This theme continues to reoccur throughout this volume, and I have a feeling it will show up in later volumes as well.

Speaking of music, I went to see Los Angeles punk band X along with the Detroit Cobras a couple weeks ago at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. My friend Alix, a long time friend who I have only recently started hanging out with again, told me about the show, and we went together. I was really excited to see the Detroit Cobras as an opening act, because I have been a fan of theirs for years. They are a Garage Rock Revival band from (as the name implies) Detroit. I found out that they do not write any of their own material; instead, they take old songs from the 60’s and turn them into rock n’ roll/ punk versions. They were fantastic. Then came X. While they have been around since the mid 70’s and have obviously lived a hard life, they put on a very powerful show that blew me away. They played song after song that got the audience to go crazy and sing and dance along. Also, I was somewhat surprised at the fact that myself (being 21) and Alix (being 20) were on the younger end of the audience; in fact, at one point someone even said to us “you look a little young to be X fans.” Sure, it makes sense that people who liked them in the 70’s would still show up now, but I was moreso surprised that there were not a lot of newer, younger fans. If the new generations cannot listen to good old school punk rock, I feel that society is doomed (hahaha).

The above section of this post brings what I feel a change in my blog writing; and by change, I mean an expansion. While I had intended this blog to focus on literature and writing, I realized that I should not limit myself. If I expand it to music, movies, food, and whatever else, maybe I can get more posts out, and also build up a bigger fan base. This change was largely inspired by my Dad, Paul Connolly, who recently decided to start his own blog (which can be seen here: http://paulsnetwork.blogspot.com). So hopefully this change makes this blog more interesting and readable.

Finally (for now) I am excited to say that I will be spending a week and a half in Paris at the end of July and early August. I don’t have much to say about it now, but I will definitely make sure to blog that extensively once the time comes. Also, as far as summer trips go, I will be in Iowa for the University of Iowa’s Writing Workshop the weekend of June 20th. I am very excited about this as well, and will write on that when the time comes.

That is it for now. Until next time.