Michael Davidow's Blog: The Henry Bell Project - Posts Tagged "ben-stein"
The Look of Love
Their conversation wound down after those opaque words, and they shared a moment of not speaking. Bell ultimately allowed himself a single, heartfelt sigh. “You know, it’s great to talk to you, Paula,” he said. “Oh, Henry,” she replied. “After all these years.”
I finally saw Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby the other day, and I hate to say this, but it disappointed me. Nick was a laughingstock; Jordan was unbearable; and Daisy was a cipher (sporting one of the ugliest bob haircuts I’ve seen in a while, too). But worst of all, the story was boring. It was Gatsby as played by high school kids; and that isn’t fair to high school kids. This film portrays Fitzgerald’s central love story as not much more than an overblown crush-- disproportionate to the stakes, overly dramatic, and pointless.
Which in turn actually made me question Fitzgerald’s own take on the matter. And I hate to say this, too, but I think he handled this theme much better in Winter Dreams, not to mention a few of his other less celebrated and more ironic stories. Jay’s feelings for Daisy are young ones; the older I get, the less they impress me; and I don’t believe Fitzgerald himself had them mastered when he wrote of them. Probably why he wrote of them so well, so truly and so intently.
The facts of love, as the economist Ben Stein has written, aren’t that mysterious. If there really only were one person in the world with whom you can be happy, then the odds of your finding that person would be astronomically high. Yet there are many happy couples in the world, with more born everyday. It’s therefore far more likely that there are many people in the world with whom you can be happy; that timing and chance send samples of them in your direction, pretty regularly; and that the hard work of maintaining a relationship then takes over for fate. Not very romantic, perhaps. Except it is. He isn’t saying that love isn’t real. He’s merely locating it with other natural phenomena, like sunny days, the value of labor, the scent of green grass, the taste of wine.
Fiction is mostly the province of the young, though, so fiction tends to glorify the romantic side of love. And it was hard for me to take that into account, in my story of politics and advertising, and middle-aged men. I can only say that in writing it, Henry’s love for Paula stood paramount in my mind, as the touchstone of his life. And as with all true loves, he did not even need her nearby, for it to have its full effect for him; for him to make him feel less alone in the world, for him to have a boon companion for his thoughts.
Maybe Baz Luhrmann can give her bobbed hair someday.
I finally saw Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby the other day, and I hate to say this, but it disappointed me. Nick was a laughingstock; Jordan was unbearable; and Daisy was a cipher (sporting one of the ugliest bob haircuts I’ve seen in a while, too). But worst of all, the story was boring. It was Gatsby as played by high school kids; and that isn’t fair to high school kids. This film portrays Fitzgerald’s central love story as not much more than an overblown crush-- disproportionate to the stakes, overly dramatic, and pointless.
Which in turn actually made me question Fitzgerald’s own take on the matter. And I hate to say this, too, but I think he handled this theme much better in Winter Dreams, not to mention a few of his other less celebrated and more ironic stories. Jay’s feelings for Daisy are young ones; the older I get, the less they impress me; and I don’t believe Fitzgerald himself had them mastered when he wrote of them. Probably why he wrote of them so well, so truly and so intently.
The facts of love, as the economist Ben Stein has written, aren’t that mysterious. If there really only were one person in the world with whom you can be happy, then the odds of your finding that person would be astronomically high. Yet there are many happy couples in the world, with more born everyday. It’s therefore far more likely that there are many people in the world with whom you can be happy; that timing and chance send samples of them in your direction, pretty regularly; and that the hard work of maintaining a relationship then takes over for fate. Not very romantic, perhaps. Except it is. He isn’t saying that love isn’t real. He’s merely locating it with other natural phenomena, like sunny days, the value of labor, the scent of green grass, the taste of wine.
Fiction is mostly the province of the young, though, so fiction tends to glorify the romantic side of love. And it was hard for me to take that into account, in my story of politics and advertising, and middle-aged men. I can only say that in writing it, Henry’s love for Paula stood paramount in my mind, as the touchstone of his life. And as with all true loves, he did not even need her nearby, for it to have its full effect for him; for him to make him feel less alone in the world, for him to have a boon companion for his thoughts.
Maybe Baz Luhrmann can give her bobbed hair someday.
