It's a terrific book, and it makes a lot of interesting points. I was surprised to see how much 1924 resembled 1964. It's as if the revolutionary 1960s actually began in Chicago in the 1920s. Those were strange times. Disillusioned veterans of WW1 roamed the streets. Radio was getting big. Following a century of unprecedented growth, the country was rich, and increasingly urban. A lot of men were clerks, not laborers. Change was in the air.
The drug of choice was alcohol (above), only it was illegal! People drank a lot of fake liquor made of anything the bootleggers could get hold of. Bad liquor addled brains. People did crazy things.
Jazz (above) was their rock n' roll, the faster the better. Records made it possible to listen to it at home.
Girls in particular picked up on the new sensibility. All over the Midwest girls were aching to get to Chicago so they could lead "The Life." That city was to them what San Francisco was to the hippies 40 years later.
Some of the girls (above) carried guns. They had to. The violent crime rate among women soared.
Haw! Haw! Haw! This is funny. Today in history class, I might have to write an essay about what was going on in the 1920s socially, economically, politically, yada, yada, yada, and all that jazz. You summarized it perfectly and without any redundant crap. Thanks, Eddie. Have fun finishing up that novel. I was gonna read Uncle Tom's Cabin just out of fun and curiosity, but my teacher is making the class read The Great Gatsby, which no one seems to even like or even want to read...
ReplyDeleteit sounds like a cross between the hippie 60s and the Wild West!
ReplyDeleteRoberto: The Great Gatsby!!!!???? Be warned....that novel can be a lot of trouble! Fitzgerald packed it with symbols. Get every study guide you can lay your hands on and be prepared to read the book twice...the second time just for the X@%$& symbols.
ReplyDeleteIn a practical way that novel was important because it introduced writers to the notion that a story can be about a character you never get to see very often, or never get to understand. The main character is an enigma, so the story momentum develops from the attempt of secondary characters to understand the main character.
We're familiar with that technique now, but when it was new it wowed everybody. Films like "Laura" and "Sunset Boulevard" are based on it.
I grudgingly accept that technique because it allows the writer to hint at what he believes are undiscovered truths about psychology and dimly understood social forces. They're a pain to read though.
Jorge: Wow, you're right. The wild west comparison makes it easier to understand how people got sucked into it.
Wow! I agree quite so with what you're saying about 'The Great Gatsby'...except that it was a pain to read. Maybe my young undeveloped mind is too easily impressed, but I found it a joy.
ReplyDeleteI read a book about socialism in the Midwest in the teens and 1920s. There was actually quite a movement for it. The folks who were part of the New Left and those in the folk movement in the 1960s looked back to those times for inspiration. For example, singing and chanting old hobo songs or IWW songs at protests. It would be very interesting to do a historical overview connecting the politics and social liberalism of the early 20th century to the 1960s counterculture. People see the 1960s as representing a huge break from tradition, but a bit of that is amnesia about how things were before WWII.
ReplyDeleteGeorge W.S. Trow wrote that the New America was created forever in the 1920s and this post reminds me he was right.
ReplyDeleteChip: Thanks for the tip about Trow. I ordered his "Context" book from the library.
ReplyDeleteThat book changed my life!! I'm glad I could bring it to your attention and hope you enjoy it.
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