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#wolferead
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Butterfinger
Pickpick

By the time I neared the end, I came to the realization that You Can't Go Home Again was written to show how Wolfe's worldview had evolved through his life's experiences. I resented his apparent passivity to racism. I scorned his descriptions of the rich. I was appalled at the mistreatment of his fellow train passenger. He understood his innocence will never return. He saw and lived inhumanity and knew it to be ugly. #wolferead Thank you @Lcsmcat

Lcsmcat I think George Webber was passive about so much because he existed to be a bystander to witness what went on in the world during some very turbulent years. He was almost a Greek chorus of one in some places, if aGreek chorus didn‘t talk, but enabled others to. There were so many times that a character was talking for paragraphs and, every now and then Wolfe wrote “George said nothing so X went on.” 5y
Lcsmcat I‘m glad you joined me. It kept me going! I hope you found it worth reading. 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat reading the letter to Fox was sad knowing that he would be dead before those words were published. When a writer acknowledges bigotry, is it being passive. Think about the part of the different cultures of waiters and police - the culture of a writer is to inform. I think this was his plan of action. I wish he hadn't died. Would Wolfe have spoken out against racism in a more aggressive way? 5y
Lcsmcat @Butterfinger I wasn‘t saying Wolfe was passive. I think Webber was being passive as a tool for Wolfe to show what he wanted to show. Much of Book 6 and Book 7 I was wondering “what if Wolfe had lived longer?” And how much of the foreshadowing, if any, was added in by his editor? 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat I understand what you are saying. You are absolutely right. 5y
27 likes5 comments
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Butterfinger
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P 465 #wolferead @Lcsmcat almost your own words. LOL!!

Lcsmcat Funny! 5y
Lcsmcat I read that the McHarg character is supposed to be Sinclair Lewis. I wonder if he said that to Wolfe? 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat I wondered if he based it on a real person. In the same chapter he referred to James Joyce with a fictitious name. 5y
Lcsmcat I noticed that too. 5y
23 likes4 comments
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Lcsmcat
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I‘m loving Mrs. Pur is‘ anti-George pro-Edward rant, knowing how it all actually turned out. 😂 But I did have to look up the actual date of the abdication. #wolferead

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Lcsmcat
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What do you think, #wolferead buddies? True, or Webber/Wolfe‘s mental state talking?

Butterfinger True. Only Wolfe could describe loneliness so eloquently. 5y
36 likes1 comment
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Lcsmcat
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“Baseball‘s a dull game, really; that‘s the reason that it is so good. We do not love the game so much as we love the sprawl and drowse and shirt-sleeved apathy of it.” I have to agree with him here. #wolferead

Leftcoastzen 😁👍👏 5y
barbwire Just to play devil‘s advocate: “Sandor Boatly had never guessed that, properly played, baseball consisted of mathematics, geometry, art, philosophy, ballet, and carnival, all intertwined like the mystical ribbons of color in a rainbow.” __W.P. Kinsella 5y
Lcsmcat @barbwire Point taken. But I still agree with Wolfe. 5y
barbwire 😇⚾️ 5y
43 likes4 comments
blurb
Butterfinger

For the life of me I can't understand Wolfe's purpose in writing a man's death as he gruesomely did in ch 29. The history of America was weaved through the fabrication of his death. It was very disturbing. #wolferead

Lcsmcat I know he died of Tuberculosis, but this whole book makes me think he struggled with mental illness. Maybe writing about this death the way he did was a way of exorcising his demons? 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat mental illness would explain the different writing styles. He jumps from describing people's personalities by detailing how they wake up in the morning to talking to the reader and explaining in a weird way that is just hard to understand. I think he was so intellectually gifted, I'm left with wondering what it is I'm reading. He is affecting me; I'm not even making sense. 5y
Lcsmcat @Butterfinger 😂 There is some gorgeous writing in there, but sometimes I wish someone had stolen his thesaurus! Why use 1 adjective when 5 or 6 will do. 🤣 5y
25 likes4 comments
blurb
Butterfinger

Up to ch 31 #wolferead. Reading the part how Libya Hill was affected by the Depression really shook me. I don't know why. I've always known NC was affected too. I think this week I am going to research Asheville during the Depression. It also reminded me of Its a Wonderful Life - except the Building Trust is run by unscrupulous men and the blind judge (Mr. Potter) may be who saves the town through evil, cruel ways.

Lcsmcat Playing catch-up. I didn‘t have much reading time this past week. Maybe your research will let me catch up to you. 😀 But if not, I‘d still like to hear what you learn. 5y
Butterfinger @Lcsmcat I hope I didn't spoil it too much. 5y
Lcsmcat @Butterfinger I don‘t believe in spoilers, especially with classics. We usually “know” the story before we read it. But the writing we can‘t get from reviews etc. And that‘s what I read for. So no worries. 😀 5y
Lcsmcat I just watched Genius, the 2016 movie about Wolfe and his editor Maxwell Perkins. It‘s worth the hour and 45 minutes, if you‘re interested. 5y
Butterfinger Thanks for letting me know @Lcsmcat 5y
20 likes5 comments
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Lcsmcat
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“These were the innumerable small fry who became . . . embattled vegetarians, or believers in salvation through nudism.” 🤣 #wolferead

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Butterfinger
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#wolferead Finished Book 2. When the firemen flooded the basement, did the water kill the 500 people who were on the sub? Did the union start the fire just to kill the 2 elevator men who didn't go to the meeting? What does everyone else think?

Lcsmcat I think the trains were greatly delayed, but no one was killed. It‘s the two elevator operators who died. But we‘ll see, won‘t we. 5y
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Butterfinger
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#wolferead Up to ch 18 - I have so many thoughts about the party. Wolfe was very clever to remind readers that the Crash would happen shortly after the party. As I read about the characters - Amy, Hirsch, Piggy Logan, I get a sick feeling. Who will survive? Even the crazy scene of Piggy - is it meant to show that they didn't care where their money went? Decadence. Is it true that the rich would invite gay as entertainment -how degrading.