• About Kathy Shaidle
  • Kathy Shaidle: Donate
  • Kathy Shaidle: Privacy policy

5 Feet of Fury

Kathy Shaidle's blog. Est. 2000

“Long after he claimed to have left the church, [F. Scott Fitzgerald] described himself as a ‘spoiled priest’”

January 5, 2018 By Kathy Shaidle

Review of a new biography:

Paradise Lost does not venture far into the territory of the spirit, and its author misses the importance of Catholicism in shaping Fitzgerald’s identity, content simply to lump it with his Irish heritage as something that gave him outsider status in elite circles. In reality, Fitzgerald, who claimed to have left the church in 1917, never escaped its influence. He went out of his way to ensure that the major events of his adult life were recognized by church rituals, including his request for a Catholic burial, which, thanks to his daughter’s persistence, finally occurred thirty-five years after his death. Some of Fitzgerald’s fiction deals specifically with Catholic practices, such as “Absolution,” one of his finest short stories. More importantly, the moral urgency found in his writing bears witness to the faith from which he could never quite escape.

 

More from my site

  • ‘Another optimistic way of looking at the figures is to compare the number of cars burned…’‘Another optimistic way of looking at the figures is to compare the number of cars burned…’
  • John Pittsley: Quit Sucking Ian Curtis’ CockJohn Pittsley: Quit Sucking Ian Curtis’ Cock
  • Occupy Bedford Falls!Occupy Bedford Falls!
  • Other two-thirds don’t know what IQ isOther two-thirds don’t know what IQ is

Filed Under: Kathy Shaidle

« “Giving Offense, or How to Overcome Mass-Media Morality”
“Rosaries and Razorblades: The Acrid Catholicism of ‘Brighton Rock’ (1948)” »
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in