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Episode 18: "The Camel's Back" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
We do what we can to mitigate the pain of heartbreak. Some people cry in bed. Some people eat everything they have in their fridge. Some people dust themselves off, put on a camel costume and go to a party.
Our main character and his partner are minutes away from signing the marriage license when they break up. Since both of them are a part of the upper echelon, they have to understand that they’ll see each other frequently, but not like this.
F. Scott Fitzgerald has a lot of haters. Whether they hated Gatsby, or are disgusted with how he treated his wife, Zelda. Using her diary as content, publishing her work under his name, or putting her in the psych ward, to name a few of the most annoying actions. My only gripe with him and this story, though the theme seems to run throughout some of the other stories we’ve read so far - the description of black people in stories in the mid 1950s and earlier. I get it. Things were different back then, blah blah blah. It’s so disheartening and annoying to read about black people in stories from this time period where as soon as it’s mentioned that they’re “negro”, which is right away, the dialogue for that character consists of some corny exaggerated accent, and the overall demeanor of that person is meant to feel poor, or stupid, or less. The character is a part of that group but not in status of education level.
It’s also becoming clearer to me how hypocritical it is for people this day and age to say, “Black People make everything about race!” when race in these short stories is always established when a character is black, but not to describe the main characters, whom we can only perceive as white.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends!
Goodnight,
Rachael
The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com
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By Short Stories With RachaelWe do what we can to mitigate the pain of heartbreak. Some people cry in bed. Some people eat everything they have in their fridge. Some people dust themselves off, put on a camel costume and go to a party.
Our main character and his partner are minutes away from signing the marriage license when they break up. Since both of them are a part of the upper echelon, they have to understand that they’ll see each other frequently, but not like this.
F. Scott Fitzgerald has a lot of haters. Whether they hated Gatsby, or are disgusted with how he treated his wife, Zelda. Using her diary as content, publishing her work under his name, or putting her in the psych ward, to name a few of the most annoying actions. My only gripe with him and this story, though the theme seems to run throughout some of the other stories we’ve read so far - the description of black people in stories in the mid 1950s and earlier. I get it. Things were different back then, blah blah blah. It’s so disheartening and annoying to read about black people in stories from this time period where as soon as it’s mentioned that they’re “negro”, which is right away, the dialogue for that character consists of some corny exaggerated accent, and the overall demeanor of that person is meant to feel poor, or stupid, or less. The character is a part of that group but not in status of education level.
It’s also becoming clearer to me how hypocritical it is for people this day and age to say, “Black People make everything about race!” when race in these short stories is always established when a character is black, but not to describe the main characters, whom we can only perceive as white.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Be sure to Like, Comment, or Share this episode with your friends!
Goodnight,
Rachael
The music for this podcast was provided by Miles Agean. Check out his album, Alpenglow, on Apple Music & Spotify.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit withrachaelpodcast.substack.com