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The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Angst, Authorship, Critics: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Crack-Up,” Advertisements for Myself: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Angst, Authorship, Critics: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Crack-Up,” Advertisements for Myself (view source)
Revision as of 13:15, 28 February 2021
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psychological angst. We remember that this was the middle of the Great Depression, and although the Great War was two decades previous, another | psychological angst. We remember that this was the middle of the Great Depression, and although the Great War was two decades previous, another | ||
greater War seemed increasingly inevitable. | greater War seemed increasingly inevitable. | ||
On a different level, the 18th Amendment had been repealed in December 1933, so alcohol was once more legal in America. Ironically, Hampl points out that, just as Fitzgerald’s “Crack-Up” articles were appearing, the first Alcoholics Anonymous groups were beginning to meet. There was no causal relationship, but as Hampl suggests, “no cultural change happens in a vacuum” {{sfn|Hampl|2012|pp=108}}. At the very least, there was “a shared landscape” {{sfn|Hampl|2012|pp=108}}. Through these AA groups, America was introduced to a new kind of secular confessional, a different kind of personal storytelling—one that nearly a century later is still very much with us.<sup>19</sup> | On a different level, the 18th Amendment had been repealed in December 1933, so alcohol was once more legal in America. Ironically, Hampl points out that, just as Fitzgerald’s “Crack-Up” articles were appearing, the first Alcoholics Anonymous groups were beginning to meet. There was no causal relationship, but as Hampl suggests, “no cultural change happens in a vacuum” {{sfn|Hampl|2012|pp=108}}. At the very least, there was “a shared landscape” {{sfn|Hampl|2012|pp=108}}. Through these AA groups, America was introduced to a new kind of secular confessional, a different kind of personal storytelling—one that nearly a century later is still very much with us.<sup>19</sup> | ||
What of the phrase “nervous | What of the phrase “nervous breakdown” and the metaphor “crack-up”? A useful article, “Nervous Breakdown in 20th-Century American Culture” by Megan Barke and others, shows how the term opens “an interesting window on pervasive anxieties” {sfn|Barke|2002|pp=565}}. The phrase had been introduced in 1901 by Albert Adams in a “technical treatise, addressed to physicians,” but he used it with a decidedly “mechanistic emphasis” {{sfn|Barke|2002|pp=568}}. The article continues, | ||
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