Wednesday, October 19, 2016

An Ego Built For Two

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Gloria’s independence, 
like all sincere and profound qualities,
had begun unconsciously, but,
once brought to her attention by
Anthony’s fascinated discovery of it,
it assumed more nearly
the proportions of a formal code.

From her conversation it might be assumed
that all her energy and vitality went into
a violent affirmation of the negative principle
“Never give a damn.”

“Not for anything or anybody,” she said,
 “except myself and, by implication, for Anthony.
That’s the rule of all life and if it weren’t
I’d be that way anyhow.
Nobody’d do anything for me
if it didn’t gratify them to,
and I’d do as little for them.”

 ***

F. Scott Fitzgerald
(1922)

The next Fitzgerald page is  here.
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