Chayanov, peasants, and economic anthropology Book

If you are a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, you should not read this book. For many years I have heard people say that Zelda was a creative soul and great talent on her own but that her mental illness destroyed her ability to become an artist in her own right. However, it was not just her mental illness that held her back, it was also her husband who saw her as a rival and as his own intellectual property.

According to Cline, Fitzgerald published his wife's stories unde rhis name without ant credit to her for her work. When he felt generous, he oublished her stories under both their names. He also used her ideas, her letters, her experiences and her direct quotes in his wriitng without crediting her in any way. In fact, Fitzgerald becomes less productive as Zelda becomes less sane and less able to provide this service to him.

In addition, to using her as a muse and an inspiration, Fitzgerald actively sabotaged her attempts to use her life and her experiences in her own writing. A novel based on her life was a direct threat to his writing project because that's what he was writing about and he couldn't allow her to compete openly with him.

This is not to say that Zelda was not seriously ill. She was obssessive and compulsive and manic in everything she did. Even her years as a flapper were an example of this. The reason she partied all the time was because whenever she had an interest, she fixated on it. When she painted, she painted 17 hours a day. When she danced, she danced 17 hours a day and when she partied, she partied 17 hours a day.

Cline is critical of her psychiatrist's attenpts to re-educate her. From their point of view, part of Zelda's illness was that she was not able to fulfill her role as a wife and mother as those roles were defined in the 1930's. This lead to her doctors colluding wiht her husband to suppress her creative ambiitons. However, even today, while we see gender slightly differently, one of the ways that we define mental illness is the inability of people to live according to the rules and customs of our culture. I am not implying that mental illness is completely a cultural construct but I am saying that we still treat mental illness by teaching people how to fit into our society.

It's possible that Zelda could have been a great artist (writer or painter or critic)if she had lived 40 or 50 years later than she did but she still would have struggled through her illness to be the person she wanted to be. Her husband's control her of creative outlet was only part of her problem. However, it's clear that Scott held her back and suppressed when he felt that her talents or her products competed with his interests. We will never know what Zelda could have been because the combination of her mental illness and the social mores of her times did not allow her to be Zelda in her own right.