My Ponderings and I Peeking Out of Our Pocket

"After a moment the proprietor emerged from the interior of his establishment and gazed hollow-eyed at the car" (Fitzgerald 130), is the quote that led to the subject of this post. From this quote alone, it is evident that F. Scott Fitzgerald (who I will refer to as Fitz from now on) has a way with words. His vocabulary is impeccable, and his diction and syntaxes are unparalleled! During my first read through of that quote (yes I have read it several times since then), I literally squealed (for lack of a better word) with delight at the diction, because being a total word nerd, that kind of thing excites me.

Speaking of word nerds, I must take this opportunity to plug my favorite tv show in the whole entire world - Signed Sealed Delivered. It aired as a series of tv episodes and then two hour movie installments on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, and has now moved to Hallmark Drama. I became more of a word nerd through watching the show because one of the main characters, Oliver O'Toole, is a major word nerd! He is constantly quoting old-fashioned laureates such as Marcus Aurelius and Shakespeare. Half of my vocabulary such as words like; effervescence, abhor, ablutions, incommunicado (which is so much fun to say), provenance (not providence), and unparalleled (which I used at the beginning of this post and use a lot) all come from his dialogue in the show. I have even adopted some of his phrases into my everyday speech such as; "self-terminating", "red letter day", and "brazenly manipulative." So if you want to be touched, inspired, and even healed in the deepest way, you should definitely get ahold of the show on Amazon, DVD, or on Hallmark's streaming service - Hallmark Movies Now. Not only is it wholesome, captivating, funny, and unique entertainment, but the vocabulary and history it teaches you just might be the difference you need to bump up your next in-class essay grade.

Marcus Aurelius

Here is the general synopsis according to Hallmark Channel:

A group of postal detectives work to solve the mysteries behind undeliverable letters and packages from the past, delivering them when they are needed most.

Here is the synopsis of the pilot movie according to Hallmark Channel:

Tech-savvy Shane joins traditional mail enthusiast Oliver and his small team in the Dead Letters Office, a group of postal detectives whose determination to deliver the seemingly undeliverable takes them out of the post office into an unpredictable world where letters and packages from the past save lives, solve crimes, reunite old loves and change futures by arriving late but always miraculously on time. This motley crew investigates a lost love letter from a sick woman, growing deeply invested in her love story in so doing. When the search leads the team to a falsely imprisoned man, they realize that both love and a man's life are at stake. Taking their investigation outside the boundaries of the postal system, the Dead Letters Office works to clear the name of the wrongfully accused man and reunite him with the love of his life.

Each dead letter story is different, but the stories of the four main characters develop further with each installment.

Here is the Amazon link to the series of episodes that came directly after the pilot, which is unfortunately, currently unavailable on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Signed-Sealed-Delivered-Complete-Hallmark/dp/B00S4YGWAQ/ref=sr_1_19?crid=P33UXB74MYO8&keywords=signed+sealed&qid=1573868081&sprefix=signed+selaed%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-19

If you ever watched Ugly Betty with Eric Mabius, he stars as Oliver O'Toole - the word nerd himself! And if you ever watched Touched By an Angel, the same executive producer of that - Martha Williamson - created Signed Sealed Delivered, which she also executive produces as well as writes. I'd like to point out though, that I myself have not watched Ugly Betty nor Touched By an Angel, but I still love Signed Sealed Delivered!

Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade in Ugly Betty

Eric Mabius as Oliver O'Toole in SSD

Long plug aside, after reading that Great Gatsby quote, I was immediately taken back to my eighth grade days, when in honors English we were required to read Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Hating history and therefore classic novels, I thought I would hate the book, but I loved it! Dickens had me entranced, and broke the "classics" mold for me. My stereotypical idea of a classic novel completely changed after reading Oliver Twist. I was in awe of his language, and thoroughly amazed at how the novel came full circle and every character was connected! If there is anything you should know about me, it's that the littlest of things can make me happy. One of the things I love, is when things come full circle, because as a writer myself, I am far from a master at the skill of making my stories come full circle in an intriguing and surprising way. Dickens basically blew my mind! He's another writer that is on my long list of geniuses.

Brenna's List of Geniuses (as Mentioned in Previous Blog Posts)

 

1. Shakespeare 

2. Toni Morrison 

3. F. Scott Fitzgerald 

4. Charles Dickens 

5. Taylor Swift (Cuz duh - and that was implied when I mentioned her song lyric - plus I had to throw another woman on the list - cuz girl power!)  

 

Reminding me of Dickens due to his impeccable use of the English language, I decided to look into Dickens' background to see if there were any commonalities between him and Fitz that may have caused them to write in similar styles. I'm sorry to say that my research turned up very little of anything worth mentioning, besides very general and most likely coincidental facts. Both Dickens and Fitz didn't have great marriages, wrote a lot based on personal experiences, did a little acting, and lived in Europe for a time, but other than that they were from completely different times and backgrounds. Dickens was very academic and career oriented, taking several menial jobs to make ends meet before he made it as a writer. Then, when he did make it, he was obsessed with doing professional readings and reading tours. He only missed a deadline once in his career, making him pretty much the complete opposite of the wild, partying, and crazy Fitzgerald. What I did find interesting though is that when I googled "Do F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Dickens have anything in common?", I found a bunch of articles and essays comparing and contrasting Dickens' Great Expectations with The Great Gatsby. Not only do the titles share a common word, but apparently the novels in their entirety share much more in common, such as characterizations, themes, etc. I didn't want to read too in depth due to my suspicions that I will one day be forced to read Great Expectations - or I will choose to read it, and I didn't want to spoil for it myself. But whether Dickens and Fitz writing extremely similar novels was the case or not, they will always have in common the title of "genius" in my mind. They both wrote amazing novels, that at certain points I couldn't even put down... but didn't even expect to like!