F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1922)
Short Story – read as iPhone app in July 2010
- 3 nods out of 5 -
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) is, hands down, one of the most influential novels of the past one hundred years. But amongst his novels and his tempestuous relationship with his wife, Zelda, came a plethora of short stories, written for an instant cash injection to booster the Fitzgerald finances. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is one such story.
Originally published in Colliers Magazine (USA) in 1922, and later reprinted in various anthologies and collections. In recent times, the story has found wider popularity in the movie adaptation of 2008, starring Brad Pitt in the contrary and confused life of Benjamin Button.
The story follows the birth of Benjamin, born not as an infant, but rather an elderly man. Seen as a monstrosity, his father shaves his beard and insists on a proper upbringing: toys not cigars. Benjamin’s life is full of conflict, such being rejected from Yale as being seen as an elderly madcap, until the passing of time brings with it youth and strength. He marries, but husband and wife become estranged due to diverging interests; while at the close of the nineteenth century, Benjamin fights in the Spanish-American War, returning home to live a party lifestyle.
Yet by the commencement of the next war, Benjamin is ridiculed as an upstart kid for his appearance in military uniform, ready to fight the enemy again. He fulfils one of his life aims in returning to Yale, but his vibrancy is lost, day by day, as he becomes all the more younger and feeble. Eventually, Benjamin acts as “nephew” to his son, overtaken in intellect by his own grandson. As a toddler, he forgets all he has done, living a life of sense and desire only:
‘And then he remembered nothing. When he was hungry he cried – that was all. Through the noons and nights he breathed and over him there were soft mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard, and faintly differentiated smells, and light and darkness. Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim face that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind.’
The film adaptation vastly differs from the short story, from setting and time, to characters and upbringing. Though the greatest difference is in the short story’s humour and David Fincher’s seriousness (Fitzgerald deemed it the funniest story he had ever written), as well as the aging process of Benjamin: in the movie, he begins young as a child and learns and grows; whilst Fitzgerald has him born as an old man, with a full beard and a fondness for smoking cigars.
But the basic idea remains true: how time continues to change us, no matter who we are. It is stated Fitzgerald was inspired by Mark Twain’s comment upon our existence: ‘It is a pity that the best part of life comes at the beginning, and the worst part at the end.’
Short Story – read as iPhone app in July 2010
- 3 nods out of 5 -
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) is, hands down, one of the most influential novels of the past one hundred years. But amongst his novels and his tempestuous relationship with his wife, Zelda, came a plethora of short stories, written for an instant cash injection to booster the Fitzgerald finances. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is one such story.
Originally published in Colliers Magazine (USA) in 1922, and later reprinted in various anthologies and collections. In recent times, the story has found wider popularity in the movie adaptation of 2008, starring Brad Pitt in the contrary and confused life of Benjamin Button.
The story follows the birth of Benjamin, born not as an infant, but rather an elderly man. Seen as a monstrosity, his father shaves his beard and insists on a proper upbringing: toys not cigars. Benjamin’s life is full of conflict, such being rejected from Yale as being seen as an elderly madcap, until the passing of time brings with it youth and strength. He marries, but husband and wife become estranged due to diverging interests; while at the close of the nineteenth century, Benjamin fights in the Spanish-American War, returning home to live a party lifestyle.
Yet by the commencement of the next war, Benjamin is ridiculed as an upstart kid for his appearance in military uniform, ready to fight the enemy again. He fulfils one of his life aims in returning to Yale, but his vibrancy is lost, day by day, as he becomes all the more younger and feeble. Eventually, Benjamin acts as “nephew” to his son, overtaken in intellect by his own grandson. As a toddler, he forgets all he has done, living a life of sense and desire only:
‘And then he remembered nothing. When he was hungry he cried – that was all. Through the noons and nights he breathed and over him there were soft mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard, and faintly differentiated smells, and light and darkness. Then it was all dark, and his white crib and the dim face that moved above him, and the warm sweet aroma of the milk, faded out altogether from his mind.’
The film adaptation vastly differs from the short story, from setting and time, to characters and upbringing. Though the greatest difference is in the short story’s humour and David Fincher’s seriousness (Fitzgerald deemed it the funniest story he had ever written), as well as the aging process of Benjamin: in the movie, he begins young as a child and learns and grows; whilst Fitzgerald has him born as an old man, with a full beard and a fondness for smoking cigars.
But the basic idea remains true: how time continues to change us, no matter who we are. It is stated Fitzgerald was inspired by Mark Twain’s comment upon our existence: ‘It is a pity that the best part of life comes at the beginning, and the worst part at the end.’
