This Side Of Paradise

TigerBlog is reading "This Side Of Paradise," which was the first novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

He recently finished "Tender Is The Night," which Fitzgerald claimed was his masterpiece. He has read "The Great Gatsby" about a thousand times, or at least enough to be able to quote his favorite parts regularly.

TigerBlog is about halfway through "This Side Of Paradise." Whatever Fitzgerald thought, TB thinks "The Great Gatsby" is head and shoulders above either one of the other two.  

At the same time that he's doing this reading, he's also watching "Z - The Beginning of Everything," which is a 10-part series that tells the story of Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. It's turned out to be a bit confusing, since "This Side Of Paradise" is somewhat autobiographical and it can be hard to remember what was written in the book versus what was done in the miniseries.

Because it is autobiographical, much of it takes place on the Princeton campus, a place Fitzgerald describes in great detail, including so many places that still exist today. It's pretty fascinating to read it, if just for that alone.

The main character is named Amory Blaine, and the first name was taken from the middle name of Hobey Amory Hare Baker. Yes, that Hobey Baker. Fitzgerald was in the Class of 1917, which made him a freshman when Baker was a senior. 

The book refers to a Princeton football captain named "Allenby," who is clearly supposed to be Baker. For the record, Princeton has never had a football captain named "Allenby," which is something TigerBlog knew when he first came across it early in the book.

"This Side Of Paradise" was published in 1920, so you have to consider the language in terms of that time frame. For instance, Amory is talking to his mother's friend about where he wants to go to college and says this:

"I want to go to Princeton," said Amory. "I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes."

Is it okay if TigerBlog writes: "There were no Yale women back then, but it'll be Yale women on Princeton's campus this weekend, not Yale men?" Or is that way too contrived? 

If you think so, then forgive him and just keep going. 

The Yale women who will be here this weekend will be playing in the second game of a soccer doubleheader Saturday at 7 on Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium. It begins with the men's game against Columbia at 4.

Those two games, by the way, are two of only four home events this weekend. The other two are the football game against Lafayette Saturday at 1 and the field hockey game Sunday at noon against Syracuse. 

The field hockey team has an Ivy League game at Brown tomorrow at 3 as the Tigers, who xxx Penn yesterday, are in the midst of a stretch of three games in five days. 

The Ivy League has added tournaments in both soccers and field hockey to this year's athletic calendar. The field hockey and women's soccer events will be the first weekend in November; the men's soccer one will be the following weekend. They'll all be at the home of the top seed.

Right now, the Princeton men are 0-1-1 in the league, which means they're one point out of fourth place and one point out of eighth place. With each league weekend that goes by, the race will start to tighten a bit, but clearly 1) it's a pretty balanced group of teams and 2) every point will be crucial.

Dartmouth, who defeated Princeton 2-1 two weeks ago, is 2-0-0 and in first place. Harvard and Brown are 1-0-1. The other five teams? They are a combined 0-4-6. 

As for the women, all eight teams played a league game yesterday, which TB believes is something new because of the tournament, which will end the regular season a week earlier than before. Princeton defeated Penn 1-0, giving the Tigers six points, tied with Harvard and Dartmouth behind Brown, who has nine. 

Behind them, Columbia has four, while Yale, Penn and Cornell have one each. 

Like the men, each point is big for the women. There will be three on the line for both teams Saturday at home in a doubleheader, one with no admissions charge.