Hard Labour

An excellent night's sleep was the result of knowing I could lie-in this morning. But it's not been all beer and skittles - I got quite a lot of marking done. Then it was off to the gym at Katong where Noi overdid it a little, feeling dizzy after getting off the exercise bike, and I tried to take it easy after a run yesterday. I'm not sure I took it easy enough though. Time, that great narrator, will tell.

The marking concerned a rather tasty passage from The Great Gatsby. This, of course, has triggered a desire to read it again. In fact, I've got a whole bunch of Fitzgerald in KL (though not Tender is the Night which seems to have disappeared) and I really must give the early novels another go. I remember thinking they were not up to much, but that was years ago and age begets charity (or possibly clarity) and tempers arrogance (at least I hope it does.) I suppose this might account for why over the years I've come to pretty much loathe critics - paradoxically a most uncharitable, rather arrogant, viewpoint, I suppose.

Most of the students came down rather hard on poor Gatsby and his parties. I suppose that's a good sign really: the admirable puritanism of youth. But anyone with "blue gardens" surely couldn't have been all bad?