Ford Madox Ford

While reading the short piece entitled A Paris Letter by Ford Madox Ford, his infamous use of the unreliable narrator adds a level of complexity to the story, yet simplifies it. 

While making observations of Paris or the Parisians which reside in the city,  it can become quite easy, and almost natural to fall into the style of an unreliable narrator. It is highly unlikely that you posses the proper credibility to make judgments about the city, its inhabitants, or visitors, yet we do so anyways. It is an extremely natural way in which to observe your surroundings, and allows you to connect with your environment. 

In the context of this piece, the style of writing leads to the polarization of its readers. It is hard not to take notice of his labeling, such as "The musicians begin to be a little noisy. . .," "Next come, bracketed equal, the architects and sculptors. . ."and "The painters are never silent, individually or in groups."

 
As a student studying in Paris for less than half a year, it requires little effort to relate to short descriptive passages within the story. As mentioned above, the labeling in Ford's word is frequent and this method of comprehending your surroundings is likened to my method. However, the conclusions I swiftly draw such as Ford's narrator are replaced by deeper thoughts that yield different results. 

For example, there are specific cafes in Paris that cater to the start-up culture, which has exploded in the last decade or so. Specifically a cafe named Numa, which is located not far from the abhorrent Rue Saint Denis. After spending fewer than 10 minutes inside the cafe, I took note of the overly confident customer, who was indeed partaking in his own start-up venture. If I were to start my own version of A Paris Letter, it would undoubtedly go like this:

And now we lift the weighted top of the beehive off and peer into its belly. The start-up bees with honey flowing from their mouths destroy their weaker kin and look down upon anyone who fails to yield such high intelligence.  They know no rights and no wrongs.

However, if I were to reconsider my thoughts and ponder on such ideas, I would understand that such rigid definitions of culture rarely exist except in worlds that revolve around the quick and minuscule decisions that we as humans make on our first observation of humanity. 

Proudly placing myself in the group of brief Parisians who find the historical romanticism of the city to be false, I find that I am able to better discern where such fallacies stem from. It appears to me that the use of the unreliable narrator finds no better home than in the description of Paris. 

 

The Lost Generation?

Une Génération Perdue or The Lost Generation originates from an encounter that Gertrude Stein had with her local mechanic. In A Moveable Feast by Ernst Hemingway, Hemingway recounts his conversation with Stein, where she demands that he yield to her opinion on the idea of a lost generation of people. 

The history behind the 'lost' generation stems from the generation of men and women who returned from the war (World War I). In an A&E biography of The Lost Generation, it is said from the lips of Hemingway's friend that once Hemingway returned from his tour in Europe, he felt out of place and eventually his family forced him from their home. It was mentioned that many of the men and women who served felt that no one in their homeland understood the traumas that they were faced with, leading to a complete disconnect with society. This generation of returning men and women were among the now infamous group of expat artists who are now regarded as the most influential figures in the art world of the 20th century. 

This generation of Americans who were viciously sculpted by the war, were able to escape the ignorance of their families and friends by fleeing to a place such as Paris, to reconnect with people who understood their struggles. After the conclusion of The Great War, Western Countries, specifically The United States, experienced a period of growth that could only be tamed by the complete collapse of the financial industry. 

The new methods of manufacturing relied almost entirely on the mechanization of factories and this switch from manual labor to machines is reflected in the new wave of art of this time, which was spearheaded by The Lost Generation of writers and artists living and working in Paris. 

Stein, Hemingway, Dos Pasos, Picasso, and others were able to coexist and cohesively create new forms of artwork due to the scars and trauma that each individual shared. For example, in the A&E biography mentioned previously, Dos Pasos is said to have come from a well-off family, but instead of relying on his families assets, he had a desire to experience what it was to create. 

Moving from The Lost Generation of the 20's to current day, Hemingway drew his own conclusion from Stein's words, and wrote in A Moveable Feast that "I thought that all generations were lost by something and always had been and always would be." Almost 90 years after the term was coined, previous generations always, without fail consider their successors to be less than they were. The reason for this is not complicated and can be expressed in only a few sentences. The elder generations have experienced hardships which they had to overcome and adapt to. Once they had overtook the challenges, they developed new ways to live and socialize, therefore they project their ways onto their offspring.