Fitzgerald writes about a time not unlike the recent "get-rich-quick" mania of the Internet bubble, which also crashed, destroying many fortunes and lifestyles. The excess was all a grand show, an escape from post war realities. A whole generation seemed to refuse to grow up, at least for a while. In The Crack-Up Fitzgerald writes poignantly of the agony of the aftermath of such excess and unfulfilled desires and social insecurities. Maturity was forced upon Scott and in this short confession he reveals that all was not well in paradise. It is moving in the way it is moving to see an athlete we all wanted to believe would live forever come to his day of retirement. The passage has the ability or charisma compounded by artistic talent to embody not just Fitzgerald's but a whole societies dreams, and it was this pressure that lead to "The Crack-Up" he describes. He was able to capture all of this so clearly because it was the life that he aspired to and, from time to time, lived. But he was always just on the outside, depending on the generosity of others both financially and socially.
             Fitzgerald is spurned on by this interdependence to leave the hustle and bustle of the city, and go somewhere "silent". While he is alone thinking for himself, Fitzgerald reaches the epistemic understanding that life as we know it is just that as we know it. Fitzgerald realizes the finiteness of life. That all that we do, feel, love and think are all subject to the environment in which they take place. A novel is not a novel, if nobody reads it. Fitzgerald brilliantly illustrates his epistemic disconnection from life itself. And finally with this knowledge declares to be alone. With a firm grasp of his epistemic beliefs he chooses to live simply for himself, as the world (or at least as we perceive it [which is all we can do]) is simply our own.
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