A truly expensive party should feel otherworldly
March 21, 2019 8:00 AM Subscribe
It must be that people don’t remember real parties well enough to re-create them with any accuracy. There’s too much missing information. Fictive parties evoke this sense of impaired time by impairing the narrative, with non sequitur, snippets of nonsense conversation, continuity errors. It’s often suddenly 2 AM.On Classic Party Fiction
Maybe the reason I don't enjoy parties is that I never (well, ok, once) get so impaired as to forget all the long, dull bits.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:32 AM on March 21, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 8:32 AM on March 21, 2019 [4 favorites]
For years I included this passage from Tender Is the Night on all my party invitations:
"I want to give a really BAD party. I mean it. I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. "
Then one of my parties ended up a bit like that and it was truly unpleasant and I stopped asking for it. :)
posted by tangosnail at 9:50 AM on March 21, 2019 [14 favorites]
"I want to give a really BAD party. I mean it. I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. "
Then one of my parties ended up a bit like that and it was truly unpleasant and I stopped asking for it. :)
posted by tangosnail at 9:50 AM on March 21, 2019 [14 favorites]
She mentions William Gaddis, so this is totes legit.
“Otto (thinking only of what it looked like to see Otto entering a room) entered.”
posted by chavenet at 12:15 PM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
“Otto (thinking only of what it looked like to see Otto entering a room) entered.”
posted by chavenet at 12:15 PM on March 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
Ctrl-F "Huysmans."
0/0.
Closes tab.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:12 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
0/0.
Closes tab.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:12 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Seriously though go read Against Nature and then tell me about parties in fiction.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:13 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by aspersioncast at 1:13 PM on March 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
No Proust, no James, no Ferrante...bit provincial, darling.
posted by praemunire at 8:42 PM on March 21, 2019
posted by praemunire at 8:42 PM on March 21, 2019
The first chapter of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett is a perfect piece of art - takes place at a christening party.
posted by jebs at 2:39 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jebs at 2:39 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Speaking of classics-
The working title for the Great Gatsby was Trimalchio at West Egg.
Trimalchio's Feast, a chapter of the Satyricon by Petronius (the emperor Nero's arbiter of taste, so you can imagine), is one of the great party scenes of all time.
posted by BWA at 8:14 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The working title for the Great Gatsby was Trimalchio at West Egg.
Trimalchio's Feast, a chapter of the Satyricon by Petronius (the emperor Nero's arbiter of taste, so you can imagine), is one of the great party scenes of all time.
posted by BWA at 8:14 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The party scenes in The Recognitions are absolutely fantastic.
posted by kenko at 4:38 PM on March 22, 2019
posted by kenko at 4:38 PM on March 22, 2019
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It's one of my favourite lucky dip books of all time - came out in the US in 2013 and in the UK the year before to brilliant reviews.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:14 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]