Word: wolff
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Crosby is sometimes portrayed as the epitome of the entire "literary generation" of the '20s. Wolff argues convincingly against this characterization; even if one accepts the questionable concept of a literary generation, it is difficult to see why Crosby should be chosen as its representative. At best, he symbolized its excesses, its rejection of conventional manners and attitudes, but none of its literary substance...
...Wolff, generally quite sympathetic to his subject, drily places this poem "among the most comical ineptitudes in the language." Crosby was, in literature as in other things, a man of great enthusiasm and little discrimination. He approached his reading with the same naivete apparent in his writing, accepting the literature of decadence as a manual for living. His bible for many years was Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. That Crosby's life of debauchery and despair was inspired by books rather than authentic feelings is effete in itself. And many of the maxims he gleaned from Dorian Graywere...
There is something touching in the innocence of a man who, as Wolff explains, thought that because madness and genius are often inextricably related, he could take a "shortcut to genius" by cultivating madness. It is questionable whether Crosby even succeeded at madness. He was never quite comfortable in the life he had chosen for himself, and was always making earnest resolutions to reform. During his cult-of-the-sun phase, which succeeded his Wilde/Huysmans phase, Crosby traveled to Egypt, Constantinople, Beirut and other suitably exotic places. The trip was not a success; "As a worshipper...
...revolting against Boston did not inspire Crosby to genuine artistic creation, at least it made him a fascinating and enigmatic figure. Unfortunately, Wolff does little more than establish this. He fails to illuminate the mechanism of Harry's transformation from a conventional boy to a man famous for his quirks. He offers few clues to the sources of Harry's twin obsessions, death and literature. In fact, Black Sun is often nothing more than an inventory of Harry's peculiarities; Wolff's writing is uninformed by any consistent sense of what made Crosby what he was. It may be interesting...
...Wolff does fulfill his title metaphor, charting Crosby's transit and eclipse. He deftly dispels the romanticized view of Crosby as a lost generation archetype, but his emphasis on anecdotes rather than analysis reduces Crosby's short life to series of bizarre, disconnected incidents. Wolff resurrects Crosby from oblivion, but why he has bothered is never made clear...