Our cultural traditions demark one hundred years as a test of a certain validity, as an initiation into inclusion in the pantheon of the highest achievements of our species. Oftentimes, a delightful retrospective of detail can be found in work that celebrates such an anniversary, but what if the culture changes? If an author uses a term that has fallen into disfavor, into taboo language or thought, does the entirety of the work become void of value?

While F. Scott Fitzgerald has long been celebrated through inclusion in classroom anthologies, with one novel in contemporary Hollywood, other aspects of the author’s work, other titles, might not be as generally well known. Fitzgerald himself has the dedication of an institution to collect critiques, there is a biography of his later years by S. Graham, and, in the kind of hall of mirrors of academic publishing, there’s a critique of critiques by C. Jackson as early as 1951. These are academic readings; however, not all who read are institutionalized, and should Fitzgerald still be read out in the wild, in a culture so different from ours now, another wad of print among the plethora is available. […]