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#2 2017-08-02 03:50:27
- Yuca
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
First in an occasional series. I recall an early Ellroy has some good ivy references. And there's one I promised years ago from the 40s about a millionaire college student with an extensive ivy wardrobe.
some sort of banal legitimacy
#3 2017-08-02 04:24:51
- Babbling Brooks
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Have you read any Richard Allen?
You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.
#4 2017-08-02 05:56:29
- Yuca
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Yes. It aroused me.
some sort of banal legitimacy
#5 2017-08-02 06:49:33
- I am the sea
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
From 'Catcher in the Rye'
On my right there was this very Joe Yale-looking guy, in a gray flannel suit and one of those flitty-looking Tattersall vests. All those Ivy League bastards look alike. My father wants me to go to Yale, or maybe Princeton, but I swear, I wouldn't go to one of those Ivy League colleges, if I was dying, for God's sake.
#6 2017-08-02 19:52:36
- plastic palm tree
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- From: London
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Quite a few references to Ivy in Deighton's work. I remember Harry Palmer referring to his particular collection of Brooks Brothers shirts. Deighton was a former ad-man I believe, and spent time in the US.
#7 2017-08-02 19:56:32
- plastic palm tree
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Found it thanks to google books
In Spy Story:
"I went into the bedroom end opened the wardrobe to go through the clothes again. I told myself that these were not my clothes, for I couldn't be positive they were. I mean, I don't have the sort of clothes that I can be quite sure that no one else has, but the combination of Brooks Brothers, Marks and Sparks and Turnbull and Asser can't be in everyone's wardrobe. Especially when they are five years out of fashion."
In Billions Dollar Brain:
"I went back to the hotel to collect my baggage, a quarter-full bottle of whisky, two paperback books - The Thirty Yean War by Wedgwood and The Complete Guide to New York City - one worsted suit, four cotton oxfords, socks and underwear in one small fibre-board case.'
"I had a shower and Caroni put me on a slab and punched hell out of my surplus fats while explaining some of the finer points of coronary heart disease. A suit - Dacron and worsted herringbone - came along as if by magic in one of those blue Brooks Brothers' boxes. By the time I was ushered up into Midwinter's private apartment at the top of his. office block, I looked like I'd come to sell him insurance."
#8 2017-08-02 19:59:44
- plastic palm tree
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Harry Palmer a modernist for sure in his outlook, Deighton as well. Upwardly mobile, stylish, both Amerophile and Europhile
#9 2017-08-02 20:01:11
- plastic palm tree
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Last edited by plastic palm tree (2017-08-02 20:01:23)
#10 2017-08-02 23:28:00
- stanshall
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay"
#11 2017-08-02 23:29:29
- stanshall
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay"
#12 2017-08-03 02:41:35
- IvyLeagueOfGentlemen
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"As I looked out into that night sky, with all those infinite stars, it made me realise how unimportant they are"
Peter Cook
#13 2017-08-03 06:48:34
- Yuca
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Thanks!
I couldn't have done it without my consultant GG and my straight man BB.
Last edited by Yuca (2017-08-03 07:12:30)
some sort of banal legitimacy
#15 2017-08-03 20:58:56
- stanshall
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- From: Gilligan's Island
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yay"
#16 2017-08-03 22:41:01
- Berkeley_Breathes
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"The only comment a gentleman’s outfit should generate is that he is properly dressed for the occasion" - Calvin Trillin
#18 2017-09-22 13:18:59
- Berkeley_Breathes
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Not exactly unexpected Ivy, but I finally got around to reading "The Graduate," which obviously became one of the most Ivy movies out there... Really enjoyed the book, it's a very quick read and is very close to the movie as well... Recommended.
"The only comment a gentleman’s outfit should generate is that he is properly dressed for the occasion" - Calvin Trillin
#19 2017-09-22 14:03:44
- Yuca
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
I love the film but found the book very dated and disappointing. Although I'd like to reread it to see if my opinion would change (it was around a decade ago that I read it).
some sort of banal legitimacy
#20 2017-09-22 14:21:34
- Berkeley_Breathes
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- From: Crabapple Cove, ME
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
"The only comment a gentleman’s outfit should generate is that he is properly dressed for the occasion" - Calvin Trillin
#22 2021-11-08 12:28:35
- A Fine Sadness
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Mary McCarthy will certainly bring you some, as well as just excellent campus collegiate intellectual atmosphere. Try 'The Company She Keeps' or 'The Groves Of Academe' (I think it's spelled). Actually, I suppose the 'Ivy' is not altogether unexpected.
I began reading her last spring, after wading through Ian Fleming. Philip Larkin dug her.
I expect writers like Alison Lurie mention Brooks or wherever. It's been years since I read her.
Did all my major reading between the ages of nineteen and twenty six. Good preparation for my degree, my dissertation on Pound and Ginsburg.
'Billy Budd' is name-dropped in 'The Sopranos'. At least as good a read as 'Moby Dick'.
Was Robert Frost 'Ivy'?
Detective fiction - I loved the 'Spenser' novels by Robert Parker. Westlake is also very good. McBain is solid, at least the first dozen.
#23 2021-11-08 15:43:14
- A Fine Sadness
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
Expected Ivy in literature - how about at least some of Salinger's fiction? 'Catcher In The Rye'? Also Cheever. And John O'Hara. Ivy with knobs on.
#24 2021-11-11 20:45:55
- slimmm67
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Re: Unexpected ivy in literature
I believe it's Philip K. Dick's "Confessions Of A Crap Artist" in which the protagonist with some distaste describes the wardrobe of one of his neighbors who is apparently dressing in the Ivy fashion of 1959...but it might have been continental. Been a long time since I've read it.