Some random notes and thoughts on the short story Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
- Effective drip-feeding of the backstory.
- We are given a series of hints and showings mingled in with present events.
- Reader time is carefully handled to be distinct from character time.
- Artificial scenes to convey backstory, character, setting.
- The scenes seem natural but are carefully designed to deliver the necessary information.
- The main character has a clear desire and goal.
- The main character is made likeable and the reader’s care for him is induced through an understandable goal.
- Other characters act as ghosts and reflections for the main character.
- A reformed character is effective at inducing the reader’s care.
- There is a clear hazard or obstacle for the character.
- Contrast achieved between other characters as options or representations of different potential choices.
- It dodges the tragic ending the reader might expect, but also dodges a straightforward happy ending that would have made it difficult to maintain the level of significance of the rest of the story.