In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories

by Delmore Schwartz, James Atlas (Editor)

book data

106 ratings, 4.08 average rating, 11 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		33%
4		45%
3		17%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

April 1978 by New Directions Publishing Corporation

binding

Paperback, 202 pages

isbn

0811206807 (isbn13: 9780811206808)

description

Eight stories portray the world of the New York intellectual during the 1930's and 1940's, probing the conflict between ambitious, educated youths and...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 155)

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06/15/08

Baiocco rated it:

bookshelves: shortstorycollection

I got this book of short stories by Depression Era writer Delmore Schwartz specifically to read the title story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" because I couldn't find it on the internet. Luckily I found it at the library. I'm realizing the less you pay for books the better, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a) an idiot b) a publisher or c) someone who works at Anderson's on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont. Yo Anderson's Higherups, are you insane? You're prices are rid...more I got this book of short stories by Depression Era writer Delmore Schwartz specifically to read the title story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities" because I couldn't find it on the internet. Luckily I found it at the library. I'm realizing the less you pay for books the better, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a) an idiot b) a publisher or c) someone who works at Anderson's on Chatsworth Avenue in Larchmont. Yo Anderson's Higherups, are you insane? You're prices are ridiculous and your selection sucks. What reality do you live in where you think you can get away with charging over $20 for a book? I just got my $600 Economic Stimulus check from the government and I'm going to spend none of it at your shitty ass store. I'd rather donate $100 to the library than buy anything from you. Maybe I will. Yeah right, not until they update their audiobooks from cassettes to cds.

Anyway, Im sure your town has a store like Andersons that makes a mockery of independent bookstores and you can choose to deal with it however you wish, but the most you should pay for a book is $10 in my opinion. But back to In Dreams Begin Responsibilities. The title story was about this kid who wakes up in a movie theater in 1909 and watches an awkward silent picture of his parent's courtship on the screen. It is kind of a dream, but thats only inferred, not fact, and yes it does have that lame ending where its like "oh, it was all a dream", but the story is pretty good. The kid is now a product of divorced parents and as he watches their courtship which he feels was a mistake and ultimately led to their divorce and his shattered ideals, he can't help his anger and keeps yelling at the screen. The people next to him in the theater don't understand whats going on and want him to shut up. Finally he gets thrown out of the theater just as his father proposes to his mother. Really creative and very emotional. It has that watching a trainwreck but being unable to look away feel to it and turned out to be Delmore Shwartz's first and most influential short story. He was later commited to an insane asylum and died shortly thereafter.

So I read that story, but the real gem of the piece was a 60 page novella type story about a circle of friends and how they relate to each other and the Depression sagged economy around them. Sounds pretty relevant for today. Overeducated mid twentysomethings, underemployed. It's called 'The World Is A Wedding' and despite lacking a central narrator or hero it is a great story about how we all play a part in the world if we look at it like a wedding. There is the bride and groom, the happy parents, the disappointed parents, the ex boyfriend who is still friends with enough people to be invited to the wedding, the younger siblings and cousins who couldn't give a shit about why they are gathering together, but are just glad to dance around and enjoy themselves, the drunks, the boyfriend and girlfriend who will probably marry next, the widow who will never marry again. Its kind of like that Shakespeare 'all the world is a stage' idea except less of a celebration of life and more of a deconstruction of it. William Carlos Williams thought Schwartz made a beautiful coral island that glimmers in the sunlight just below the surface of the shallow water and though it is beautiful on its own, it expects sooner or later to rip a hole in the keel of some great passing ship.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

There is also a great passage from one of the characters who is an unsuccessful though undetered playwright named Rudyard speaking of the difference between courage and inspiration. They two are completely different parts of the brain and only inspiration can keep an artist going, courage really has nothing to do with it.(less)

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06/17/08

steve rated it:

bookshelves: sing-my-song

The wickedness of delusion and pastoral dreamscapes intersect with the beating heart of the young person's desire to make yr own way, the spirit of seeing the world through two wide-open eyes and a dash of hope for a world more tolerant. I always come back to the stories contained herein. Why? Just because.

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03/12/09

Alex rated it:

bookshelves: american-poetry

Read in March, 2008

The title story is a forgotten gem - simple in the telling, but prompting all kinds of philosophical reality/imagination specualtion. We're used to the metaphor now that life can be like a movie: Schwartz came up with it before anyone else I know. Some of the other stories took longer to make an impression on me. However, 'America! America!' subtly probes different perspectives and the nature of Jewish immigrant experience in early twentieth century America and the satire of 'The World Is A Wedd...more

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04/17/09

Nickie rated it:

(review of isbn 0285636693)

Read in April, 2009

"The world is a marriage of convenience," said Laura drunkenly, "the world is a shot-gun marriage. The world is a sordid match for money. The world is a misalliance. Every birthday is a funeral and every funeral is a great relief."

File under: the way you want to imagine America.

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01/10/09

Gloss rated it:

bookshelves: nyc, short_fiction

Read in March, 1991

Sometimes I wonder if every story I try to write is just a pale imitation of the title story here. It's one of my longterm favorites.

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03/25/09

Ginnetta rated it:

Read in March, 2009

So far burn full painful. Done reading. tears...

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08/17/07

Daniel rated it:

Just delved into this collection of short stories. Steve Seidel, director of Project Zero at Harvard, mentioned the title story in a lecture I recently heard him give, and it piqued my interest. Not sure anyone reads Schwartz much anymore, but the first story in the collection, the title story, was and interesting, surreal depiction of a man dreaming about his parents' courtship. I'm still working on theories about how the story relates to the title. More on this one later.

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09/28/08

Amy rated it:

bookshelves: cult-fiction

Read in October, 2008

This is a collection of short stories written about 1930s New York. Many of the characters are Jewish or middle class and often are simple stories about families, young people trying to figure out what to do with themselves post-college, or random somewhat surreal stories. I found out about this book through the "Rough Guide to Cult Fiction" and think it makes a good addition to my growing amount of short story collections.

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