Hi, all!

From "The Great Catsby", by F.Scott Fitzerald, again:

-----Beginning of the citation-----
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily
joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to
shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of
ashes-a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills
and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys
and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who
move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a
line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly
creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with
leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their
obscure operations from your sight.
----- The end of the citation -----

Although all the text is very vivid and difficult, I'd like ask why the workers use "leaden spades"? IMHO lead is not a metal for spades? ;)

Bye, all!
Alexander Koryagin

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* Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)

Hi Alexander -- on Oct 29 2019 at 08:32, you wrote:

From "The Great Catsby", by F.Scott Fitzerald, again:

|Gatsby |Fitzgerald

creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.
----- The end of the citation -----

Although all the text is very vivid and difficult, I'd like ask why

Typical of F. Scott Fitzgerald - I'm not a fan of his works.

the workers use "leaden spades"? IMHO lead is not a metal for spades? ;)

Leaden as in "heavy", I believe. Again, typical of FSF's cumbersome style.


Cheers... Dallas

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Re: Leaden spade
By: Alexander Koryagin to All on Tue Oct 29 2019 08:32:28

Although all the text is very vivid and difficult, I'd like ask why
the workers use "leaden spades"? IMHO lead is not a metal for
spades? ;)

adjective #1 below applies...


leaden [ led-n ]
adjective

1. inertly heavy like lead; hard to lift or move: a leaden weight; leaden feet.

2. dull, spiritless, or gloomy, as in mood or thought: leaden prose; a leaden atmosphere.

3. of a dull gray color: leaden skies.

4. oppressive; heavy: a leaden silence.

5. sluggish; listless: They moved at a leaden pace.

6. of poor quality or little value.

7. made or consisting of lead.


verb (used with object)

1. to make leaden, sluggish, dull, etc.: Fatigue had leadened his brain and step.


https://www.dictionary.com/browse/leaden



)\/(ark
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Dallas Hinton:

Again, typical of FSF's cumbersome style.

I too dislike "The Great Gatsby." If is interested in Jazz-
age novels about rich people who do not have to work hard
for a living and squander their lives in indolence and
indulgence, I recomment Aldous Huxley's "Crome Yellow."
That one I enjoyed.

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* Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)