Talk:F. Scott Fitzgerald/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Starsandwhales (talk · contribs) 16:45, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello there! I'll be reviewing this article over the next few days. starsandwhales (talk) 16:45, 25 April 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm a bit confused by how critics were waiting for a follow up to Gatsby, but were disappointed by Tender in the Night. Earlier it was stated that people didn't like Gatsby at the time.
 * For the first few references is it possible for you to link the ISBN?
 * Citation #86 is just a link
 * Gatsby, 35 Years Later is in four different citations even though it's the same article (#87, #96, #97, #116)
 * You shouldn't cite another encyclopedia. In this case there already was a citation from another source in that sentence. (#36)
 * Is there a ISBN for the reference by Matthew J. Bruccoli, Scottie Fitzgerald Smith (#106)? Could you link it?
 * Is there a secondary source that discusses the history of Saint Mary's Catholic Church Rockville?
 * As Big as the Ritz is cited twice (#120, #122)
 * I'm gonna look through the old revisions to see whether sites with high similarities just copy pasted this article or whether there are actual plagiarism issues
 * I would suggest renaming the section titled "Zelda" to being her full name
 * Everything is well written and comprehensible.
 * Thanks! Those were all very helpful improvements. On the section title, I changed it to Zelda Sayre, her maiden name. Would Zelda Fitzgerald be more appropriate? And on the Saint Mary's Catholic Church secondary source, I added the reference to the end of the paragraph. Is that a good place for it? ~ HAL  333  18:55, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure. I don't thing it'd be too confusing, but also the literature on Zelda Fitzgerald refers to her by her married name. For the church that's a good source, just remove the one that's written/published on the church's Google Sites page. That was the reliability issue I was concerned with. Also, it looks like all of the sites that had the exact same text were copy and pasting off of Wikipedia, not the other way around. Another thing I forgot to mention is to mention who you're quoting if you're quoting something. There's just a few more small things I noticed that I added below. starsandwhales (talk) 20:30, 26 April 2020 (UTC)


 * "I'm F. Scott Fitzgerald. You've read my books. You've read "The Great Gatsby," haven't you? Remember?" --> single quotes when it's a quote within a quote (also does the source not italicize The Great Gatsby?).
 * "Ellerslie," --> comma outside quotes
 * Who is being quoted in the statement about the University Cottage Club?
 * who described his father as "a quiet gentlemanly man with beautiful Southern manners"?
 * I fixed the comma, but I'm having trouble with those quotes. I believe they're both from Arthur Mizener's Scott Fitzgerald and His World, but there is no available ebook. Should I just remove them? Also, that quote looked wrong to me too, but it's just as the NYT wrote it: "I'm F. Scott Fitzgerald. You've read my books. You've read "The Great Gatsby," haven't you? Remember?" ~ HAL  333  22:44, 26 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Huh. For the Mizener book you could try finding a copy in a library (though if there are no ebooks of it then I guess that's out of the question...), or remove it until physical libraries/bookshops open again and you can verify who said those quotes. starsandwhales (talk) 01:09, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I've removed them. My local library will probably reopen within a month or so, I'll be able to source it then. ~ HAL  333  01:51, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Everything looks good. starsandwhales (talk) 15:30, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! You've been very thorough and professional. ~ HAL  333  16:00, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Post GA comments
Everything does not look good at all, far from it:


 * Early life
 * "Born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald was named after his second cousin, three times removed on his father's side, Francis Scott Key" -- Why the need for the almost forensic description of his lineage? Who cares?  He was a cousin.  The end.
 * "...but was always known as Scott Fitzgerald. He was also named after his deceased sister, Louise Scott Fitzgerald" -- Who was named after the dead sister, Scott Key or Scott Fitzgerald?
 * "...one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth". -- So the other sister is alive right? Can't be, because in the next sentence they're both dead.
 * "His father, Edward Fitzgerald..." Never start a new paragraph with a pronoun. Remove his father's surname to avoid repetition.
 * "...and had moved to St. Paul from Maryland after the American Civil War". -- odd conjunction which simply doesn't translate. "Who" is what is needed.
 * "Edward Fitzgerald's first cousin once removed Mary Surratt..." -- Who cares? This article is about F. Scott Fitzgerald, not his father. "Fitzgerald was related to..." is better.
 * "Scott Fitzgerald spent the first decade of his childhood..." -- Oh, we're now calling him by his double name? Which is it?  This section starts with just his last name.
 * Why need to say New York twice?
 * "His doting mother..." -- Is this necessary?
 * "Fitzgerald attended Holy Angels" -- ack to the singular surname again.
 * "with the peculiar arrangement that he go for only half a day..." -- WP:POV
 * WP:OVERLINK of Procter & Gamble.
 * Para starts with a pronoun
 * "When he was 13..." Who, his father or FSF?
 * "Fitzgerald played on the 1912 Newman football team" -- Who cares?
 * "...he met Father Sigourney Fay..." -- Was he a pupil? Teacher? What denomination was he? What was his role at the school?
 * "Honing his craft as a writer, at Princeton became friends..." This is ineligible, please revisit.
 * "He wrote for the Princeton Triangle Club..." -- Who did, Wilson, Bishop or TSF?
 * "...on a visit back home in St. Paul." -- on a visit back home to St. Paul, surely?
 * "He never destroyed the letters that King had sent him." Redundant, especially since you go on to say that they were later sent back.

And that is just the first section.  Cassianto Talk  17:23, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . You're completely right: there is a lot of room for improvement on this article. I'll work on all of your listed grievances and the wonder of Wikipedia is that everyone can contribute and I hope that you'll contribute as well. Hopefully we can get this up to FA, together. Cheers. ~ HAL  333  18:08, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Whilst it's not appalling, it's certainly not at the quality it should be for a good article. It is evident the reviewer only passed it so they could compete in the Wikicup, whatever that is.   Cassianto Talk  18:46, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Some of your objections are helpful, but some are unfounded. If it mentions that it is a Catholic prep-school, I doubt the reader would assume he was Southern Baptist. I also think it's pretty obvious he's not a pupil-I've never heard of a teenage Father. Explaining that would clutter it up and just be straight redundant. It's funny - I've never heard of WP:Who cares?. The football bit is included as he mentions him later trying to play football at Princeton. Once again, the reader will likely care. When I first came across the article, I cared and found it very interesting. If someone's relative is executed for conspiring to assassinate the president, that's pretty relevant, especially for someone like Fitzgerald, who is essentially a part of Americana. Word of advice-if you're going to attack someone for reviewing a GA improperly (which I don't think they did), you should make sure your complaints are actually valid. ~ HAL  333  18:55, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * "...he met Father Sigourney Fay..." -- Was he a pupil? Teacher? What denomination was he? What was his role at the school?
 * "Fitzgerald played on the 1912 Newman football team" -- Who cares?
 * "Edward Fitzgerald's first cousin once removed Mary Surratt..."


 * "If it mentions that it is a Catholic prep-school, I doubt the reader would assume he was Souther Baptist. I also think its pretty obvious he's not a pupil-I've never heard of a teenage Father." -- It's not obvious at all. A link to the denomination is better than nothing. How do we know "Father" wasn't his first name?
 * "It's funny - I've never heard of WP:Who cares?. The football bit is included as he mentions him later trying to play football at Princeton." -- I don't care. I won't be alone in not caring.  It's not important. Did he go on to play professionally for Newman football team?  No. Did him playing for Newman play a pivotal role in him becoming a writer? No. Elvis worked at an ice rink, did that help him become a global rock icon? No.
 * "Once again, the reader will likely care. When I first came across the article, I cared and found it very interesting. If someone's relative is executed for conspiring to assassinate the president, that's pretty relevant, especially for someone like Fitzgerald, who is essentially a part of Americana." -- And likely, they may not. If you take your head out of your arse for just one second, you'll see that I've suggested a re-work of the sentence, not omitting his link to his cousin, but simply by not going down his father's second cousin, twice removed route, blah blah blah. Simply say, "he was related." That's all anyone cares about.

"Word of advice-if you're going to attack someone for reviewing a GA improperly (which I don't think they did), you should make sure your complaints are actually valid." -- Word of advice, if you don't understand decent prose, then perhaps creating content isn't for you. Go back to fiddling around with your boring Epstein article, or obsessing over infobox discussions, and leave the writing to those who know how to do it. As someone who has written 20-odd featured articles, take it from me, I know a bit more than you.  Cassianto Talk  19:23, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Listen when I was editing Kubrick's article, you told me to go edit articles that needed attention. Here I am, actually contributing, and you're still wikihounding and attacking. You should really go back to making articles about 20th century circus freaks-that's what we really need on Wikipedia. ~  HAL  333  19:31, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Indeed we do need them, I'm so glad you agree. Can you show me one such article that relates to a "20th century circus freak" that I've written about?   Cassianto Talk  19:35, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * You've plastered them all over your userpage as "accomplishments": Theatre productions of Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd, Little Tich, Songs, sketches and monologues of Dan Leno, Jack Bologna, etc. ~ HAL  333  19:47, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * They are all music hall performers and nothing to do with the circus. Word of advice-if you're going to belittle someone's featured article contributions, make sure you have the right genre.   Cassianto Talk 

You Brits and your pompous semantics, I'm done with this conversation and am returning to productive efforts. Go back to making sure some (retracted) have featured articles. Please cut the wikihounding as well. Adios. ~ HAL  333  20:19, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Is there a need for such casual racism?  Cassianto Talk  20:27, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Not sure if you're referring to my use of Brits or "Adios", neither of which is racist. British is a nationality, not a race. (My father is British anyway.) There is nothing racist about using Spanish (which is used by all races in Spain, the Americas, and the Philippines) words in English-ever heard of Spanglish? That is a very heavy accusation you just made, and I contest it. ~ HAL  333  20:47, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I think you know full well what I mean. Any more, and I'll drag you to ANI, so cut it out.  Slag my articles off all you like, but do not issue xenophobic remarks suggesting all British people are pompous. Disgusting.   Cassianto Talk  20:56, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

I could get British citizenship automatically if I willed. I was referring to English vernacular, not the people. I now remember your ad hominem in the last Stanley Kubrick discussion, when you called me a snowflake. I'm now done with this conversation. Please don't follow me across Wikipedia through me talk-page anymore. Goodbye. ~ HAL  333  21:01, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Let's get back to the issues with the article. All of the errors that you listed that could be resolved have been.

Anymore objections? ~ HAL  333  15:02, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
 * The cousin bit has been removed.
 * I think you just misread that. "Fitzgerald was also named after his deceased sister, Louise Scott Fitzgerald, one of two sisters who died shortly before his birth." Both of them died before he was born, but he was named after one.
 * That's a nonissue.
 * That's relevant, as explained before.
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * I don't really understand what's wrong with this
 * It's obvious that its F. Scott
 * Previously explained
 * Previously explained
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Fixed
 * Reworded


 * My only objection is that I have to share this website with the likes of . The article is shit and it can remain shit. Do not ping me ever again. I want nothing to do with xenophobes.  Cassianto Talk  16:15, 28 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Cut this stuff out. In all seriousness, what other areas for improvement do you see? ~ HAL  333  16:27, 28 April 2020 (UTC)