“Colossal Vitality of Illusion”

[Update below]

There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams, not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.   ~~~   F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Great Gatsby”

[Update: 5/15/20 – just came across this gem, from Jeff St. Clair at CounterPunch:

Masks. There are women who, however you may search them, prove to have no content but are purely masks. The man who associates with such almost spectral, necessarily unsatisfied beings is to be commiserated with, yet it is precisely they who are able to arouse the desire of the man most strongly: he seeks for her soul – and goes on seeking. (Nietzsche , Human All Too Human)