"Seasons Clear, and Awe" - Chapter 10
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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The Prelude
12 min read
Wordsworth's autobiographical epic poem is directly referenced in the article as the book where Stephen hides his letters. Understanding this foundational Romantic work about artistic development and memory illuminates the novel's themes of unlived ambitions and creative aspiration.
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Jorge Luis Borges
15 min read
Borges is extensively discussed in Dan's letters as a model for understanding artistic creation, self-reflection, and the paradox of literary ambition. His philosophy of the self as the only true character directly parallels the novel's exploration of neurotic, self-aware artists.
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Shakespeare authorship question
13 min read
The article's letters cite Borges defending Shakespeare against authorship doubts, using this to illustrate the paradox that masterpieces emerge from unconscious creation rather than literary self-consciousness—a central theme in the characters' struggle with artistic ambition.
We continue this week in serializing our inaugural contest winner’s novel, Seasons Clear, and Awe, by Matthew Gasda. New subscribers can catch up with the previous chapters below:
Submissions are open for our next quarterly contest, whose deadline is January 21st, 2026. Finalists are awarded $500, and the Winner $1,000. We’re excited to announce that, due to subscribers like you, it’s free to submit for the foreseeable future. Spread the word (and throw your hat in the ring!).
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“Seasons Clear, and Awe” chronicles three decades in the life of the Gazda family, whose children inherit not wealth but something more dangerous: their parents’ unlived ambitions and their mother’s gift for psychological dissection. As Stephen and Elizabeth grow from precocious children into neurotic artists in their thirties, Matthew Gasda reveals how post-industrial, late 20th century America created a generation too intelligent for ordinary happiness, too self-aware for decisive action: suspended between the working-class pragmatism of their fathers and the creative and spiritual aspirations of their mothers, capable of everything except building lives.
Matthew Gasda is the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research and the author of many books, including the recent novel The Sleepers and Writer’s Diary.
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Stephen had decided that before he left Boston and had to drive five or six hours that he wanted to take a run. Or rather, he ran every day when it was time to run. And it was a gorgeous fall day. He had to get out of the apartment. Elizabeth, who considered it her right, took the opportunity to look through her brother’s things. His text messages weren’t very interesting. No girls, as far as she could tell. She couldn’t find the journal that she knew he kept (he had learned to hide it).
But inside this copy of Wordsworth’s The Prelude, which she noticed was bulging unnaturally, were a trove of letters from their mutual friend from Bethlehem, Dan Boettner:
June 1, 2010
I’m writing to inquire whether you would like to renew our correspondence—nothing too complicated—just a working out of ideas (literary, philosophical, I suppose) as we did a few years ago—hopefully reflecting broader, more mature ideas and
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This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.