“He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with the resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American- that comes, I suppose, with the absence of lifting work or rigid sitting in youth, and even more, with the formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality was continually breaking thorugh his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness He was never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand.” pg 64

This passage from the Gatsby reading struck me as strikingly similar to the same nervous energy expressed in the Turner article. Here, we see nervousness as a lack of physically demanding work and a result of ‘our’/American “nervous sporadic games.” In Turner’s piece, this “peculiarly American” quality was attributed to the pioneer mentality, one which is constantly moving, at work. These different interpretations of nervousness, yet both aligning it with American culture, begs the questions of: “What are American attributes?” and “Where do they come from?”