Great gatsby, thoughts?

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

I got it recommended to me by Quentin.

[Fencers]

Great piece of literature. One of the best commentaries about the psyche of the American identity and was contemporaneous the times it was written to boot. So the book also fits being an art within context.

Written very lushly as well. Wonderful use of imagery.

My favorite line from the book is spoken by the major cause of the work, Daisy Buccahan of her daughter; "I hope she’ll be a fool. That’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

[PC2]

I got it recommended to me by Quentin.

It's mediocre. Everybody is shallow, life is cynical, society is too hedonistic, blah blah blah. There's no character to care about and the protaganist is a person who could never attain anything meaningful under any circumstances. It couldn't be less interesting.

[Felya]

Overrated access that lead to a lot of suffering. That was pretty much my thesis on the book...

Oh and to be fair... My teacher in college vehemently disagreed... still got an A. What @Fencers is saying is far closer to the way the book is accepted in literature. I just disagree... it’s a celebration of access...

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It's mediocre. Everybody is shallow, life is cynical, society is too hedonistic, blah blah blah. There's no character to care about and the protaganist is a person who could never attain anything meaningful under any circumstances. It couldn't be less interesting.

The time period is the main character.

[dextersmith]

One of the worst books I had to read.

[Endus]

It's mediocre. Everybody is shallow, life is cynical, society is too hedonistic, blah blah blah. There's no character to care about and the protaganist is a person who could never attain anything meaningful under any circumstances. It couldn't be less interesting.

Look, someone missed the point.

Books aren't automatically written to have the protagonist be the "good guy", or to resolve some significant conflict in a positive manner. The entire thematic point of The Great Gatsby is that the wealthy are snobbish, prissy, useless leeches on society, entirely obsessed with the most inane garbage.

It's a novel about the collapse of the American dream, how much of a sham the whole idea ever was.

Saying it's "bad" because the characters are all shallow materialists is like arguing that Orwell's 1984 was "bad" because it's depressing and inhumane, or thinking that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is bad because the main characters both die useless deaths and their love doesn't save them. It just means you missed the entire point of the book.

[Elegiac]

It's mediocre. Everybody is shallow, life is cynical, society is too hedonistic, blah blah blah. There's no character to care about and the protaganist is a person who could never attain anything meaningful under any circumstances. It couldn't be less interesting.

...That's literally the point. It's a social criticism of American culture as it emerged after the Great War.

I reckon America would be less violently American if more Americans read and understood the Great Gatsby, lol. Literally one of the last scenes in the book is pointing out how someone with exorbitant wealth and the many "friends" that brings can end up dying alone and being buried at a barely attended funeral, then immediately forgotten by most people.

That doesn't jive with the "more money = more happiness" belief that is intrinsic to the American Dream.

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Saying it's "bad" because the characters are all shallow materialists is like arguing that Orwell's 1984 was "bad" because it's depressing and inhumane, or thinking that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is bad because the main characters both die useless deaths and their love doesn't save them. It just means you missed the entire point of the book.

It's more like the people who think R + J is a story about romantic love and not a story about feuding and the impact that has on less mature family members, lol.

[Endus]

It's more like the people who think R + J is a story about love and not a story about feuding, lol.

There's really two themes;
1> Kids are fucking morons who can't think straight.
2> Feuding between families leads to everyone losing, no one winning.

Everyone forgets Rosaline's existence. Seriously, Shakespeare doesn't include her by accident. You're supposed to see Romeo head over heels for Rosaline, and then bammo, who's Rosaline, I gotta sex me that Juliet hottie. Romeo's a hormone-addled dickhead, not a romantic ideal.

[Elegiac]

There's really two themes;
1> Kids are fucking morons who can't think straight.
2> Feuding between families leads to everyone losing, no one winning.

Everyone forgets Rosaline's existence. Seriously, Shakespeare doesn't include her by accident. You're supposed to see Romeo head over heels for Rosaline, and then bammo, who's Rosaline, I gotta sex me that Juliet hottie. Romeo's a hormone-addled dickhead, not a romantic ideal.

Same with Paris and the ticking clock on Juliet's marriage - she's attracted to Romeo primarily because of the novelty and freedom that represents.

Also the Baz Luhrmann version was the best one don't @ me. No one ever remembers Paul Rudd was Paris.