The Great Gatsby: Misunderstood Novel
bbc.com
bbc.com
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000r4tq
I used to think of "In Our Time" as the set of topics for which every educated person should have a basic understanding of the facts, hence hold an informed opinion, and be able to enter a meaningful discussion.
But now it is approaching ~900 episodes, so the subjects are necessarily becoming more obscure, but that also means there is occasionally a fascinating surprise.
[0] https://www.biblio.com/moby-dick-by-melville-herman/work/550...
loose fish vs fast fish is top of the line 19th century humor.
i admit i was bored to tears by those sections on the first read.
honestly i think it just isn’t a great read for people in their teens/20s as the world weariness, fatalism, and obsession with an imperfect understanding of an obscure expertise is something better appreciated as one ages.
> Though amid all the smoking horror and diabolism of a sea-fight, sharks will be seen longingly gazing up to the ship’s decks, like hungry dogs round a table where red meat is being carved, ready to bolt down every killed man that is tossed to them; and though, while the valiant butchers over the deck-table are thus cannibally carving each other’s live meat with carving-knives all gilded and tasselled, the sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat; and though, were you to turn the whole affair upside down, it would still be pretty much the same thing, that is to say, a shocking sharkish business enough for all parties; and though sharks also are the invariable outriders of all slave ships crossing the Atlantic, systematically trotting alongside, to be handy in case a parcel is to be carried anywhere, or a dead slave to be decently buried; and though one or two other like instances might be set down, touching the set terms, places, and occasions, when sharks do most socially congregate, and most hilariously feast; yet is there no conceivable time or occasion when you will find them in such countless numbers, and in gayer or more jovial spirits, than around a dead sperm whale, moored by night to a whaleship at sea. If you have never seen that sight, then suspend your decision about the propriety of devil-worship, and the expediency of conciliating the devil.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flesch%E2%80%93Kincaid_readabi...
https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/777/chapter-96-the-t...
Sadly many authors don't get the recognition they deserve for generations afterwards... but the important thing is they didn't let that possibility dissuade them from writing!
His obituary in the New York Times is telling (Oct 2 1891) [1] - he was already considered an obscure trivia at the time. (The Sept 29 obituary notice actually misspelt Moby Dick.)
"There has died and been buried in this city, during the current week, at an advanced age, a man who is so little known, even by name, to the generation now in the vigor of life that only one newspaper contained an obituary account of him, and this was but of three or four lines. Yet forty years ago the appearance of a new book by Herman Melville was esteemed a literary event, not only throughout his own country, but so far as the English-speaking race extended."
Melville's revival came in 1919, long afterwards.
It was interesting to hear D'Angelo Barksdale's take on it [1]. I think it's related to his character's arc - inner turmoil about whether to leave the criminal world behind.
Anyone want to let me in on what the book's really about?
This was one of my biggest annoyances about how this book is usually presented and taught to high school students.
Back when I was a HS student myself (barely a decade ago), I had read that book. While it was a decent book imo, I thought it was overhyped. Mostly because the primary message of the book explained to us by teachers was that it was basically a story about a man who was so deeply in love with a woman who he didn't get to date, he had built great riches and life for himself. And yet none of that extravagant lifestyle could satisfy his desire for her, and it all ends in a tragedy. Something something greed something something green eyes are a symbol of his undying light for her or something.
And while the veteran background of the narrator was mentioned by teachers quite a few times, and we were told it was important to know, teachers never went as far as explaining why and how it was important to the story. Or how it was related at all. No connection to the lost generation either, besides it being mentioned once. Basically, the book was treated as a dramatic tragedy about a very quick fall of a man due to his love and desire. At no point when the book was discussed years later with people in real life it went deeper than that.
Many years later, I saw someone pointing out what you've just pointed out in your comment online, and the book had suddenly clicked for me. It all started making sense, and I finally understood why it was regarded so highly. If you view the entirety of the storyline through the eyes and context of the narrator's past, it adds a whole different dimension to the story, which not only adds depth, it straight up transforms your entire understanding of what it really was about.
The only solid analogy I can think of is if someone described MLK's civil rights movement as a simple protest due to a woman being so stubborn she didn't want to sit in the back of the bus, and her friends wanted to back her up, because they were upset about separate fountains and other facilities too. But once you actually understand what it was about, it completely changes the impact and gravity of what it really was.
Oof. No wonder. When I read it during high school, my English teacher specifically talked about it as a commentary on the society of the time, especially about class. I still remember him pointing out that Nick was a Yale graduate (he mentions "New Haven" early) and that we needed to keep in mind the perspective the narrator brings to the story - a background shared with Daisy and Tom, but detached due to coming back from the war. Even if I was too young to fully appreciate what the narrator brings to the story, reading with that understanding really gave the book depth, and it was quite clear it wasn't celebrating any of the characters.
For me, it was a meh. Gatsby lied, cheated, stole to win his dream girl who only cared about her wealthy life style. Fitzgerald crapped on New York. In the novel, Fitzgerald compared Manhattan to a grotesque surrealist painting. What else is new. Personally, I would choose living in New York over Mississippi or Missouri any day.
GatsbyJS: https://www.gatsbyjs.com/guidelines/logo#footnotes GQ: https://ychef.files.bbci.co.uk/1024x1280/p096h71g.webp
[1] http://www.identifont.com/similar?2AG [2] http://www.identifont.com/similar?9TR
His character really does have an opulent house and reading about it is one of things you can enjoy in the novel.
It's not about the Salem witch trials, but rather, a critique of McCarthyism!
Few months ago, I even saw a Korean version called The Burning on netflix!
The privileged versus unprivileged; being trapped and unable to achieve the dream and living with unfulfilled desires...
The Parasite has won an Oscar I think.
History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.