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Book Club - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a classic novel that, surprisingly, neither Rym nor Scott had ever read. Considering that a fantastic-looking movie is coming in the nearing future, we'll have but one chance to read the novel ahead of seeing it, so what better time than now?
Per Amazon: The Great Gatsby stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.
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Imagine, if you will, if somebody wrote a dramatization of Jersey Shore. Because, in it's historical context, that is what The Great Gatsby is.
Fuck this book.
Literally nothing happens in that book. It's all about people sitting around doing nothing.
I KNOW DAT GATSBY FEEL
There is definitely a lot of messages packed into The Great Gatsby, but none of them are particularly revolutionary or stated particularly elegantly. The imagery is ham-handed and often presented so explicitly that it feels like a high school student attempting to impress his teacher by parroting the techniques they learned that day. Again, it is little more than Jersey Shore, 1922 edition.
This is why I like "pulp" a hell of a lot more than most everything considered great literature. I would take E. E. Smith over Fitzgerald any day of the week, because Smith had to at least show his audience something new every issue.
And Part 2:
My point is that pieces of "great" literature have gotten that status by being culturally important in some way. They may have wholey new ideas created out of the aether, but they have shed a different light on their generation. Don't dismiss them out of hand. Some are better than others, but all bring something to the table. (I personally can't stand Dickens' writing style, but I understand why Oliver Twist is important)
EDIT: Works that are said to "define a generation" have very similar themes: anxiety, generational struggle, etc. Howl isn't lessened because Tristram Shandy and Dante's Inferno came before it.
Crash Course is actually really good, the World History series especially.
However, I find it kind of interesting that the novel only had limited commercial success when it first came out in 1925, though critically acclaimed it was to a good extent. But by 1950 it was hailed as A great american novel. I wonder whether the stock market crash of 1929 and the great depression follwing had something to do with that, as it fueled disillusionment of american society with wealth and the upper class, a central theme of the novel.
Also, I love Crash Course and was planning to post those videos if Yosho hadn't already done so.
Old as balls.
It's a good thing The Name of the Wind consisted of completely original sentiment and superb prose...
Yes, it has good prose. It uses words to paint an excellent picture completely devoid of worthwhile subject matter. The best brushstrokes cannot redeem a portrait of shit.