The Great Gatsby

[Vladimer]

Well, if you payed attention, they would've fed you all of the symbolism in the class.

[Gorbadoc]

Take note of characters' enthusiasm and compassion. Most of the characters don't give a crap about anything that isn't strictly material. Even the narrator, who is the closest thing Gatsby has to a friend, is basically going along for the ride. When Gatsby dies, all we see is disinterested mild regret.

[Lakhnerth]

LOL SPOILERS.

On a serious note I think this is one of the few books where I didn't bitch nonstop about symbolism. (This and McTeague.) It made AP English seriously asinine at times. Don't take everything your teacher says word for word as truth. Keep with it though, I enjoyed this book.

[Dr.Mellifluous]

I remember the teacher I had when we were reading The Great Gatsby. I would make cow sounds when her back was turned.

[Lordredeye]

The Great Gatsby is so over rated. Its a story of rich snobs, big woop. If you want to read some good books go read the Dark Tower series by Steven King

It also pisses me off that a good story cant just be a good story, it has to have some deep symbolic meaning to it. When I read something im not surching for the authors symboilc referances, im reading to enjoy a well written story. Period

[Vladimer]

...

[Turkey_Slayer]

I lub The Great Gatsby.

[Lordredeye]

Please forgive me for the spelling.

[Cassiel]

The Great Gatsby is so over rated. Its a story of rich snobs, big woop. If you want to read some good books go read the Dark Tower series by Steven King

It also pisses me off that a good story cant just be a good story, it has to have some deep symbolic meaning to it. When I read something im not surching for the authors symboilc referances, im reading to enjoy a well written story. Period

Deep symbolic meaning is a myth they teach you in high school so you don't feel stupid reading stuff you don't understand.

And apparently it works, because anyone who thinks Steven King can write should quite frankly feel stupid.

[Dr.Mellifluous]

Allegories!

[Dr.Mellifluous]

You're only supporting the truth.

[Cassiel]

I disagree. Deep symbolic meaning is a myth they teach you in high school so they can have an excuse for making you read something that otherwise wouldn't have any meaning. The main point isn't hard to understand; old rich snobs have their own society with its own rules. From there, you can pull out a bunch of symbols and coincidences that might mean something, but aren't really relevant to anything, just like the book isn't relevant to anybody who might read it. But then, is any fiction? If it's relevant, it's probably non-fiction.

You can disagree all you want. Since you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about, your disagreements don't amount to much. More than anything else, Gatsby's about the failure of symbols in the modern world.

I suppose he’d had the name ready for a long time, even then. His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people—his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all. The truth was that Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.

[Gorbadoc]

[You don't understand the book, and you don't understand what you don't understand about it. As such, you also won't understand what I'm saying.]

I'd call you an arrogant prick except that you're right.

[DAN THE SCARY VAMPIRE RAR]

[rar]

[ScarLet Leviathan]

As I was reading I hear the brain cells in my head screaming, begging, pleading for mercy until one by one, by the strongest and couragous cells a firing squad was formed, and in turn round robin style, they off'd themselves in sweet glorious bloodshred.


This post has made me stupidid.

[Cassiel]

I'd call you an arrogant prick except that you're right.

If explaining the world to every dumbshit tween you happen to run into is your idea of fun, more power to you man. I simply don't have time for idiots.

Gatsby isn't about symbols, it's about the failure of that Platonic mode of interpretation that posits symbols as the essence of meaning. Thus what we've seen in this thread isn't Raven reading Gatsby--what we've seen in this thread, in fact, is Gatsby reading Raven.

[Lordredeye]

Regardless of what the book is or is not about, I didnt like it at all. On the other hand i enjoyed the Steven King books. That and half a pack of cigs is enough to get me through the day.

[Turkey_Slayer]

That's not surprising.

[BYC]

I think this was my 2nd least favorite book.

The 1st being Dicken's Great Expectations.

[Cassiel]

If you reread that quote, all it gives is a theory that the character Jay Gatsby is based on Fitzgerald's platonic conception of himself. It does not say that Fitzgerald wrote the story with the intention of demonstrating the failure of platonic conception, nor does it say that the story accomplishes that regardless.

And now I totally have no idea what this thread is about.

Maybe you should actually read the book. Then you might realize that the quote is from Chapter 6, and it isn't saying that Gatsby sprang from Fitzgerald's idea of himself--it's saying that Gatsby-the-character sprang from Gatsby-the-man's idea of himself.

[Cassiel]

Regardless of what the book is or is not about, I didnt like it at all. On the other hand i enjoyed the Steven King books. That and half a pack of cigs is enough to get me through the day.

Bully for you. Now all you have to do is learn the difference between taste and quality and you'll be good to go.

[Lordredeye]

Taste and quality are a matter of opinion.

[Kaz]

Quality is a matter of opinion eh? I like the cut of your jib, so much in fact that I'll offer you this one time opportunity to buy a miracle elixir from me at low cost.

[Dr.Mellifluous]

Mein Kazenfurher selling snake oil?

[Gorbadoc]

It's high quality stuff, though that's just my opinion.