have you ever read 'the great gatsby'?

[rae121452]

in the 60's, i was blown away. it was all that (of course, i was also taking a lot of acid at that time.). then, in the 90's, i re-read it an i was sure it was 'the great american novel' that everyone was trying to write. i recently re-read it and even though i loved the language i just wanted everyone to shut up, no matter. i couldn't finish it.

between 'the great gatsby' and 'tender is the night' i was sure no one could surpass the written words. now i'm reading really shitty assessments of both novels. am i out of it?

 

[PaxNurgle]

I read "The Great Gatsby" as a high school reading assignment and it didn't really do much for me, sadly. I am not saying it isn't a great piece of classic American literature, only that I wasn't moved by it. To me, it was just about a guy playing at pretending to be some rich socialite muckymuck in the 1920's, always trying to hook up with some woman who lived across the lake, but in the end, everyone realized he was just a big phony. Everyone would just show up to his place and party, but in the end, he didn't realize that nobody really gave a crap about him. I dunno, it was okay, well written and all, but- not something I was ever in a hurry to re-read.

 

[Conager]

I read "The Great Gatsby" as a high school reading assignment and it didn't really do much for me, sadly. I am not saying it isn't a great piece of classic American literature, only that I wasn't moved by it. To me, it was just about a guy playing at pretending to be some rich socialite muckymuck in the 1920's, always trying to hook up with some woman who lived across the lake, but in the end, everyone realized he was just a big phony. Everyone would just show up to his place and party, but in the end, he didn't realize that nobody really gave a crap about him. I dunno, it was okay, well written and all, but- not something I was ever in a hurry to re-read.

You are so right! That absolutely does describe Luk to a T.

 

[Liar]

Yeah but I barely remember it.

 

[mayfly13]

I read "The Great Gatsby" as a high school reading assignment and it didn't really do much for me, sadly. I am not saying it isn't a great piece of classic American literature, only that I wasn't moved by it. To me, it was just about a guy playing at pretending to be some rich socialite muckymuck in the 1920's, always trying to hook up with some woman who lived across the lake, but in the end, everyone realized he was just a big phony. Everyone would just show up to his place and party, but in the end, he didn't realize that nobody really gave a crap about him. I dunno, it was okay, well written and all, but- not something I was ever in a hurry to re-read.

I wasn't either.
It was a bit too obsessional, intellectual and dry, just like that modernistic woman writer what's her name.
Gosh, I haven't read a proper book in 20 years, I now watch movies in a floating windows or dailymail.
My parents weren't too intelectually minded, but they did a Fantastic job: they stocked the house with many classical books in English, hoping that we might learn the language.


Anyone had a similar magical experience with "Of human bondage", "The snows of Kilimanjaro". An American tragedy", East of Eden and "The Devil's disciple?"

 

[mayfly13]

Oops. Many of those were British or Irish.

Among American classics, Steinbeck and "An American tragedy", I believe provided me with the experience that people claimed to have had with "The Great Gatsby." So lyrical...

 

[mayfly13]

Yeah, it's a bizarre thing.
I'm like those people who were raised color-blind; they don't see that the rest of the world sees them differently.

I was raised to see myself as White, and my childhood was populated with Western books. I saw myself as 'one of them', a secret Westerners, always dreamed of immigrating.

But they like me and accept me (gosh, I had better experiences with them than with my own kind), but they don't perceive me as the same race. Italians, SE and E Europeans used to be seen as less than White too. the "White" thing came up only a few decades ago.
How stupid is that, to figure it out only when you approach 50?

Japanese and Chinese are the worst. That fake humility throws you off, bit deep down they're a 6ad arrogant and look down on you.

 

[46n2]

Isn't that where, at the end - both Ivanka and her robot find out they were never really at the party? It was all a mirage?

 

[HarryHelper]

I don't recall reading it. I never finished the movie...

 

[Champakian]

What would be the point?

 

[Wrong Element]

Anyone had a similar magical experience with "Of human bondage", "The snows of Kilimanjaro". An American tragedy", East of Eden and "The Devil's disciple?"

I would wager a lot more Americans have read The Great Gatsby than have read any of these, in part because its brevity makes it easy to assign in school. Also, it's really great — my opinion not being any less correct for apparently being in the minority here.

 

[EbersMoll]

Great book! Putting this here for those who are interested.

 

[mayfly13]

Good point.

When I was growing up, TV programs were only a few hours a day, and DVD's were either expensive, or boring (unless you got them from overseas).
So you were incentified to either pick a sport, go to cinemmas or go to the library, to avoid boredom.

Nowadays with all the technologies and podcasts available, I would only pick a book to read, if it were short. My attention span and patience are now shocking.

I would wager a lot more Americans have read The Great Gatsby than have read any of these, in part because its brevity makes it easy to assign in school. Also, it's really great — my opinion not being any less correct for apparently being in the minority here.

btw I just found this and I'm baffled. It's not that I never heard of most of them. It's that I couldn't find novels which many considered to be outstanding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_List_of_the_100_Best_Novels

And Virginia Wolf over others? .. She might have been a pioneer in her age cause woman writer, but her style was so intellectualized and a pain to read.. I tried hard because it was fashionable to say you read her, but I could never go past 10 pages.

So I suspect that they picked some over others out of political correctness.

 

[doowdniw]

Could not make it through either The Great Gatsby or The Lord of the Rings - just too tedious. Those were the only required readings in junior high that I just could not get through.

 

[skirt_chaser]

Required reading in high school.

 

[Champakian]

One of those books that you are "supposed to read," is another "great American work of literature," Moby Dick. It is one of the most tedious reads that one can undertake, but I guess it was something that killed time in way-back before-TV times...

 

[JadeNYC]

I read The Great Gatsby in high school and I remember enjoying it as our class discussed it and explored its symbolism. After seeing the original movie with (a very young and dapper!) Robert Redford (and a puppy-like Sam Waterston!) I think I fell in love with the film and sort of forgot about the book, which I never felt compelled to re-read. I re-watch the film here and there on DVD - it definitely has a place in my heart.

 

[Whistlersfather1]

I read the kindle version a few ears ago and was amazed how short it was, I was expecting a 500 page epic. I thought I'd bought the abridged version by mistake. I did enjoy it though, size isn't everything.

 

[nowisthetime]

I read it in high school and my teacher showed us the original film. For a while, it got me into the whimsicalness of the 1920s.

Got me into playing these PC Sierra Games called, "Colonel's Bequest" and the "The Dagger of Amon-ra" sequel that were set in that time period. Gamers know what I'm talking about with those two games!

I realize I don't often appreciate the novels I had to read in high school until later on in life.

 

[PaxNurgle]

That's true of some but not others- We read "Catcher in the Rye" in high school, but at the time, age 14, I just didn't "Get" it. They'd go over the literary metaphors and symbolism and what not, and I was like "yeah, cool; better take notes on this for the test" but the novel itself (about a prep school kid from New York City in the 50's) didn't click with the average 14 year old living in the suburbs in the 1980s. Re-reading it when you are a bit older and more experienced with life, then you can relate to it a lot more. It's now one of my favorite books.

"Gatsby" was like that for me. I read it when I was like 16 or 17, thought it was just about some boring phony guy playing at being rich in the 1920's, and I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe if I gave it another shot now I'd dig it a lot more though. Oddly, someone mentioned "Lord of the Rings-" and long-winded though it is, that is typically the kind of fiction I tend to enjoy the most.

 

[doowdniw]

That's true of some but not others- We read "Catcher in the Rye" in high school, but at the time, age 14, I just didn't "Get" it. They'd go over the literary metaphors and symbolism and what not, and I was like "yeah, cool; better take notes on this for the test" but the novel itself (about a prep school kid from New York City in the 50's) didn't click with the average 14 year old living in the suburbs in the 1980s. Re-reading it when you are a bit older and more experienced with life, then you can relate to it a lot more. It's now one of my favorite books.

"Gatsby" was like that for me. I read it when I was like 16 or 17, thought it was just about some boring phony guy playing at being rich in the 1920's, and I just wasn't feeling it. Maybe if I gave it another shot now I'd dig it a lot more though. Oddly, someone mentioned "Lord of the Rings-" and long-winded though it is, that is typically the kind of fiction I tend to enjoy the most.

I thought Catcher in the Rye was an easy read. Being an adolescent prep school kid just outside the city in the late 60s - early 70s myself at the time, there was a lot I could relate to, although Holden pushed boundaries I dared not to. Always thought Phoebe could have had her own novel.

 

[wallstreetguy]

My favorite novel ever.

I just re-read it and loved it just as much. It has everything. The story and narrator are the pinnacles by which countless authors based their plots and their narrators.
I could talk about that book all day. It is amazing.