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/lit/ - Literature

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2476559 No.2476559 [Reply] [Original]

I've been meaning to read this book for a while. How fucking awful is the beginning of this book? I can't believe people consider this THE great American novel. Please tell me it gets better.

>> No.2476568

It doesn't.

>> No.2476572

>THE great American novel

You've been misinformed.

Gravity's Rainbow is the great American novel.

>> No.2476576

Fitzgerald writes little things in that book that make you smile like a little bitch.

>> No.2476586

There's a secret contract between everyone who read the book to lie to everyone else and say it was good to make others read it.

>> No.2476599

i never get why people like this book so much, are they all just saying they like it to appear smart?

>> No.2476603

C'mon, guys. It's a good book.

>> No.2476618

I just don't get it. Hunter S Thompson loved Gatsby so much that he retyped the whole thing as a way to get a feel for what it would be like to write a novel. HST is a prose god compared to Fitzgerald.

>> No.2476625

ITT: High schoolers forced to read this book at school.

Wait until you're 25 or so then retry it.

>> No.2476635

>>2476572
maybe. i myself prefer to go the moby-dick route thereby relieving americans of any guilt

>> No.2476665

brb reading this right now

>> No.2476666

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my head ever since..."

>> No.2476687

>>2476618
What the fuck is wrong with you?

>> No.2476729

>>2476687

I can more easily identify with a 60s counterculture writer more than some gin-soaked turn of the century blowhard?

>> No.2476735

>>2476729
Identifying with an author and noticing prose stylist are completely two different things.

>> No.2476751

>>2476735

Ah, you have a point. That's not what I meant, though it did come out that way. I really don't have much in common with either writer as far as lifestyle goes. Thompson's writing resonates with me while Fitzgerald doesn't really do much.

>> No.2476755

>>2476751
Understandable. I only read a few pages of Hells Angels ,but from what I can tell Thompson has a nice rhythm while Fitzgerald is more slower and keener. Both have merit though.

>> No.2476829

>>2476559
I think the symbol that gets everyone is gatsby's green light, because it's so vague that anyone can impose their own interpretation on it. Does it represent america's wish to revert back to a post industrial revolution society? Does it represent every man's unattainable return to innocence? Is it simply the illusion of a spiritual reward that is promised with monetary success?
Also, Gatsby = Clark Kent, an alien in disguise living amongst Gentiles

>> No.2476846

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning —
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."


Last line is the best bit of the whole book.

>> No.2476852

My favorite passages are when he describes the house and sweeps from the shore to the house and then the wind billowing around the room and the passage where he describes the ash near the trainline where the garage is.

>> No.2477071

ITT: ADD kiddies with no sense of aesthetics.

>> No.2477075

>>2476599
are you fucking 12? I had to read this for school when i was 17 and I thought it was God-Tier.

And I feel like I was a pleb back then.

>> No.2477076

>>2476852
>wind billowing around the room
aw yea

>> No.2477699

Liked it from the start OP, so I couldn't say, probably just not for you.

>I can't believe people consider this THE great American novel.

You should avoid letting reputation inform your reading so heavily.

>>2476586

That's funny.

>> No.2477741

I have a strange relationship with this book. When I read it back in high school, I hated it. Mostly because I was supposed to read and annotate it over winter break but decided to, you know, not read it. I ended up rushing through it on the last night.

I hated it, but over the coming days and my somehow bullshitting through an essay on it, I came to love the story.

And now, years later, I honestly have no fucking idea what the book was about. All I remember are the characters Nick and Gatsby. Nothing else. It just faded from my mind.

>> No.2477747

Gatsby is fucking great. I thought it was good in high school and now I think it's better than good. I like it more now than I did. It's a fucking great book, you lot are idiots.

>> No.2477968

I LOVE the Great Gatsby. I was told to read for my Northamerican Literature class (I'm Spaniard). I like it. My view of this book deals with the description of the roarin 20. The way rich (and new rich) lived and how money is not enough to achieve a halcyon life, how coward people are sometimes and the consequence of being one. I do recommend this book. I wish I had bought it instead of borrowing ot from the library. Ah!, I forgot, In the novel, you'll find some parallelisms with Fitzgerald's life so, you had better read an introduction about his life and then compare it to what goes on in the book.
Hope the next film is as good as the book.

>> No.2479360

>>2477741
I read what you had to say.

>> No.2479373

I found it boring in high school, but reread in college and it was awesome. It illustrates how despicable and shallow many people are.

>> No.2479392

it starts awesome and gets worse, like everything I've read by fitzgerald. I liked this one because it was concise enough that he still managed to force some cool sentences out by the end, specially that one about the difference between a sick man and a healthy man.

>> No.2479408

its a very good book. If I played a few minutes of Super Mario (I have) and decided it was kind of boring (I did) I would conclude that I am not really into video games.
Maybe you are not into novels.
BTW, 'The Beautiful and Damned' is way more fun to read.

>> No.2479426

>>2479408
not op but I just disagreed with everythin you just said.

>> No.2479427

>>2479426
o except for its a good book, which I agree with so I guess I just disgreed with about a 2/3 of what you said.

>> No.2479429

>>2479426
I disagree with your disagreement. Meet me behind the internet at midnight and I will kick your ass.

>> No.2479445

>>2479429
its a night fight, bitch

>> No.2479457

>>2476846
I get goosebumps every time.

>> No.2479464

>>2479457
Me too. There's just something powerful about it.

>> No.2479497

It's under 200 pages, that is the start of a book..

>> No.2479507

>>2479497

Maybe back when writers were padding out their work and getting paid by the length.

>> No.2479521

Gatsby is god tier, I read that shit in high school and loved iy
> plebs in my class sparknoted it
> those same plebs are in this thread

>> No.2479526

Stop talking shit about my favourite book you clueless faggots and go back to reading Twilight.

>> No.2479527

The Green Light symbolises the green hills of America that the original settlers saw, which links to how Gatsby's desire to get Daisy is pure.

>> No.2479531

I always saw the light as a symbol of hope. Gatsby stares at that light, knowing that his love is right across the water. He never got over daisy and never gave up trying to win her until the day he died.

>> No.2479548

When I read it in high school, 5 years ago, I didn't understand most of it and had forgotten about it. Now I have read it a second time, finishing it the day before yesterday. I loved it.

What I loved most about it is how Fitzgerald manages to describe the people. The extreme shallowness of most characters at Gatsby's parties are quite recognizable. It's very interesting to read how persons with near infinite wealth are still struggling to attain happiness and just can't figure out how.

>> No.2479594

>>2476559
Gatsby blows

>> No.2479623

its a classic but not the great. GAN is a title belonging to his contemporary, hemingway

>> No.2479627

>>2476666

one of the most memorable opening lines I've ever read.

>> No.2479628

>>2479623
thinking about literature through the lens of GAN is kind of dumb and reductive, though, it's a fun game to play but if we're being serious about evaluating works...

>> No.2479633
File: 18 KB, 316x237, 662517-pauline-hanson.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2479633

>>2479594
You just went full retard

>> No.2479642

>>2479628
do you even know what i meant by gan

>> No.2479643

>>2479642
maybe not! i was assuming great american novel tho