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/lit/ - Literature

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4410829 No.4410829 [Reply] [Original]

Wanting to know if The Great Gatsby is worth my time to read

>> No.4410841

fuck no

>> No.4410836

No matter what people tell you today, you'll only know once you're done with it.

>> No.4410869

it's like a hundred and fifty pages, you can do it big boy we believe in you

>> No.4410888

Yes.

>> No.4410989

>>4410888
Whats the message of the book

>> No.4410990

copped from library at 5 pm
walked in rain for 30 mins
got coffee and read
walked in rain
gale broke my umbrella, fucking scotland
made soup
still hungry made more soup
had some cereal
read
put pizza in oven
read
masturbated to pictures of boys dressing up as girls
came
finished the novel (10)

it was shit and i lost interest in the really awful boring imagery and simile centric prose about 40 pages in but now at least i can tell people it's shit

you can do it op

>> No.4410992

>>4410989
never fucking fall in love with a bitch

>> No.4410996
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4410996

>>4410990
You know how to live.

>> No.4410998

>>4410989
if money is not a problem in your life you begin to have some retarded issues and behave like a melodramatic bitch/
also, murcan dream rules but also sucks.

>> No.4411000

>>4410990
Wow, we don't even need the rest of /lit/, you're him.

>> No.4411001

The cultural impact alone makes it worth your time to read. It will hardly take any time at all.

>> No.4411006

>>4410989
muh historicism and class values and decadence

also i just took it outand i burned my pizza fuck

>> No.4411013

>>4410998
Pretty much, it just reads like a classic hipster novel - mild criticism of american society, wrong generation pandering, melodramatic love story, blah blah blah

>>4410992
REAL MESSAGE

>> No.4411023

>>4411013
America, the only country where books like Gatsby, films like Inception and games like Bioshock Infantile are treated seriously.

>> No.4411030
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4411030

>>4411023

>> No.4411040

>>4410989
that you shouldn't be a faggot and get hung over a girl

>> No.4411044
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4411044

>>4411030

>> No.4411046

>>4411006
Wait.. There is a book about muh historicism? Could it be the reincarnation of Ranke himself?! I didn't think anyone even really bothered with historicism anymore after the annalles school.

Nevermind, checked the date and its 1925, I guess that's fair. Still nice to see a novel actually concerned about historicism though.

>> No.4411053
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4411053

>>4411044

>> No.4411064

Gatsby gave me feels that I will likely never find again.

But I had the advantage of being relatively new to literature and reading it at an impressionable age.

I can only recommend it though.

I know it's always said, to the point of exacerbation, but the prose is brilliant and really makes it a smooth read. It's a short book where barely a sentence is wasted but you won't have to spend time re-reading passages.

>> No.4411092

>>4411064
The imagery is poor and the prose is anything but minimalist. It's fine that you liked it because you reflected on how you were born in the wrong generation or whatever, but critically its not good and there's a reason its something given to high schoolers

>> No.4411116

>>4410829

I don't know if it's relevant (never read Gatsby) but I read Tender Is The Night, to try Fitzgerald's stuff, and it was meh tier. 1st part was terrible, I felt like I was reading a bitch diary, then you had some basic neoromantical stuff and freudian shit which was OK. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it.

Dunno if that helps

>> No.4411164

>>4411092
>The imagery is poor
I disagree. I'm not saying it's the best, because I don't know what is but there's enough in there to provoke some good thought/discussion.

>the prose is anything but minimalist
I don't know if by minimalist you also expect there to be simplified/shortened vocabulary and sentences but I found most passages to be concise to their end and every detail seemed to serve a purpose.

>It's fine that you liked it because you reflected on how you were born in the wrong generation or whatever
Pretty outlandish assumption.

My reasons for liking The Great Gatsby are many, but most of all it comes down to a simple component: the character of Gatsby himself. His resourcefulness, loyalty and his unflinching hope til the very end and the positioning of his traditionally good characteristics versus his more questionable ones.

>> No.4411181

>>4411164
You said the book didn't waste words, aka minimalist, when really its full of circumlocutory sentences that come to the edge of rambling. Also, just because some element inside of you added on to the shitty imagery doesn't mean that quality is in the book, it's not immersive at all.

I know it might not seem relevant, but are you a women?

>> No.4411272

>>4411181
You're just restating your opinion here. Short of actually re-reading through the novel, I can only really disagree and do the same. Could be a matter of perception but I really felt, on the whole, that every detail Fitzgerald included gave some kind of insight into characters or people in general.
It wasn't even a matter of immersion, at least in the sense of creating a environment for the characters and for the reader to imagine.

Imagery has little to do with why I like the novel, but you keep calling it shitty. I reckon it's just your way of letting the board know you have read something "superior". In any case, please elaborate. I'd genuinely be interested to know what you think is good imagery so I may give it a read and compare.

And no, I'm not a woman lol.

>> No.4411321
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4411321

>>4411272
An American tragedy does a better job of describing the environment of the boom and making more realistic, fleshed out characters. I hate to use a buzzword, but Gatsby is frankly a mary sue. He has so little character flaws I rather don't believe that is a real person, and no too romantic or too much money is not a flaw. I added that women part because I find alot of women just like it because they want to fuck Gatsby because it reads like a trashy romance novel.

And no this isn't about my patrician tastes or me restating my opinion; I'm just asserting reality, and the reality is that book has poor imagery and is not concise, which I'm not even saying is bad so much as that's the syntax. Hemingway is an example of concise writing

>> No.4411346

who dudeist here?

http://www.dudeism.com/

>> No.4411349

>>4410989
High class American culture is decadent bullshit that fucks up your priorities and molds you into a shallow person who laments over shallow pursuits.

>> No.4411356

>>4411349
what a trite theme. It doesn't even suggest alternatives

>> No.4411365
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4411365

>>4410996
>No doe-spirit forest faerie gf

>> No.4411369

>>4411356
That's largely because Fitzgerald was a part of high class New York culture, as an outsider. It's a retrospective work, not speculative. Try reading his "The Crack-Up" and you might appreciate his position more.

>> No.4411391

>>4411369
I'm not saying its bad, just that American reactionary literature against materialism is a beat to death topic, even when he wrote the book. It makes it hard to like when I have a large list of similar books to compare it to

>> No.4411406

>>4411356
Well, Fitzgerald was influenced by Edith Wharton, who applied a Henry James inspired Naturalism in her work, specifically using Darwinism to illustrate how one's social environment dictates their identity. I would say that Gatsby was killed by Daisy's decadence, rather than his own, showing how attempting to adapt in a corrupt environment will destroy you if you hold on to your humanity for too long.

>> No.4411418

>>4411406
Where did you perceive Fitzgerald advocating a release of your humanity?

>> No.4411461

>>4411418
>Where did you perceive Fitzgerald advocating a release of your humanity?
I don't think that at all. I don't think The Great Gatsby was that didactic. I just see it as a comment of what is necessary, rather than what is good. And I got this understanding through the motif of old money vs the nouveau riche and how Gatsby's death is due to him trying to compete with someone from old money.

>> No.4411464

>>4411321
Gatsby, flawless? You're fast approaching troll territory with that statement.

What about his hope that destroyed him? What about his criminal activity and meticulously constructed character?

You keep coming back to imagery. Did your high school teacher teach you how to enjoy literature?

>> No.4411478

>>4411464
Your ass is reaching critical levels of hurt; might be time to close the browser if you can't deal with it.

>> No.4411483

>>4411464
>Did your high school teacher teach you how to enjoy literature?

Not who you're responding to, but how is this a valid insult?

>> No.4411505

>>4411461
I'm not following you, are you just saying the urge to have an identity or compete for social prestige are human nature or that we would be better of releasing every thing that is human nature

>> No.4411510

>>4411483

I was implying that possibly this gentleman wasn't really thinking for himself when he thinks about whether he enjoyed a book or not.

The persistence on imagery led me to believe this is the type of person who has a crystalised checklist for what makes something enjoyable.

>> No.4411513
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4411513

>>4411464
>Did your high school teacher teach you how to enjoy literature?
Typical Great Gatsby drone when confronted with the truth about a book they were spoon fed in high school

>> No.4411515

>>4411513
it's more embarrassing that people have an opinion on a book they only read in high school in any event

>> No.4411517

>>4410829
It'll take you an afternoon. Do you seriously question whether a book worth making a hundred million dollar movie of is worth an afternoon of your time? Faggot pls.

>> No.4411518

>>4411505
>human nature
I think this is where the confusion is. I'm not talking about human nature. I'm saying that within the work, identity is dictated by environment, and any attempt to change that identity requires a level of adaptation that can easily destroy the individual.

>> No.4411524

>>4411510
>I was implying that possibly this gentleman wasn't really thinking for himself when he thinks about whether he enjoyed a book or not.
Oh, okay. I was thrown off by your phrasing.

>> No.4411547

>>4411518
Ok, I was getting confused over the semantics of humanity

>> No.4411628

>>4411513
>Typical Great Gatsby drone when confronted with the truth about a book they were spoon fed in high school

Typical insecure snob who lacks strong opinions of their own and resorts to putting down other works to bolster their perceived taste.

>> No.4411641
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4411641

>>4410829
>widely considered one of the greatest English novels of the 20th century
>widely cited as THE greatest American novel of the 20th century
>less than 200 pages and easy to read.
>"worth my time?"
>spends 2 minutes asking the question and probably another 30 waiting for answers and reading the Wikipedia page
>could be done 1/4 of the book by now.
I truly FUCKING hate you. Get out of this board.

P.S. No, it's not worth your time to read. If you don't like reading, don't.

pic related it's you