Oh, and here's the notes that I wrote before I made the video. I figured I'd leave them here as a little behind the scenes with some alternative thoughts.
What makes Gatsby great? I read the book in highschool and remember hating it, but that could just be that my teacher was bad and I struggle with reading comprehension (I get more interested by the fibers in the paper). We watched the movie adaptation and I still didn't like it, but maybe that's just because I watched it just after reading the book and had a sour taste (and maybe the movie just wasn't that good). Well I'm like 15 years separated from the class and I just watched the Leonardo DiCaprio version with Toby Maguire and modern editing and cinematography, so if anything should speak to me it's this. And it doesn't.
Why is this story so important? Why is this studied in high school and held up as a great American novel? Why are there 3 different movie adaptations of it? Why is there an 8 hour play where someone just reads The Great Gatsby out loud while things happen in the background?
What is the story? It's the roaring 20s, and prohibition had just ended. There's a stock broker named Nick Carroway who recently moved to the "new money" part of long island. His neighbor is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby who got his money in mysterious ways. He's also related to a woman named Daisy who married into "old money" and lives across the lake where "old money" lives. The first part of the story is Nick getting to know Gatsby, the next part is Nick introducing Daisy to Gatsby. The last part is a love triangle with Gatsby, Daisy, and Daisy's husband since Daisy and Gatsby were an item before the war, with what I think is some sort of commentary on wealth segregation and the "legitimacy of how one makes their money" and how elites think themselves better than others even if they have the same wealth. And maybe there's some sort of lesson about how even with all the money in the world you can't buy love, or something like that.
But why is this "so important." The conflict is "celebrity drama," rich people cheating on each other and trying to out do each other. That's tabloid nonsense. I thought TMZ and Us Weekly were "low class dribble." What separates the story of Jay Gatsby and Daisy from Brad Pitt and Angelena Joelie or Kim Kardation and Kanyay West? As far as I can tell, NOTHING! It's not like this was a P Diddy or Amber Heard situation where there was major criminal activity, it's gossip nonsense. "Oh but it's set in the 1920s," and it was written in the 1920s, which means that it would be like if someone wrote a book about a fictional Kim Kardation type person.
Then it's like, what's the big deal about Gatsby. Am I supposed to feel bad that Daisy doesn't return his affection, or that she does but they can't? Daisy's a married woman, that's kind of how "unavailable" works. "She was supposed to wait but she didn't, and now he wants a second chance," bullet dodged. If she was worth it she would have waited for you, instead of marrying the first rich guy who asked. "She didn't know if Gatsby was coming home," was she told he died? I don't remember, if they said that it was once "because that wasn't important." If she did think he died, well she moved on and so should he. "But it's a loveless marriage," too bad, she's married. Am I supposed to dislike Gatsby because he's a scumbag who literally covets his neighbor's wife? OK, but the books sure does a lot to make him likable.
"But it's a commentary on celebrity worship and elitism." OK sure, but why does that matter to me? I have no interest in celebrity gossip. Like, none at all. I don't need a book to tell me it's nonsense. I also grew up in a middle middle class neighborhood where no one was trying to outdo each other, my grandparents lived in low income housing and my other grandparents lived in a farm community, and I live in a rural suburb surrounded by farm land and industrial parks. No one is elitist by me, I have zero frame of reference for this. Rich people are just rich people as far as I'm concerned, and I have no interest in them.
"But the symbolism." What symbols? Gatsby likes the green light because it's a sign of Daisy. It's decent foreshadowing, I guess, but it's not like it's some major thing that needs to be debated and studied. He calls everyone "old sport" to make himself sound fancy in the 1920s. It's just slang of the time. Why did my grandma call everyone sweetheart? It wasn't because she had some kind of cannibal tendencies, it's just something someone that grew up in the 30s and 40s says. "The All Seeing billboard that foreshadows them getting caught," or whatever it was supposed to mean, fine but why do I care? "But all the things Gatsby does to fake it until he makes it," once again, it's just tabloid nonsense.
If I'm being truly honest as a critic, it's a very mid story. It's not exactly terrible, but it's also not great. I watched it while doing busy work, it "filled the silence" like Super Fast, Earnest Goes to Camp, Demoted, and other "good enough" movies. I don't hate it like Catcher in the Rye, but that's because there's not really anything to hate. Which also means that there's not really anything to love. Why oh why is this considered "high art." Is it because there just wasn't anything like it at the time? Well, we have real life examples now with the 24 hour celebrity news cycle. Is it because prohibition and ill gotten money? Surely there are stories that tell that more and have more focus than "hey, I wonder how this Gatsby got his money."
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