Revisiting the Great Gatsby

[osho]

I have recently read an article Why Gatsby is so great published in the Guardian
and from reading the article I feel like rereading the novel once again. Since the book is small and as I know the story already the reading has been speedy. What strikes me is what F Scott Fitzgerald has written so long ago is not so obsolete even after this long time stretch and it is very much momentously of the moment as if that kind of dishonesty, the mindset to earn more to live sumptuously is very much current today also, but in higher degrees than ever before.
Today our society, not only in the US but also in the rest of developed and fast developing countries mirrors what he has narrated in the story and I want to put forth this for the platform for the discussion.

Aren't we living in a materialism driven world where people want luxury and want to make a big bargain for everything?

[paradoxical]

I've been wanting to reread The Great Gatsby as well. Regarding what you were saying about materialism and profit, I read that the gap between the rich and poor is just as high now as when Fitzgerald first wrote the novel.

Things had leveled off for awhile and become more fair. We saw a great rise in the middle and working class, but now things are back to the way they were before: profit and economic growth that benefits the wealthy, at the expense of the poor.

[blazeofglory]

I've been wanting to reread The Great Gatsby as well. Regarding what you were saying about materialism and profit, I read that the gap between the rich and poor is just as high now as when Fitzgerald first wrote the novel.

Things had leveled off for awhile and become more fair. We saw a great rise in the middle and working class, but now things are back to the way they were before: profit and economic growth that benefits the wealthy, at the expense of the poor.

You are right, absolutely right. Reading the economic history of the US there was a big gap earlier. Particularly during the time when world war 1 was over and people were more into consumption. In fact it was the Jazz-age and people were kind of hedonists. Money was deemed the most important commodity, the only truth, the only God they wanted to worship. They were going to be anti-austere.

Of course as you have rightly said things were leveling off and the gap between the rich and the poor was not so much ostensible. The middle class emerged.

But today the gap is growing not to the level of the early twentieth century, it is growing bigger and bigger.

Today we live in an age of commercial imperialism, and there is no geopolitical dominance and that era of dominating nations geopolitically was over with the end of the cold war. Now there is commercial dominance.

There are so many striking similarities between the age in which America woke to the Jazz and the life of sumptuousness.
Today we witness such things more than ever before in the history of mankind.

This great literary piece filmed 5 times really mirrors the kind of the society we are in - living for luxuries.

The great Gatsby is such a great literary book, a masterpiece fewer books can match up to this to reflect American society of that time and of today.

I suggest read the book if you truly want to know the average American life and the mainstream in which most of are being directed

[Alexander III]

What strikes me is what F Scott Fitzgerald has written so long ago is not so obsolete even after this long time stretch and it is very much momentously of the moment

Meh, if you approach the Iliad with an educated mind you will see how monumentously of the moment it is. Fitzgerald by contrast is exceedingly modern.

[paradoxical]

Meh, if you approach the Iliad with an educated mind you will see how monumentously of the moment it is. Fitzgerald by contrast is exceedingly modern.

Yea, because the Trojan War has so much relevance to modern society. And I noticed that you used the loaded expression "with an educated mind". Implying something there? Not saying The Iliad isn't a great work, but to say that The Great Gatsby isn't of the moment because it is "exceedingly modern" makes no sense.

Honestly, this sounds like another thread where you showcase your love for old texts and profess their superiority over inferior modern works.

[Alexander III]

Yea, because the Trojan War has so much relevance to modern society. And I noticed that you used the loaded expression "with an educated mind". Implying something there? Not saying The Iliad isn't a great work, but to say that The Great Gatsby isn't of the moment because it is "exceedingly modern" makes no sense.

Honestly, this sounds like another thread where you showcase your love for old texts and profess their superiority over inferior modern works.

You misunderstand.

1) The Great Gatsby is the most perfect novel I have found, and amongst my favorites - I was merely saying that it is obvious that it is modern and what is says is very relevant to us, it was barley written a little less than a hundred years ago, which is nothing when compared to the Iliad, and even that has a great relevance to today.

2) the Educated mind was loaded - let me explain - st.lukes a while back had a signature I really liked, it went something like this: "One man can read War and Peace and see it as noting more than an adventure story, and another man can read the ingredients on a pack of gum and discover the secrets of the universe. The further back in history you go, the more of a certain education is required to understand it. When you read the Great Gatsby, we already know the context the idioms, the manner of thought, the technological and political state of the times as they are pretty much like ours. When we go to the Iliad, a lot is different in terms of context. A certain amount of knowledge is not a perquisite to understanding it, but not knowing certain socio-human-politic-religious aspects of the time mean a certain chunk of it which the greek's of homers time would have know perfectly, will go over ones head.

3) I enjoy good literature - I do not enjoy old nor do I enjoy new literature, I enjoy good literature. When it comes to Modernism I greatly love Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Rilke, Steinbeck, D.H Lawrence, Proust, Mann, Kafka, Pirandello, Ungharetti and Kerouac. When it comes to post-modernism I have only enjoyed Calvino and Mccrathy - Mccarthy who is not even a post-modernist. I just think that after modernism, there was a literary stagnation as is expected, it happens always in history. The english restoration, Charles the II's court, you have the great Cavalier poets and dramatists and the metaphysical ones, it is a period of extraordinary english poesy output (unfortunately much of it was obscured by time as up until post 1970, many of the great poets of the epoch were taboo) - the period ends quickly and most of it's geniuses end themselves quicker. The subsequent period experiences a form of stagnation. Up and down and then down and up, literature does not simply get better and better - it has its golden periods and its silver periods and it's dull periods, and none of it has anything to do with chronology.

4) At first it seemed you were saying that The Illiad bears little relevance to now. But I am not quite sure if you meant that. SO before I say anything on said topic I will give you a chance to clarify yourself.

[paradoxical]

4) At first it seemed you were saying that The Illiad bears little relevance to now. But I am not quite sure if you meant that. SO before I say anything on said topic I will give you a chance to clarify yourself.

Well, I think all great works have something to say to us. Certain universal themes, for instance. There is still war and strife, love and betrayal...human nature was essentially the same for the ancient Greeks as it for us today. It certainly does have a lot to offer for today's readers, but I'm not convinced it has a lot to say about current social issues. For one thing, Homer would have been unable to comprehend the world we live in today.

Same thing with Shakespeare...who knew more about love and human nature? But a high-tech, ultra-capitalist world, post-modern world where traditional human relationships have broken down, as well as the ability we have to destroy the world 1,000x over with nuclear weapons would have be incomprehensible to him. Thus, little would apply to our complex social problems. Problems with love and relationships, even metaphysical questions and other ponderings, yes. Absolutely.

Now let's compare another modern writer - George Orwell. He had much to say about the times we live in and his work was very precsient.

[KCurtis]

You misunderstand.

1) The Great Gatsby is the most perfect novel I have found, and amongst my favorites


Okay, now I like you better


[/QUOTE] I was merely saying that it is obvious that it is modern and what is says is very relevant to us, it was barley written a little less than a hundred years ago, which is nothing when compared to the Iliad, and even that has a great relevance to today.
[/QUOTE]

True, and it is more relevant today than 30 years ago

[Buh4Bee]

Fitzgerald is always a great read, even his weakest book This Side of Paradise.