Great essay! Hemingway and Fitzgerald are why I hated high school. Then in 12th grade, a young teacher named Mr. Mandel (he was 33) came along and introduced me to William Kotzwinkle and Richard Brautigan. God bless Mr. Mandel.
Lmao, I remember this piece when it ran on Vice. With all the fawning over The Great Gatsby's 100-year anniversary, I was hoping you'd bring it back, and it's as glorious as ever. People love to shit on so many books in the canon but The Great Gatsby is almost some kind of sacred cow, and I've never understood why. It has impacted the culture, sure, but the actual experience of reading it sucks for the reasons you've described.
How do you feel about Lord of the Flies? This was pressed upon us instead of Gatsby. Flies didn't generate in me an antipathy towards reading, but something in me felt a bit horrified, years later, to learn from an English teacher friend that it was still being read and taught. I suppose I imagined a little more dynamism in the curriculum across states and generations. I never read Gatsby, but I do like Fitzgerald, particularly This Side of Paradise. I wouldn't offer it for wide-reading, however.
among high school lit, i liked lord of the flies and 1984 the best, though it's been years since i looked at either. I think at least lord of the flies has more than meets the eye in its intent, plus some actual imagination, while gatsby just seeming fawning and flat - i totally agree with you that i'm always surprised by the lack of dynamism, traditions die hard even in class i suppose
Thank you for this! I've been talking about how much I can't stand Gatsby since I read it in high school...HELL YES- fuck these people and their story and the author and the book, I could not give less of a shit about them. I do love American Psycho but not as much as the look on people's faces when they tell me how great Gatsby is and I tell them to go read AP.
I read it twice, the first time in high school & the second time while incarcerated a few years later, I never liked Nick, but like you pointed out, I didn’t want to spend energy ‘not liking’ him, he was, to me, what we call a ‘mark’ on the street, Gatsby seemed like a mark as well, they didn’t need to relate to anyone because it was all about privilege for them & then, I guess you’re suppose to feel for them at the end? Idk, it never worked, both movies didn’t work either, but Redford was more sympathetic in his portrayal, but it was still a lame story to me, in that they should’ve had a harder time existing as people, but they didn’t, so I couldn’t relate, really…sometime in the 90s I was in some situation where I was waiting for someone to pay me what they owed me, they were stalling, I had to wait with their roommate in their living room watching the tv, MTV, real world, I was concentrating on the biz at hand, so I just let the time waste by & watched this show with this woman who obviously knew it well, she tried to explain it to me & something clicked in my head ‘The Great Gatsby was a reality tv entertainment vehicle, it was the vanguard of reality tv’…I felt relief that I finally related to it & realized there was now a reason I never had to try to understand Fitzgerald again…
I want to read it again. It didn't really make an impression on me in high school the way The Sun Also Rises did. I think the plot is intentionally thin and unrealistic. It's a weird book. For better or worse I think it captures the striving that's deeply ingrained in American culture.
Great essay! Hemingway and Fitzgerald are why I hated high school. Then in 12th grade, a young teacher named Mr. Mandel (he was 33) came along and introduced me to William Kotzwinkle and Richard Brautigan. God bless Mr. Mandel.
big ups mr mandel indeed - brautigan in high school seems fun
I've despised this novel since Mrs. Keifer assigned it sophomore year.
I look forward to reading. I’ve felt the same forever lol.
Lmao, I remember this piece when it ran on Vice. With all the fawning over The Great Gatsby's 100-year anniversary, I was hoping you'd bring it back, and it's as glorious as ever. People love to shit on so many books in the canon but The Great Gatsby is almost some kind of sacred cow, and I've never understood why. It has impacted the culture, sure, but the actual experience of reading it sucks for the reasons you've described.
hahah i'm glad to come thru :) i never understood either, even among high school lit it's so stunted
This reminds me to reread The Great Gatsby....
How do you feel about Lord of the Flies? This was pressed upon us instead of Gatsby. Flies didn't generate in me an antipathy towards reading, but something in me felt a bit horrified, years later, to learn from an English teacher friend that it was still being read and taught. I suppose I imagined a little more dynamism in the curriculum across states and generations. I never read Gatsby, but I do like Fitzgerald, particularly This Side of Paradise. I wouldn't offer it for wide-reading, however.
Anyway, Lord of the Flies -- thoughts?
among high school lit, i liked lord of the flies and 1984 the best, though it's been years since i looked at either. I think at least lord of the flies has more than meets the eye in its intent, plus some actual imagination, while gatsby just seeming fawning and flat - i totally agree with you that i'm always surprised by the lack of dynamism, traditions die hard even in class i suppose
Thank you for this! I've been talking about how much I can't stand Gatsby since I read it in high school...HELL YES- fuck these people and their story and the author and the book, I could not give less of a shit about them. I do love American Psycho but not as much as the look on people's faces when they tell me how great Gatsby is and I tell them to go read AP.
I think it’s kind of simplistic to critique this book for being about rich unlikeable white people.
I read it twice, the first time in high school & the second time while incarcerated a few years later, I never liked Nick, but like you pointed out, I didn’t want to spend energy ‘not liking’ him, he was, to me, what we call a ‘mark’ on the street, Gatsby seemed like a mark as well, they didn’t need to relate to anyone because it was all about privilege for them & then, I guess you’re suppose to feel for them at the end? Idk, it never worked, both movies didn’t work either, but Redford was more sympathetic in his portrayal, but it was still a lame story to me, in that they should’ve had a harder time existing as people, but they didn’t, so I couldn’t relate, really…sometime in the 90s I was in some situation where I was waiting for someone to pay me what they owed me, they were stalling, I had to wait with their roommate in their living room watching the tv, MTV, real world, I was concentrating on the biz at hand, so I just let the time waste by & watched this show with this woman who obviously knew it well, she tried to explain it to me & something clicked in my head ‘The Great Gatsby was a reality tv entertainment vehicle, it was the vanguard of reality tv’…I felt relief that I finally related to it & realized there was now a reason I never had to try to understand Fitzgerald again…
I want to read it again. It didn't really make an impression on me in high school the way The Sun Also Rises did. I think the plot is intentionally thin and unrealistic. It's a weird book. For better or worse I think it captures the striving that's deeply ingrained in American culture.
So brave.
Man this is great .
Best book report ever.