Proof Jay Gatsby believes in UFOs

[Feliks]

First, Jay Gatsby is from the American Midwest--notoriously a part of America from whence routinely emerge, bogus UFO reports.

Secondly, Gatsby loves fine-quality haberdashery in the form of expensive men's shirts.

Obviously, he is a believer in extra-terrestrial life.

Remember that F Scott Fitzgerald was a big fan of Orson Welles and is rumored to have had an affair with him after the success of the infamous 1938 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast.

'Welles' and 'Gatsby' have the same number of letters in their last names.

The whole novel is therefore, a paean to Fitzgerald's secret admiration for speculative science.

[Karen]

LOL !!!

[Monty J]

Feliks wrote: "First, Jay Gatsby is from the American Midwest--notoriously a part of America from whence routinely emerge, bogus UFO reports.

Secondly, Gatsby loves fine-quality haberdashery in the form of expe..."

The troll lives.

[Geoffrey]

You´ve lost it completely. You`re not funny in the least but you should do stand up at a Star Trek convention. Those are your kind of nerds.

[Karen]

Geoffrey wrote: "You´ve lost it completely. You`re not funny in the least but you should do stand up at a Star Trek convention. Those are your kind of nerds."

I thought it was funny

[Geoffrey]

Apparently you`re the only one. Only three of us have commented on his post. The others have avoided it. Perhaps they were too embarrassed by its puerile quality.

[Karen]

Geoffrey wrote: "Apparently you`re the only one. Only three of us have commented on his post. The others have avoided it. Perhaps they were too embarrassed by its puerile quality."

I don't mind being the only one, Geoffrey. I'm a bit tired of "group think".

[Feliks]

FYI. Part of what makes the whole "Gatsby was a crook" thing so ludicrous is that the silly quote which started off the entire vapid 'campaign' is taken out of context in the first place.

Here is is:
"Gatsby's criminal activities have been downplayed if not largely ignored by literary critics, while, led by esteemed Yale Professor Harold Bloom, they have exaggerated his romantic side, doing a disservice to readers and students of literature. Fitzgerald complained "that of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about," a condition that apparently has not changed."

See this timeline of "The Great Gatsby's" critical and public reception. Particularly paragraph 14. [New York Times article, by the way.]

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/24...

Remember, the book was a dud, it went unrecognized for its first decade or so.

Thus, there was no popular misconception which Scott ever would have heard about, namely that the book was falsely perceived as a romance, because there was no popular reception of the work at all. It was not a hit. Get it? It was not initially mistaken as a serious romance; and would not be seen that way for decades.

So Scott's quote can't be referring to this possibility when he speaks about "audiences getting it wrong". He uttered this sentiment around 1925, when the book was released and suffered its first reviews.

Thus, we can't construe that he really meant the book should be taken as a damning indictment of Gatsby, his business associates, or American crime in general. This wishful-thinking by Goodreaders today, makes absolutely no sense, unless Scott Fitzgerald was a time-traveler. It's just plain bad scholarship.

The elevating of the book in stature (for the superb, quintessential romance that it is), came much later.

In fact, (see paragraph 18) Scott is reported as feeling he failed to make the book even more romantic than he had done. He wanted to show Daisy and Jay coupling, but flinched and shirked away from it. That is the main flaw he realized--not going far enough.

Whether or not that would have made the book better, who can say? But either the version we got (or the version Scott wanted to give us) both versions fly-in-the-face of any suggestion that Scott thought Jay morally poor.

To sum up: Du'oh!