The Great Gatsby
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M-a-v-r-o-g, An Incoherent Remark in The Great Gatsby
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JimF wrote: "After Myrtle's accident, a policeman tries to record something with difficulty. Fitzgerald never said that something is a name.Presently Tom lifted his head with a jerk and, after staring around ..."
A brilliant piece of detective work. Bravo.
Monty J wrote: "JimF wrote: "After Myrtle's ..."Thanks, Monty.
I've been wondering who is "the man" talking to the policeman. My experience shows that Fitzgerald wasted no words. Best explanation for me will be the author's (secret) advent, a rhetorical device Fitzgerald used often in this novel.
JimF wrote:"...who is "the man" talking to the policeman. ..."I assumed it was Michaelis, since it was he who interjected with, "There was two cars..." as if Tom had just interrupted his conversation with the policeman. Here is the full sequence:
(VII, 147)It is a tightly written piece of dialogue, but highly realistic to the circumstances and setting. Apparently the cop was interviewing Michaelis, spelling his name aloud while writing it in his notebook, when Tom interrupted.
"g---" he looked up as Tom's broad hand fell sharply on his shoulder.. "What you want fella?"
"What happened--that's what I want ot know!"
"Auto hit her. Ins'tanly killed."
"Instantly killed," repeated Tom, staring.
"She ran out inna road. Son-of-a-bitch didn't even stopus car."
"There was two cars," said Michaelis. "One comin', one goin', see?"
"Going where?" asked the policeman keenly.
"One goin' each way. Well, she--" His hand rose toward the blankets but stopped half way and fell to his side, "--she ran out there an' the one comin' from N'York knock right into her goin' thirty or forty miles an hour."
Later, in testimony at the inquest and in a discussion with the grieving Wilson, it is revealed that Michaelis and another bystander were the first to arrive at Myrtle's body and that Michaelis had been observing the Wilsons' heated argument just before Myrtle ran out into the street. So it is logical that Michaelis would have been among the first interviewed by the policeman. (Hmmm, what happened to the other bystander?)
Monty J wrote: "JimF wrote:"...who is "the man" talking to the policeman. ..."I assumed it was Michaelis, since it was he who interjected with, "There was two cars..." as if Tom had just interrupted his conversa..."
I've considered the man being Michaelis, but I can't find "g" in his name, and that "g" appeared twice halts my assumption, so I need another explanation to fit this dialogue; besides that, only the author can connect M-a-v-r-o-g with This Side of Paradise.
Mavromichaelis is changed to Michaelis after the first printing, so most readers won't see that name. However, I do suspect why missing one place unchanged, and why in that place:
Mavromichaelis wasn't even sure of its color—he told the first policeman that it was light green.
Fitzgerald's original naming of Mavromichaelis in his pencil manuscript should have a reason. Mavro means dark in Greek. This dark archangel is telling the dark truth by reversing Daisy's "green light" to "light green."
JimF wrote: "Mavromichaelis wasn't even sure of its color—he told the first policeman that it was light green..."I covered the green vs yellow car controversy in an earlier post here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
JimF wrote: "I've considered the man being Michaelis, but I can't find "g" in his name, and that "g" appeared twice halts my assumption, so I need another explanation to fit this dialogue; besides that,"...
"Mavro" means "black" in Greek, Michaelis' apparent ethnicity, so, along with juxtaposition, this ties the phrase the cop was spelling to him more than anyone at the scene. However, it is interesting to note that the next person to speak is an unnamed black person the author referred to as "a well-dressed negro."
Perhaps "Michaelis" is short for "Mavro. G. Michaelis". Googling "Mavrogmichaelis" generates a long list of people named "Mavro-Michaelis", suggesting that "Mavro" and "Michaelis" both are common Greek surnames and the "G" a middle initial.
"... only the author can connect M-a-v-r-o-g with This Side of Paradise."
Yes, but there are other intriguing connections, such as the novel's untitled opening poem attributed to a nonexistent "Thomas Parke D'Invilliers." D'Invilliers was a college friend of Amory in This Side of Paradise. Here's a unattributed Wikipedia citation: "Thomas Parke D'Invilliers - one of Blaine's close friends (also the fictitious author of the poem at the start of The Great Gatsby) was based on the poet John Peale Bishop, Fitzgerald's friend and classmate."
There are many similarities between the two novels, perhaps because Fitzgerald borrowed heavily from his and Zelda's lives for material.
Monty J wrote: ... Thomas Parke D'Invilliers - one of Blaine's close friends (also the fictitious author of the poem at the start of The Great Gatsby) was based on the poet John Peale Bishop, Fitzgerald's friend and classmate...There's a fair reason to use the name Thomas Parke D'Invilliers in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's self-promotion in this novel is similar to the three levels of ecphrasis from easy to hard:
(1) with source revealed like the poet D'Invilliers for This Side of Paradise (1920),
(2) with no source but fair clues like the postman for The Vegetable (1923), or naming Nick Carraway from Dick Caramel, a good friend of the protagonist Anthony Patch in The Beautiful and Damned (1922), and
(3) with no source no easy clues like the man talking to the policeman for This Side of Paradise (1920).
Nick is close to Dick; both caraway and caramel can be used to flavor food or a story.
"For some time, night wandering in the stars was for him a secret door into the world of rest and dreamed inaccessible to him, as if Someone Great and Terrible instilled in him the belief in the illusory nature of life and convinced him that the world rests unshakably on three whales or, an extreme case, on the wings of the elves. ""The novel is wonderful and touching. It is about hopes and dreams, love, betrayal, betrayal, and nobility, about the beauty of a generous soul. A dream achieved, a huge fortune does not bring happiness. Perhaps dreams were initially inherently untenable and illusory goals; love is illusory. You can also read essay criticisms or book reviews at https://samploon.com/free-essays/the-... student writing service. So simply shocking discussions. The Great Gatsby is called a novel - the anthem of the jazz era, and the author is called the writer of the ""lost generation"". I read this beautiful and sad story with bated breath. Sometimes, the characters' actions caused by indignation or annoyance. Still, I never once doubted the reliability of the events described, the characters of the characters. An unusually atmospheric novel, you completely immerse yourself in the era, and it is described beautifully in a gentle, sad, poetic tone.
The story is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbour and friend. It is through his eyes that we see the mysterious Gatsby of a rich man, who spent money on feasts for unfamiliar friends, vulgar in his bad taste, with a desire to earn love and trust with gloss and brilliance. Gatsby himself does not deny his ""service to the futile worldly vanity and carnal pleasures"" that his world is built on ""pathologically animal egocentrism."" It pushes Nick away from Gatsby. It pushes me away too. But the greatness of Gatsby is not only the irony of the author, but it is also the ability to achieve everything on his own, the nobility and generosity of his soul, the ability to dream, hope, love, even if these dreams and love were illusions, and hopes were not justified. In the end, Gatsby ""could not help but understand that the support on which his whole cozy world was held - the world of youthful dreams and dreams, had collapsed."" This unfulfilled love touched me"
Is it a classic of the entire world cinema or not? With this question, you can compare a movie to a book. The answer is in one place, namely in the article https://www.filmink.com.au/examining-... where there are all the nuances that can be used and given to friends for analysis. And to understand for ourselves how much the film and the book differ. This is the answer to your question, of course, if you put it to yourself as I do.
"I'll be the man smoking two cigarettes." This confusing line by Daisy isn't in the pencil manuscript and galley proof. Fitzgerald called it a faint "wit" as a hint that it can be reasoned faintly. Keys are underlined:"Where are we going?" she cried.
"How about the movies?"
"It's so hot," she complained. "You go. We'll ride around and meet you after." With an effort her wit rose faintly, "We'll meet you on some corner. I'll be the man smoking two cigarettes."
"We can't argue about it here," Tom said impatiently, as a truck gave out a cursing whistle behind us. "You follow me to the south side of Central Park, in front of the Plaza."
Several times he turned his head and looked back for their car, and if the traffic delayed them he slowed up until they came into sight. I think he was afraid they would dart down a side street and out of his life forever.
Visualization. Beside Tom and Daisy there's a movie billboard showing a handlebar mustache man that looks like a man smoking two cigarettes. The 1913 film Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life may fit this scene.
Tom stares at the billboard and catches Daisy's "wit"—to disguise herself and out of Tom's life forever in some corner, a race for a new life.
The ending scene of The Conquering Power, a 1921 film directed by Rex Ingram (1892–1950) with starring Alice Terry (1900–87) and Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926), matches the scene in Gatsby's party:Almost the last thing I remember was standing with Daisy and watching the moving-picture director and his Star. They were still under the white-plum tree and their faces were touching except for a pale, thin ray of moonlight between. It occurred to me that he had been very slowly bending toward her all evening to attain this proximity, and even while I watched I saw him stoop one ultimate degree and kiss at her cheek.The film reflects Gatsby's wish. Evil father (Uncle Sam & Tom) segregates his daughter and her lover. Years later the young man comes back and gets her.
The Conquering Power at 1:13:55 / 1:14:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N5sb...
Why "under the white-plum tree"? Plum has the usage of "one of the best things to be found in a book or article [or film]; one of the best or choicest things among situations or appointments; one of the prizes of life" (OED since 1825). White is Daisy's color in The Great Gatsby.
Alice Terry and Rex Ingram eloped (in "thin ray of moonlight") and married in 1921.
The "white-plum tree" paragraph was in Fitzgerald's pencil manuscript. Later he mentioned the couple in a letter to John Peale Bishop in Sep. 1925:
There was no one at Antibes this summer except me, Zelda, the Valentino, the Murphy's, Mistinguet, Rex Ingram, Dos Passos, Alice Terry . . .
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Mavro is taken from Wilson's neighbor Michaelis, whose name was set to Mavromichaelis in Fitzgerald's pencil manuscript, and reduced to Michaelis in the first printing (except one place). The problem is the "g" at the end. The "g" isn't a mistake because Fitzgerald changed the capitalized "G" in the galley proof to "g" here.
Fitzgerald's 1920 novel This Side of Paradise, in a letter from Darcy to Amory, has one line can complete the incoherent Mavro and "g":
"Mavrone go Gudyo" means "my sorrow forever" in Irish. Fitzgerald's parents were both of Irish descent. The incomplete M-a-v-r-o-g is to mourn the death of Myrtle Wilson.