The Great Bore

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>>8623359
Wow, you're on /lit/ and criticizing The Great Gatsby?

You're such a nonbore

>>8623359
Protip: Authors like Fitzgerald, Clemens, and Hemingway are forced on American schoolchildren because Americans have always been jealous of the great English literary tradition, and are desperate to have one of their own. Americans can't write.

>>8623370
>does anyone on /lit/ like TGG
it's pretty clear I don't think I'm special for disliking it, I'm asking for someone who DOES like it to possibly explain why.

>>8623376
T H O M A S
W
O
L
F
E

>>8623359
>>8623376
The fact that you consider the prose of The Great Gatsby to be 'basic to the point of detracting' means you should probably stick to reading Stephen King thrillers and discussing them on reddit

>>8623359
It's an exceptionally lean novel that is exactly as long as it needs to be. To add or to remove anything would sully its excellent composition. It is a perfect novel in that it does what it sets out to do without fault.

Also
>The prose is incredibly basic
>I feel it detracts from the book
He's pretty well regarded for his prose. I've also seen people say that Williams has shit prose. It's like people on this board think that if prose isn't some Yeats style poetics or Joycean style in its complexity it's bad.

>>8623359
That feeling when you didn't read books for two decades because this book was so shitty.

>>8623588
Is Look Homeward, Angel a good starting place for him?

>>8623359
>The whole american dream/green light/daisy metaphor/message or whatever just feels empty and vapid.

OP is a rare example of someone literally getting the point, but still missing it. impressive

>>8623359

You're right, it's average as hell with two-dimensional characters and sprinklings of worthwhile prose.

The book you're looking for is Tender is the Night, which is the full manifestation of Fitzgerald's talent and the consummation of his life.

>>8623891
being shit being the point doesn't make shit not shit

>>8623992
Hear! Hear!

>>8623992
>>8624114
You are both missing the point. The book isn't vapid, it's pointing out a vapidity which are in no way the same thing. If this were not the case satire would make no sense because it would be the very thing it is a satire of in every instance.

>The whole american dream/green light/daisy metaphor/message or whatever just feels empty and vapid.
That's because the American dream is vapid. The book is fully aware of this fact.

>>8623875

Look Homeward, Angel details the origins of, Eugene, the main character. 'Of Time and the River' picks up where Look Homeward Angel leaves off, right before Eugene is going to College. If you want to read about rural life go with Look Homeward Angel, for urban life go with Of Time and the River.

If you just wanted Thomas Wolfe before diving in to his admittedly large books, he wrote many good short stories. My favorite might be 'The Lion at Morning', but I think his most famous short story is 'The Lost Boy' which also shows off Wolfe's gift for writing vernacular, IIRC.

>>8623359
>The prose is incredibly basic, to the point where I feel it detracts from the book rather than illustrate Fitzgerald's brevity
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. Fitzgerald is often compared to Hemingway because (besides their contemporaneous relationship) Fitzgerald's prose is so much more florid and indulgent than Hemingway's spare and simple stuff.

>His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

I can understand the complaint that his prose his purple or pretentious, but basic? The above passage does a great job of capturing the excitement of Gatsby and Daisy's first kiss while also establishing the later themes of dissipation and being enslaved by romance instead of enlivened by it.

> The characters are extremely dull (although I can see an argument for this) and it was hardly saved by is plot which, to be quite honest, was boring with an ending that did not affect me much.

Don't really know how to address such vague and subjective criticisms. I think you have some kind of psychological complex that predisposes you to disliking this book? Do you also turn your nose up at the people who dress like flappers at parties?

>>8623359
I have somehow weathered the American high school education system without having to read it (private school, AP Eng. and Comp). Should I? I hear it's really overhyped, and I'm not sure what I'm missing

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I recommend this to anyone who doesn't get why Gatsby is great. I won't even bother summarizing, the thing is like 200 pages and your local library definitely has it.

>>8623359

Oh, the classic, "I can't be critical of a book in context, there for it's bad."

It got panned when it was first released but like all 'great books' some lit prof championed it and everyone then thought it was cool forever.

I really think the only reason is the daisy=money allegory that the book had going on. I hated it.

>>8623992
>these are the people that feel qualified to criticize The Great Gatsby

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>>8623359
It's a lot better than This Side of Paradise

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Tender Is the Night > The Great Gatsby > The Last Tycoon > This Side of Paradise > The Beautiful and Damned

>>8624317
>>8624225
op here. I think I was soured by the 'hype'. I never had the chance to read it at school, and a couple friends of mine kept talking about how it's the 'great american novel' and the 'perfect book'.

So when it came to actually reading it I was very disappointed.

>>8623607
this makes no sense but good job on name dropping reddit again

>>8624909
>this makes no sense but good job on name dropping reddit again

Because you evidently have no ability to discern why prose that isn't complicated doesn't necessarily mean that it is bad or limiting, so why not read prose that is designed to generate base levels of suspense that guides you by the nose rather than allowing you to put any effort into approaching the prose yourself

>>8624909
The Great Gatsby is standard prose and it sounds like you want to read Joyce-tier prose to feel smart.

>>8624929
Fitzgerald's prose is beautiful and is definitely comparable to that of early-Joyce.

>>8624929
>>8624917
that's a lot of assumption there m8s.

This is /lit/ so part of me expected you to read my original post but if you read it I never said it was a bad book. The whole point of this thread is that I have no idea why it's the 'greatest american novel' to some people.

>>8624939
I meant like Finnegans Wake and Ulysses where he uses extremely complex language and references.

>>8624942
>The whole american dream/green light/daisy metaphor/message or whatever just feels empty and vapid.
>The prose is incredibly basic, to the point where I feel it detracts from the book rather than illustrate Fitzgerald's brevity

So you didn't say these things in your original post? Because that is what my opinion is based on, and I don't think my opinion is a ridiculous inference given how cavalier you were with dismissing the prose and 'empty and vapid' metaphors, whatever the fuck that childish bullshit means

>>8624942
I think there are books written by Americans about American ideals and disillusionments that people from the UK/Europe/Australia simply will not understand or appreciate as well as Americans, just how I'm sure it might be the case that I don't appreciate the works of Gunter Grass like those of german heritage

>>8624966
maybe you're right and I just misunderstood the book. It's is short enough to give another read so I may have another stab at it.

>>8624975
this makes sense because I'm from the UK