The Great Gatsby- NO SPOILERS

[Raissermesser]

Gatsby is a masterpiece. The writing is great, story is great. It’s the kind of book you can read for a great story, and not feel like you have to work at it. Plenty of people analyze it, but you don’t have to. I read it at face value and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you have to "work at it," the author didn't do his or her job. Writing is about the clear communication of ideas. There are different styles of doing so, but in the end, the reader should easily comprehend what the writer intends.

 

[Billski]

You’re supposed to be working on that Journal.

 

[ouch]

Word

They’re never named Bob

Not true. If you live on Lamuella, Bob is your God.

In his book Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams would often speak reverentially about Almighty Bob and remote Bob-fearing planets.

The Almighty Bob is a deity worshipped by the people of Lamuella.
When Arthur Dent is shot at, he says, "Thank Bob that's over."
Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches.

See?

 

[beginish]

Not true. If you live on Lamuella, Bob is your God.

In his book Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams would often speak reverentially about Almighty Bob and remote Bob-fearing planets.

The Almighty Bob is a deity worshipped by the people of Lamuella.
When Arthur Dent is shot at, he says, "Thank Bob that's over."
Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches.

See?

I can live with that.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Not true. If you live on Lamuella, Bob is your God.

In his book Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams would often speak reverentially about Almighty Bob and remote Bob-fearing planets.

The Almighty Bob is a deity worshipped by the people of Lamuella.
When Arthur Dent is shot at, he says, "Thank Bob that's over."
Old Thrashbarg is one of the priests who worships Almighty Bob; however, Thrashbarg is often ignored by the villagers of Lamuella. One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches.

See?

Warren Zevon once said “enjoy every sandwich”. Perhaps he was onto something

 

[ouch]

Warren Zevon once said “enjoy every sandwich”. Perhaps he was onto something

Bob's will be done.

 

[TreadwayJohnA]

@Billski - Just got the address for the next recipient, so "The Traveling Journal" should be in the post in the next day or so - Headed to Ottawa, Ontario so it will be fun to see the next posting!

 

[Rhody]

I thought this was going to come back around to wcs no. 1 gatsby! Something i do recommend. Hope o p enjoys the read. (The movie is pretty good too)
Next read, my vote. Since Hemingway way invoked. Is the movable feast.

 

[Raissermesser]

Decades ago, an SF magazine ran a story supposedly of excepts from Hemingway's lost works. The one I still remember is a Hemingway pastiche of Wile E. Coyote walking into a bar.

 

[Doc4]

“The Great Gatsby”. Did everyone find this to be an exception example of classic literature- no spoilers please.

I had to read TGG in first year University. It was ... "meh". I was, by then, a big fan of Joseph Conrad, and found it to be a second-rate, over-wrought reworking of one of Conrad's better works. (To avoid any risks of spoilers, I'll mention the actual work thus ...

Spoiler: Conrad's work ...

Lord Jim.

Word

They’re never named Bob

And they all have great hair.

 

[njpaddy]

My English major son-in-law thinks Gatsby is great, but I couldn't get into it. Same with Frankenstein. He loves it and I've tried at least 4 times in my 70+ years and still never finished it. My favorite classics are The Count of Monte Cristo and Dracula.

Interesting fact: I have 10 different English editions of the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo, from a $3 paperback to a $700 leather-bound, 5 vol set and no two editions are the same.

 

[emwolf]

the classics I actually enjoyed
The Great Gatsby
The Sound And The Fury
Absolutely anything by Flannery O'Connor
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Sun Also Rises
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (is this considered a classic)
A Confederacy of Dunces
Huckleberry Finn
Naked Lunch
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
Anything by Joseph Conrad
1984
Animal Farm

Classics I tried to like, but couldn't
The Scarlet Letter
On The Road
The Grapes of Wrath
(I am not saying these are bad, I just couldn't get into them).

 

[Phog Allen]

My English major son-in-law thinks Gatsby is great, but I couldn't get into it. Same with Frankenstein. He loves it and I've tried at least 4 times in my 70+ years and still never finished it. My favorite classics are The Count of Monte Cristo and Dracula.

Interesting fact: I have 10 different English editions of the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo, from a $3 paperback to a $700 leather-bound, 5 vol set and no two editions are the same.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the best. Love, lost love. Loss and the desire for revenge. Intrigue, scheming, and the seeming inability to reconcile any of them one to the other. Dantes' learning of academics, fencing, faith, and agonising decision to ignore Abbe Faria's warning to leave revenge to the hand of God. Even though it was the Abbot himself who gave Edmond the knowledge of his tormentors. I need to read this classic again(decades gone by). Dumas was a rare talent.

 

[Phog Allen]

I made the mistake of binge reading Hemingway. Very depressing. The best story of the bunch was The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.

To clean away the darkness, I chased it with a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories. Bradbury can be uneven at time, but the stories showed an amazing breadth and skill that easily surpassed Hemingway. And not all of them were science fiction.

You know, I bought Something Wicked This Way Comes a couple of years ago and have not finished it yet. I find it draggy and...I am not sure what. I will have to look into his short stories.

 

[Phog Allen]

Sorry to the OP. Two posts made by me and no mention of your original question. I have mot read the novel even though it was all the rage in the 70s after the Redford movie came out. To be honest, none of the 'lost generation' interested me then. I wanted war, fantasy, mythology, and science fiction. Funny what time does to you.

 

[Phog Allen]

If you have to "work at it," the author didn't do his or her job. Writing is about the clear communication of ideas. There are different styles of doing so, but in the end, the reader should easily comprehend what the writer intends.

An excellent notion. Indeed, I really don't like working at it to make sense of a reading. It is why I really do not like biographies. I need to escape reality for awhile or be learning something. Biographies bore me.

 

[martym]

I had a hard time with the Great Gatsby.

I would offer for someone jumping in; take it slow and start with easy reads and work your way into it.

The Old Man and The Sea
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (my favorite; Spanish version is better)
Animal Farm
Fahrenheit 451
Lord of the Flies

Then:
Huckleberry Finn
Robinson Crusoe
Don Quixote
To Kill A Mockingbird

After that just enjoy reading!

I don’t know how many times I have read Moby Dick but it’s not for everyone!
Good luck!
It’s a wonderful adventure!

 

[beginish]

If you have to "work at it," the author didn't do his or her job. Writing is about the clear communication of ideas. There are different styles of doing so, but in the end, the reader should easily comprehend what the writer intends.

I completely disagree. Joyce, Faulkner, Nabokov, Updike, McCarthy, Woolf, DeLillo, Pynchon, Tolkien and many many others can be tough. Some of the stuff can be impenetrable without a careful close read. Writers do their jobs, and readers do too. Sometimes we have to work harder and it’s well worth it.

Edit: Melville ain’t easy either.

 

[TreadwayJohnA]

I’m halfway through and thus far, I’m not finding that it’s a bad read. Not great, but it certainly distracts from the real world for a while. I definitely feel that Hemingway will be next.

 

[Traveling Man]

I'll add to the list to recommend Animal Farm.
I used to teach it, and can dang near quote the book page for page I've read it so many times.
One of my prize possessions is a first edition.

To this list, in the current climate is It Can't Happen Here.