Maybe it\u2019s a recent trend, but why why why do people think that seeing the major motion picture of a book is the same as reading the book itself? Simply unacceptable. Let\u2019s bring \u201cwell-read\u201d back into style.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m responding egregiously solely because I\u2019ve witnessed this foul assumption arise around works of my forever favorite author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Just because because you\u2019ve seen another one of Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s starring films doesn\u2019t mean you understand, or even begin to fathom, the gravitas of the world that Fitzgerald created in that body of text.<\/p>\n
The final words of The Great Gatsby.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cGatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that\u2019s no matter\u2014tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther\u2026And one fine morning\u2014<\/p>\n
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you have only seen the movie, you certainly don\u2019t pick up on the nuances of this final knife twist. Pick up the book, it\u2019ll ruin your life for the better.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Better yet, let\u2019s address another qualm of mine: why do \u201cnotable works\u201d of Fitzgerald begin and end with The Great Gatsby? Why aren\u2019t Tender is the Night<\/i> or This Side of Paradise<\/i> well-recognized, except to a select few? Are those books meant to be kept secret?<\/p>\n
Let these two excerpts take you into their clutches.<\/p>\n
From a chapter break entitled Egotist Food for Consumption<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let yourself feel worthless; often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think the best of yourself; and don\u2019t worry about losing your \u201cpersonality,\u201d as you persist in calling it; at fifteen you had the radiance of early morning, at twenty you will begin to have the brilliant melancholy brilliance of the moon, and when you are my age you will give out, as I do, the genial golden warmth of 4pm.You are bound to go up and down, just as I did in my youth, but do keep your clarity of mind, and if fools or sages dare to criticize don\u2019t blame yourself too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a later portion of the book: let it be known that I\u2019ve replaced the names with he\/she to eliminate spoilers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis love waned slowly with the moon. At her door they started from habit to kiss goodnight, but she couldn\u2019t not run into his arms, nor were they stretched to meet her as in the week before. For a minute they stood there, hating each other with a bitter sadness. But as he had loved himself in her, so now what he hated was only a mirror. Their poses were strewn about the pale dawn like broken glass. The stars were long gone and there were left only the little sighing gusts of wind and silences between\u2026but naked souls are poor things ever, and soon he turned homeward and let new lights come in wit the sun.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In conclusion, let\u2019s agree to read more books and be not only well-read, but well-versed too. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maybe it\u2019s a recent trend, but why why why do people think that seeing the major motion picture of a book is the same as reading the book itself? Simply unacceptable. Let\u2019s bring \u201cwell-read\u201d back into style. I\u2019m responding egregiously solely because I\u2019ve witnessed this foul assumption arise around works of my forever favorite author, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":10867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10868,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10866\/revisions\/10868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}