Readiton discussion

Hi! We hope you've enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby with Readiton, whether it was the first time you'd read it or just the latest reading in a long line of re-readings.

Some questions for you - you can answer however many you want:

1) Did you like the book? If you had to pick out one thing you liked, and one you didn't, what would they be?
2) Just based on the title, what did you expect of Gatsby's character before reading? Did your idea of him align at all with the Gatsby written by Fitzgerald? If not, why?
3) Do you find the title fitting to the story? How so? What do you think of the use of the adjective 'great' to qualify Gatsby?
4) What did you think of the story being narrated by Nick Carraway? Why do you think Fitzgerald chose to write the story like this?
5) Were you expecting this ending? If you weren't, what had you been expecting? Why do you think Fitzgerald made this choice?
6) What are your opinions on the relationships between characters? What do you think of their motives?
7) What do you think of the use of symbols throughout the story? How do they complete the storyline?
8) Have you seen the movie adaptation yet? If yes, what did you think of it? Was it truthful to the book, in your opinion? How do you feel about the use of modern music, for instance? Did the modernization of it bothered you? If you haven't seen it, do you plan to? If not, why?
9) And finally - before reading 'The Great Gatsby', had you ever read anything else by the same author? Do you plan on reading more by Fitzgerald?

And to conclude, I leave you with the thoughts of Honorary Doctor John Green: http://dft.ba/-jgtgg.

Thank you for taking part in our first bookweek, and we look forward to reading The Fault in Our Stars with you from next week!

1) I did like it, but I would not say I was amazed by it. I get that it is well-written and a interesting, but I don't understand the kind of hype about it. It was a good read.

2) Before reading it, I knew nothing at all about the story. I expected Gatsby to be this really wealthy and eccentric person, which to some extend aligned with the book. But to be honest I would have expected him to be more of a philantropist or otherwise more characterized by his actions rather than his fame.

3) I consider the title very fitting. I think 'great' describes the kind of buzz there was around him, while still leaving a lot to the reader's interpretation and playing with the irony of the ending.

4) Nick Carraway was the one person who got a lot of insight on Gatsby without giving too much away right from the start. He is also a character that the reader might find it easy to relate to, with his passiveness allowing to watch the plot rather than influence it.

5) I really didn't expect this ending. Usually, with this kind of book I expect at least one death, but I thought that this was fulfilled with Myrtle. When I read the pool scene, I was a bit confused at first because I thought that Gatsby had survived and had to read it again. I think Fitzgerald chose this ending because it was a way to display the "moral" of the story, that he was surrounded by people in live but not in death, and also because I think it was really surprising.

6) Tom and Daisy seem very rational to me, Daisy is beautiful and a trophy of some sort, while Tom is a good provider and a quick escape from Daisy's misery.
I think Jordan and Nick are just very casual, Nick never really seemed very interested in her and she probably just wanted some company. Maybe it's because of her golfing scandal that she seeks someone that she can rely on. She could assume that Nick didn't know about it and also that he is "a good guy" that wouldn't hurt her.
Daisy and Gatsby are complicated. I am still not sure about Daisy's feelings towards him, and maybe this is what makes their relationship kind of "constructed" for me. I don't even think Gatsby was in love with Daisy as a person. I think he needed the idea of this perfect woman still waiting for him, it was the one thing keeping him sane. That's why he has to make it clear with Nick at the end that she never loved Tom. Daisy probably wasn't even really capable of love anymore, she seems completely burned out to me, and really depressed. This is something that I first noticed in the way she treated her baby. I think she perceived herself as this tragic figure that just played along, and when Gatsby appeared, she felt she needed to fulfill the role that he had reserved for her as well. I don't know if she was actually capable of making her own decisions.

7) The only symbols that I noticed (I don't pay a lot of attention to these things during a first read) were the green light and Eckleburg's eyes. For me, the green light stands for the one thing that Gatsby could never reach that he felt he needed to be fulfilled (Love, Daisy, Honesty,...). The eyes are a judge, god-like, representing the supressed guilt of the various characters. I know this is very vague, but I didn't really think that through so much.

8) I haven't seen the movie, but I plan to. From what I've heard so far, people seem to be disappointed because it's rather far from the book. I can't say yet if it will bother me, but after having read it I don't think a movie that sticks to the book would be very interesting. Without the language and the symbols used, TGG is not very remarkable. I think you'd have to add something more to make this movie.

9) I've read about half of "Tender is the night" and ordered "Benjamin Button" the other day. I think I will definitely read these two in the near future.

Sorry this is so long, I just got carried away a little. These are great questions, though! I hope to read some more opinions on this, maybe from people who've read it a bit more thoroughly than I have.

1. The Great Gatsby was really interesting. I'd heard so much about it; but I'd never actually read it before. What I got most out of the book was confusion. There were things I really liked, like the symbolism, like Gatsby's dogged perseverance to get Daisy, but there were many things I didn't--like Daisy, or Nick Caraway.

2 & 3. I knew that Zelda, Fitzgerald's wife, came up with the title for the book--he originally wanted to call it "Golden Gatsby" or something that, something that dates it, almost. The published title, though, is intriguing--and very true. Gatsby was not really great, not in the terms we would think of, but he throws great parties and people think he's great--people's opinions of him are actually bigger and greater than the real Gatsby is.

4. I really hated Nick Carraway. He, like Gatsby, thinks he is what he is not, which is an interesting parallel, but doesn't make me think well of him. Towards the end he redeemed himself by leaving Jordan and going back home, though. But Nick's narration did something that Gatsby couldn't have done by itself--it both magnified and, I feel, de-itensified it. Gatsby's want is all-powerful, disorienting, consuming. Nick's admiration for Gatsby is strong, but as the reader we are allowed to be more logical, to see and hear more than Gatsby's or Daisy's perspectives would have allowed.

8. I haven't seen the movie! I heard the reviews aren't very good, though, but I'm still excited at least for the soundtrack and the costumes.