Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lectorog]

Does the Gatsby movie have the green light?

Yes. Why wouldn't it?

Because I don't like the green light.

[Frumple]

Back in my sophmore year of high school, I--as many of you surely have--read The Great Gatsby, a book which is an American classic.

I'm one of the equally large group of people who read the first four or five chapters and bullshitted my way through the rest of the course.  Not for lack of interest really, that's just the way I was in high school.

I suppose now would be as good a time as any to finally read the damn thing, especially since I turned into an intellectual hipster along the way so it's supposed to be a cultural touchstone for me.  Ennui is like so underrated.

I'm part of an at-minimum 30 or so group that read the book in high school and came out of the class with a strong dislike for the text, m'self. At least partially due to the teacher, but mostly because, well. Kinda' thought the book was kinda' shitty. Well written, yes, but something about the themes et al was unpalatable and unpleasing to the senses.

I don't even remember why, at this point. It's been a while. I just remember disliking it sufficiently to never want to try re-reading it. And that's as someone who pretty habitually re-reads everything they read, sooner or later.

... point being, it may be for the better that you bullshitted your way through the class instead of actually reading the damned thing.

[penguinofhonor]

I didn't understand what all the hullabaloo about this movie was, then I found out Leonardo DiCaprio is Gatsby. I should probably watch it soon.

[Mech#4]

Back in my sophmore year of high school, I--as many of you surely have--read The Great Gatsby, a book which is an American classic.

I'm one of the equally large group of people who read the first four or five chapters and bullshitted my way through the rest of the course.  Not for lack of interest really, that's just the way I was in high school.

I suppose now would be as good a time as any to finally read the damn thing, especially since I turned into an intellectual hipster along the way so it's supposed to be a cultural touchstone for me.  Ennui is like so underrated.

I'm part of an at-minimum 30 or so group that read the book in high school and came out of the class with a strong dislike for the text, m'self. At least partially due to the teacher, but mostly because, well. Kinda' thought the book was kinda' shitty. Well written, yes, but something about the themes et al was unpalatable and unpleasing to the senses.

I don't even remember why, at this point. It's been a while. I just remember disliking it sufficiently to never want to try re-reading it. And that's as someone who pretty habitually re-reads everything they read, sooner or later.

... point being, it may be for the better that you bullshitted your way through the class instead of actually reading the damned thing.

Hn, I know one of my friends had to study The Beetles in high school and ended up disliking their music simply because they were required to study it for school. A bit of a shame that but... being made to do something is a rather easy way to create dislike towards it.

Shakespeare's great and all that, but it's much better to read his plays in your own time and speed rather then having to analyse just what Romeo and Juliet were going on about and what their relationship together meant in the whole scheme of things.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Fitzgerald is probably turning in his grave with this movie adaptation. Yeah, Great Gatsby is all about how glamorous and awesome it is to be rich. Awesome parties and stuff, right? Not about moral corruption and how excessive luxury just hides inner emptiness but hey, long as it's a good Titanic-like love story the girls will see it.

Great Gatsby is one of the my favorite novels, and seeing this:

Hurts me.

Yeah, lets rewrite the entire story and make it appeal to big audiences. Jay-Z, Beyonce, what else can we add? Oh yeah, Leonardo Di Caprio and 3D!

I really gotta say what bothers me, though, is Nick being written so that he's in an insane asylum the entire movie. Go read the book and tell me how well that flows with Nicks actual story. The literal entirety of the point of the book is Nick seeing how corrupt and in excess these 'powerful' rich people are, and becomes disillusioned with the fact that people who seem to have nothing actually are happy with their lot. I dunno. Just bothers me straight to my bones to see such a classic 'Don't be a fuck who only cares about outside appearances and money' tale of honest to god America being torn apart and rewritten for a glitzy-Hurdur-Lio-is-so-cute-check-out-that-3D-flyover crowd.

The changes are not only big but entirely point-changing. The focus changes from Nick to Gatsby in such a big way that I feel the director was literally throwing anything at the board to make 'his' rendition popular. And to someone like me it only brings up bile.

I'm done now. But you can tell how I care about this book.

[Frumple]

Hn, I know one of my friends had to study The Beetles in high school and ended up disliking their music simply because they were required to study it for school. A bit of a shame that but... being made to do something is a rather easy way to create dislike towards it.

Shakespeare's great and all that, but it's much better to read his plays in your own time and speed rather then having to analyse just what Romeo and Juliet were going on about and what their relationship together meant in the whole scheme of things.

Eh, it wasn't being forced to do it that was the issue... plenty of stuff like that I ended up enjoying. It was a genuine dislike of the book, mixed with a teacher that was evidently incapable of, shall we say, making the experience less painful. I came away with the opinion that it was a well written but unpleasant read, basically. Did not enjoy, learned little I didn't already know of the human condition, would not read again, etc., so forth, so on.

Though... yeah, a lot of the "classics" ended up like that for me after a while, and gatsby came along during the period I was transitioning from reading a lot of heavier material to avoiding it like the goddamn plague. There's reasons I read a lot of fanfiction these days, ha, despite having bulled through quite a chunk of more technically capable literature.

[Mech#4]

Hn, I know one of my friends had to study The Beetles in high school and ended up disliking their music simply because they were required to study it for school. A bit of a shame that but... being made to do something is a rather easy way to create dislike towards it.

Shakespeare's great and all that, but it's much better to read his plays in your own time and speed rather then having to analyse just what Romeo and Juliet were going on about and what their relationship together meant in the whole scheme of things.

Eh, it wasn't being forced to do it that was the issue... plenty of stuff like that I ended up enjoying. It was a genuine dislike of the book, mixed with a teacher that was evidently incapable of, shall we say, making the experience less painful. I came away with the opinion that it was a well written but unpleasant read, basically. Did not enjoy, learned little I didn't already know of the human condition, would not read again, etc., so forth, so on.

Though... yeah, a lot of the "classics" ended up like that for me after a while, and gatsby came along during the period I was transitioning from reading a lot of heavier material to avoiding it like the goddamn plague. There's reasons I read a lot of fanfiction these days, ha, despite having bulled through quite a chunk of more technically capable literature.

For sure, I haven't read a proper, classic novel in ages  (last ones I read was the Cthulhu mythos if those short stories count, if not then we're talking high school and "Lord of the Flies". Now that was a weird book, and an even weirder movie). I've got Moby Dick sitting on my bookshelf but I have NO plans to read that as I think it's really quite a boring book. Interesting thoughts on human obsession but... blah.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

It's times like now I wish Stanley Kubrick was alive.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

Fitzgerald is probably turning in his grave with this movie adaptation. Yeah, Great Gatsby is all about how glamorous and awesome it is to be rich. Awesome parties and stuff, right? Not about moral corruption and how excessive luxury just hides inner emptiness but hey, long as it's a good Titanic-like love story the girls will see it.

Great Gatsby is one of the my favorite novels, and seeing this:

Hurts me.

Yeah, lets rewrite the entire story and make it appeal to big audiences. Jay-Z, Beyonce, what else can we add? Oh yeah, Leonardo Di Caprio and 3D!

I really gotta say what bothers me, though, is Nick being written so that he's in an insane asylum the entire movie. Go read the book and tell me how well that flows with Nicks actual story. The literal entirety of the point of the movie is Nick seeing how corrupt and in excess these 'powerful' rich people are, and becomes disillusioned with the fact that people who seem to have nothing actually are happy with their lot. I dunno. Just bothers me straight to my bones to see such a classic 'Don't be a fuck who only cares about outside appearances and money' tale of honest to god America being torn apart and rewritten for a glitzy-Hurdur-Lio-is-so-cute-check-out-that-3D-flyover crowd.

The changes are not only big but entirely point-changing. The focus changes from Nick to Gatsby in such a big way that I feel the director was literally throwing anything at the board to make 'his' rendition popular. And to someone like me it only brings up bile.

I'm done now. But you can tell how I care about this book.

i didn't love the book, but i agree. they didn't only miss the point, they scraped it completely

[penguinofhonor]

Oh no, this 90-year-old novel that the vast majority of people are completely disinterested in got changed in an effort to make its movie adaptation more popular? Call the literature police!

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Oh no, this 90-year-old novel that the vast majority of people are completely disinterested in got changed in an effort to make its movie adaptation more popular? Call the literature police!

I wouldn't expect you to understand underlying themes anyway, it's okay.

Next up: To kill a mockingbird, the story of how Atticus gets his girl!

[Scoops Novel]

It's times like now I wish Stanley Kubrick was alive.

Well, it's made by Hollywood. I'd be surprised if they kept any of the original tenets. More importantly, who is Stanley Kubrick?

[Mictlantecuhtli]

It's times like now I wish Stanley Kubrick was alive.

Well, it's made by Hollywood. I'd be surprised if they kept any of the original tenets. More importantly, who is Stanley Kubrick?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000040/

1999 Eyes Wide Shut
 
1987 Full Metal Jacket
 
1980 The Shining
 
1975 Barry Lyndon
 
1971 A Clockwork Orange
 
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey

2001 being one of my favorites. Based on books each time [2001 is a bit of a stretch, Kubrick worked with the author who made the full 2001 after the movie was put out]. He was actually what I'd call a good book-movie director. There's literally nothing like his works. If he were alive I bet he'd have ended up doing most books, heh.

Barry Lyndon is surprisingly good too.

[mainiac]

Won't it be hilarious if a bunch of high school students start talking about stuff that is in the movie but not in the books in english classes?

[Lagslayer]

I was forced to read that book in my Junior year of High School (or was it sophomore?). I wanted it to be great. I liked the premise. I like how it was explained beforehand. But god damn was it boring. Try as I might, I could not get into it at all. It was like the words had a magnetic force actively repelling my gaze.