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Vit Babenco's Reviews > The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
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Our fantasies of grandeur are always restricted by our aesthetic tastes and The Great Gatsby is literally an anthem to vulgarity and fraudulence�
The grotesque aesthetic stupidity and the fabulously bad taste of the characters are outright shocking� Instead of wishing for variety and quality, they just want to get more of everything that glitters�
Gatsby is a fraud and the narrator doesn’t have much sympathy for him but in the end the raconteur finds out that the respectable members of society are just hypocrites and that they are even more fake than Gatsby.
Honesty and intellect don’t mean a thing, all that counts is the art of pretending and the greatest pretender takes all.
But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness closed down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace.
The grotesque aesthetic stupidity and the fabulously bad taste of the characters are outright shocking� Instead of wishing for variety and quality, they just want to get more of everything that glitters�
He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher � shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily.
‘They’re such beautiful shirts,� she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. ‘It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such � such beautiful shirts before.�
Gatsby is a fraud and the narrator doesn’t have much sympathy for him but in the end the raconteur finds out that the respectable members of society are just hypocrites and that they are even more fake than Gatsby.
Honesty and intellect don’t mean a thing, all that counts is the art of pretending and the greatest pretender takes all.
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Reading Progress
November 2, 2015
–
Started Reading
November 2, 2015
– Shelved
November 3, 2015
–
Finished Reading
January 2, 2023
– Shelved as:
a-hundred-of-the-best-novels
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Vit
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 04, 2015 07:04AM
Earlier, at different times I watched three movie adaptations. Strange may it seem but I liked best a TV version by Robert Markowitz and I’ve got outright disgusted with the soap vaudeville by Baz Luhrmann. But when I read the novel it was way above all those films.
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"The Great Gatsby is a hymn of vulgarity and fraudulence�" which is one reason why it's still relevant in our celeb culture.
Wonderful review, Vit. Simply beautiful quote about the shirts and Daisy's heartbreak about it!
Nice review Vit ......... one of my favourite books (and authors)
I always thought it was clear Nick admired Gatsby despite his flaws. Perhaps because of them.
Nick Carraway’s attitude towards Gatsby is bitterly sarcastic. It is apparent even in the short quotes in review.
Thanks for the insightful review. I disagree on one point: here Daisy is clearly crying for a different reason and can't express that, so she pretends she's crying over the beauty of his shirts.
Do you disagree with the author of the novel?
I never felt he was bitter; more a classic case of protesting too much. That is crucial, because Nick is the case for Gatsby’s defence against the hateful Buchanan’s and all they represent.
I agree with your point (but disagree about five stars - yay for differences of opinions!)
Thanks for your friend's request. I could be your 5000 friend! That's a good bunch of friends to have. Well done.
Wonderful review Vit!
Yep, is a masterpiece. But you used better words to describe it ^^
Thank you, Stacey and é.State of art!
I love this book, Vit. It's amazing. The dark side of the "american dream". Beautiful review. Greetings from Argentina :)
Wow, I love how you highlights the contrast between Gatsby's 'universe of ineffable gaudiness' and Daisy's emotional response to the shirts. It's a powerful moment that reveals a lot about their characters.
Thank you, Vicky and Taufiq. The novel is unforgettable.
Great review! Do you have any sympathy for Gatsby? I know he's foolish to chase after something so fleeting and frivolous as Daisy, but it's a reflection on how we all seek the things that don't last and do not bring lasting fulfillment.I recommend Anna-Marie McLemore's remix of The Great Gatsby entitled Self-Made Boys. It explores the themes and story from a very different angle, and while I don't agree with every aspect, the characters are much more dynamic.
Fitzgerald often embodied the dandy archetype, focusing on style, elegance, and the aesthetics of life. His attention to the glamorous aspects of society sometimes overshadowed a deeper critique of its moral and social failings. While he portrayed the allure of wealth and status, his commentary on the emptiness behind that glamour can feel limited.
His critique isn't limited, it's subtle and unobtrusive.
Ah yes, Fitzgerald, a trailblazer of such subtle and unobtrusive thought that his women (like Daisy) are little more than decorative props in a male melodrama, despite living in an era with Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, and the Nineteenth Amendment, and who generously advised that women should abandon books and dreams for the far superior education of "first-class men." You know for $14,999, one can take a Daisy type to Trump’s “Great Gatsby Package�: champagne, cuff links, and an Art Deco cuff with a note from Ivanka. Car insurance not included.
Very nice! Let the consumers consume!
