La Vie En Rose for 2005 August 10 (entry 0)

(12) Wed Aug 10 2005 20:37 PST Podcasting: I didn't really know what this new thing that came with the automatic update of iTunes was, but when I read that Mugglenet has a podcast, I had to figure it out! It is the sixth most popular one! I was going to listen to the first episode tomorrow at the gym but my iPod has died and I neglected to bring the charger, woe.

Susie & I went to dinner with Justin & Barbara at Acapulco, it was very yummy. I had a BBQ Shrimp Tostada, and we had a nice chat about Lorna Call and psychiatry and related topics.

Comments:

Posted by stacy. at Thu Aug 11 2005 07:03

I'm very intersted to hear why you didn't like The Great Gatsby. p.s. I had quoted J.D. Salinger in my blog ("Zooey," specifically)

Please reply....so I don't remain in my present state of shock (and slight offense)...and you know, do something even more rash than normal. =)

Posted by Rachel at Thu Aug 11 2005 16:45

Ok, so in hindsight my hatred of the Great Gatsby probably had more to do with Mrs Cribbs, my evil am lit teacher, than FSF, and I probably in theory should give it another try, but I believe at the time it seemed to me to be just another over-hyped novel that was supposed to be saying something profound about america and be all poetic and crap when actually it was just...crap. Maybe there were some vague pyscological/philosphical statements in there somewhere that with the subtlety of a fifteen year old I missed, but I much preffered the likes of Arthur Miller (and still do).

Posted by stacy. at Thu Aug 11 2005 17:11

yes. you need to give it a second try. ill admit. it was on the second try that i fell in love with gatsby. granted, i read it the first time when i was in middle school (there are so many books that are simply not appropriate to read at that age...another good example would be East of Eden. that's for another day though). anyways, I believe Gatsby to be a gateway book to intellectualism....and my friendship (yes, im crazy and harsh.) i don't particular agree with fitzgerald's points made-- however, i admire them. and i admire his prose. that book is a work of art. read it outloud. the prose is amaazing. it's so beautifully crafted. love for the book is love for poetry. love for gatsby is love for the idealist and finding at least sympathy for those who dream "the american dream" if you will-- and have their dreams utterly ruined by the american reality.. or i suppose, just reality in general. gatsby is in fact a bit unhinged..and a lot of that stems from his absolute dedication to his dreams. but it's this state of being unhinged and devouted to an ideal or to another that results in art. (and to go a bit further: makes life worth living)

it's a beautiful book, worthy of many many reads. especially, if one is to rot one's brain out via the chick-lit genre. or even harry potter for that matter. yeah you heard me. i just insulted the series. though well written, catchy...yada yada....it's not art yet. crucify me as you will. intellectual snob. whatever. i think she's close though. i have big hopes for book seven. but it's a children's series for a reason.

p.s. arthur miller is an amazing author as well.

Posted by Sumana at Thu Aug 11 2005 17:17

I suggest you try reading "The Great Gatsby" again in about ten years, after memories of that awful lit teacher have faded more completely. I absolutely adore the novel. Fitzgerald wrote it really tightly, nothing wasted. I think he does talk about the effects of money on people's characters in an interesting way.

Another possibility: read "Jake, Reinvented" by Gordon Korman, which makes many of the same points as "Gatsby" but in a more accessible/modern form. I own it and I'm sure Russo's carries it.

Posted by Frances at Thu Aug 11 2005 17:30

You go, Stacy!

Posted by Rachel at Thu Aug 11 2005 17:34

Mom--I thought you hated Great Gatsby too? Or are you cheering on Stacy's poke at my leisure reading material? I also "rot" my "brain" with history books, you know...

Posted by anonymous at Thu Aug 11 2005 19:28

Rachel: Why is "brain" in quotes???

I've never read The Great Gatsby. I transfered into Mrs. Cribbs class and barely missed it. Stacy makes me kinda want to. I had a hard time reading your comment with the lack of capitalization at the begin of the sentences. Rachel used to type like that.

On reading it when you were too young: Leonard gave me Animal Farm when I was ten. Having understood basically none of the symbolism, I am still a bit traumatized.

Posted by rachel at Thu Aug 11 2005 19:52

i still type like that sometimes...

Susie, is that you? I thought you had Mrs C for British Lit? In which case you wouldn't have read GG anyway. I really love Animal Farm but I didn't read it till Ms Richards/possibely the summer before. I think I'd have to read it again to see what I missed, but I think it was the ability to infer themes from the style of writing/prose, whereas the symbolism of Animal Farm is a bit more direct than that, at least for someone older than ten. But I usually have a better taste for European lit than Am Lit, so while I enjoyed Milan Kundera's Ignorance (see? I read books besides HP and chick lit), which has similiar (ish) themes of dreams disappointed and unfufilled, I might enjoy GG... or I might not. I dunno. I even had more sucess with One Hundred Years of Solitude a short two years later, and that is a v weird book.

The fact remains that I have at least a hundred books I'd rather read than re-read GG, at more than twenty are on my shelf, so while I am open(ish) to the idea, it probably won't happen. At least before Sumana suggests, but that's probably for the best, considering the (ish) I feel obliged to put at the end of "open." The other fact remains that I don't remember enough about GG to know what I am talking about, so you may as well disregard everything I just wrote.

"Brain" is in quotes because that was her word, not mine. I guess I should have written "rot [my] brain."

Posted by Susie at Thu Aug 11 2005 21:36

That was me. I had her for sophomore and junior year.

Posted by Frances at Thu Aug 11 2005 22:24

I did hate Great Gatsby. I've only read it once though. I hated the movie too. I was cheering Stacy's philosophy.

I rot my brain with gardening magazines.

Posted by stacy at Thu Aug 11 2005 23:22

the movie is indeed very bad.

Posted by Alyson at Fri Aug 12 2005 00:43

The Great Gatsby was one of the books that really reached me in high school. And sorry, I really liked the movie, too. It was haunting.