So, looks like Hollywood got a hold of the book and made a movie of it (so I guess this is the 2012 version or something, I guess).
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I, for one, am not looking forward to this movie and only want to give thought as to why this is being made into a movie. I’m trying to become a writer (I suck at it, I KNOW), and all the writers teaching me “their ways” have always mocked this book in some way. Like, it’s at the end of every joke in terms of “how not to write a story” and only became a classic because of how big a joke it was and stuff like that.
Personally, I read it, thought that shit was boring!
My favorite thing about the story was the joke they used in South Park.
The kids of South Park had to take a test to determine if the students in the town suffered from ADD or not. The test was that a doctor would read the entire book of “The Great Gatsby” to you, and your objective was just to stay up and listen to the entire story. Failure to do so would determined that they suffered from ADD.
No one passed the test.
I dunno, maybe I’m just being a total douche bag.
DISCUSS!!
Nothing wrong with how it was written per-say, more like the overall plot and the progress it took to get anywhere (?).
I dunno, it doesn’t seem “Hollywood” movie worthy, honestly. Maybe I just don’t understand today’s standards.
I hated that book.
“What is the significance of the diminishing size of the body paragraphs on the last page?” <- Yes, that was an actual question on a test I took for this shitty book in high school. Will not watch.
There was also that South Park episode ‘Scrotie McBoogerBalls’ which was supposed to be a parody of another book probably everyone is forced to read in high school, ‘Catcher in the Rye.’ This book features themes of “teenage confusion, angst, and alienation.”
“High school problems… these things really matter”
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“Today’s standards” are to take one of the most elegant examples of 20th century writing and soullessly compress it into a 90 minute Baz Luhrmann music video melodrama.
Never read the book, from the trailer alone it’s really hard to tell what the fuck its actually about. Luhrman is a shitty director but I might watch because Dicaprio is one of the best actors currently working. But seriously is GD so whack we make threads for potentially shitty films?
Also, Catcher in the Rye is one of the most intelligent things fiction’s ever produced, it’s kinda ironic that only after growing out of your teens you realize that.
The Great Gatsby is a superb book. The previous two (that I know of) movie adaptations didn’t do it any favors, and I don’t expect this one to, either.
There’s already a modern Great Gatsby remake out there with pretty boys galore. It’s called Kamen Rider Kabuto.
In all seriousness, I was one of the few kids in my class who didn’t mind the Great Gatsby, but I wish I could say I remember most of what happened in it. The most I remember is that it was all one big hoax of some kind.
To all the people bitching about being made to read the book in high school:
It’s a short, relatively easy book. Get over it.
The questions you had to answer are extremely rudimentary. Get over it.
You should be on your knees thanking them for making you read something more complex than Goosebumps, because that infernal series is more indicative of this country’s abysmal average literacy level than Gatsby is. Your high school was merely making a feeble attempt to save you from becoming one of the subliterate morons you doubtlessly bitch about on the Internet every day.
That said, high school classes are poor conditions for experiencing any kind of art or culture. Try doing it on your own time, under your own steam.
The Great Gatsby is an excellent book, however what makes it excellent isn’t exactly it’s story, which is pretty much all that would translate to a film. I really don’t think the Great Gatsby is a book that should be made a movie (I realize there are 2 previous adaptations, none of which I find to be especially good). The things that make the book great are the way it was written, and the themes in relation to when it was written. It was also one of the best quality “contemporary” books at a time when contemporary stories were much more scarce.
However well or poorly received this film is I don’t think it will ever be as well received as the book and it sure as hell will not be as well received as the game in my eyes…
BACK up off Fitzgerald! He can’t help it that high school lit teachers got all up on his nuts and turned his shit into some softcore porn for the nerdy book girls. Imagery, symbolism and shit. No! It’s just not really there. Well, It’s there because he created a world and such things are inevitable when creating a world. Once created, the things within it have the tendency to become symbols or things idiosyncratic to that world. See Tolkien. Fitzgerald just needed to tell his story, and the result is what happens when a great mind given to fantasy is given free reign.
P.S. Benjamin Button was also written by Fitzgerald. :tup:
