When we were assigned that book in high school I barreled through it in one sitting and I'll still defend it to the hatershttps://twitter.com/IBJIYONGI/status/1366068173796216833 …
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I think one thing that makes people dislike it based on the adaptations is the adaptations linger It's how you get the sense that the point of the story is costume porn or opulence porn, that it's a long dragging Roaring 20s party The actual book goes by fast, at least for me
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Replying to @arthur_affect
the recent movie made the parties look like big, fun, extravagant affairs, which was never the impression I got from the book
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Replying to @fennecfoxguy
I always think of it as how much a movie like The Social Network would drag if it were being made in the future where they saw the 2000s as a "period setting" and they wanted to wallow in the "authentic aesthetic" of 2004 and give us a window into "vanished techbro subculture"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @fennecfoxguy
The book, which was written in the time period it's talking about, isn't particularly fascinated by its own setting and treats the extravagance of the rich with the jaded contempt it deserves
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Replying to @arthur_affect
the gif of a suave DiCaprio raising a glass in front of fireworks is so at odds with the desperate, kinda pathetic guy he is in the book. Nobody goes to his parties because they’re fun, they go because it’s what’s expected. then they get hammered and sneak into side rooms.
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Replying to @fennecfoxguy
Yeah Gatsby's a weird creep from the beginning that's the point I think modern readers don't get that in the 1920s his shtick with the formal mannerisms and calling people "old sport" and stuff was extremely dated and eccentric for the era
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Replying to @arthur_affect @fennecfoxguy
He's like what we'd call an ultrahipster today, everything about him is too tryhard and trapped in the ambiguous irony zone No one knows if he's taking the piss or what He's like a guy from Florida who always wears a dumb hat and talks in a phony British accent
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Replying to @arthur_affect @fennecfoxguy
He's the nerdy kid who only has friends because he has a pool and a Nintendo The whole reason Nick the contrarian gloms onto him and becomes fiercely devoted to him is it clicks for him that everyone thinks he's an exploitative ass but THEY'RE the ones exploiting HIM
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The kid who made his parents buy a PS5 just so he could have friends is not the asshole The assholes are the kids who come and play it every day and then still talk shit about him behind his back And adults are actually much better at being assholes than kids
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Replying to @arthur_affect @fennecfoxguy
There are the hints in the book that Gatsby is in fact a scam artist selling bogus bonds, but there's the tacit fact that it's the only way he can even come close to the orbit of old money types. He has no legitimate way of attaining what the others were born into.
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In fact, his entire infatuation with Daisy seems akin to a friendless kid fixating on the one popular kid who notices their existence, hoping that this is their key to joining the popular kids.
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