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Author Topic: The Great Gatsby  (Read 20507 times)

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #50 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:14 »
Johnny, I didn't really like of Mice and Men either.

and man, don't even get me started on that fucking "To kill a Mockingbird" crap
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #51 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:21 »
Of Mice and Men is one of my least favorite books ever, right up there with The Scarlet Letter. But I do love To Kill a Mockingbird, so I will fight you on that one.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #52 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:26 »
What about The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
As emo as that book is, its powerful...and a tad bit creepy.
« Last Edit: 13 Dec 2007, 20:31 by dr.sangaygupta »
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #53 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:28 »
To Kill A Mockingbird is certainly overrated, but I don't think it's a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. But then, I guess I see it as a kid's book, so I give it some leeway for some things.

In our high school english classes we read TKAM, Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun. Raisin in the Sun was the best of the bunch, I'd say, if just for Sydney Poitier's performance as Walter in the play/film.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #54 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:51 »
I actually still have my copy from seventh grade. I remember hating the play, but that was a while ago, and I rather enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird in eighth grade and Gatsby in ninth was a great read. Either I matured as a reader, or Raisin In The Sun just isn't for me.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #55 on: 13 Dec 2007, 20:57 »
Everybody hates Of Mice And Men too?

Man, fuck this thread.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #56 on: 13 Dec 2007, 21:13 »
Johnny, should we make a thread about appreciating books and thusly discussing their contents? I vote yes.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #57 on: 14 Dec 2007, 04:29 »
I loved Of Mice and Men :/
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #58 on: 14 Dec 2007, 08:40 »
You know what book I had to read in school, and thoroughly hated until I got to the ending?  A Prayer for Owen Meany.  Good book.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #59 on: 14 Dec 2007, 08:52 »
I pretty much love all the books mentioned in this thread already. For me "The Grapes of Wrath"/"Of Mice and Men," "Catcher in the Rye" and "The Great Gatsby" were amazing the first time I read them and continue to be so now. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was a bit dull. I'm just waiting for someone to start spouting off against Hemingway or Faulkner before I really get upset. Of course, there are books I dislike that are considered masterpieces or whatever. "Wuthering Heights" bored the hell out of me. Same with "Ethan Frome." Come to think of it, I didn't like "Great Expectations" all that much either.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #60 on: 14 Dec 2007, 11:30 »
As long as no one begins to talk ill of Jane Austen, I think I can deal with this thread, over all.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #61 on: 14 Dec 2007, 13:20 »
Quote from: Dark Flame on 14 Dec 2007, 11:30
As long as no one begins to talk ill of Jane Austen, I think I can deal with this thread, over all.

Pride and Prejudice has a permanent place on my nightstand. I re-read my favourite scenes in times of minor insomnia =x

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #62 on: 14 Dec 2007, 13:40 »
I can't tell if that was insulting it or praising it. Does it put you to sleep or help you get through sleepless nights? I'm so confused....
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #63 on: 14 Dec 2007, 13:48 »
haha it was praise. Usually if I can't sleep, it's a result of stress or unhappy times.
Pride and Prejudice makes me happy, and rids me of my worries! It's a good thing.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #64 on: 14 Dec 2007, 16:34 »
Grapes of Wrath = Pretty good, once you get past the first few chapters.
To Kill a Mockingbird = Good, or it was the last time I read it (12/13ish).
Pride and Prejudice = Excellent and if anyone trashes this book, FIGHT YOU.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #65 on: 14 Dec 2007, 16:38 »
I have your back during that fight, if it were to occur, by the way.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #66 on: 14 Dec 2007, 16:45 »
As do I.  As do I.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #67 on: 14 Dec 2007, 16:47 »
Quote from: Johnny C on 13 Dec 2007, 19:10
Jesus, what does it take to impress you people?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To Kill a Mockingbird
A Clockwork Orange
Of Mice and Men

Oh, hey, there was another page.

I didn't like Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye, though.
« Last Edit: 14 Dec 2007, 16:49 by Ozymandias »
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #68 on: 14 Dec 2007, 17:52 »
I can see why someone might not like the Grapes of Wrath.

Actually, I can't.



I've never liked Catcher in the Rye though. Johnny, stop trying to enforce the canon, you dead white men loving crypto-fascist you.

If I want to read about teenage angst, you'll normally find me re-reading The Wasp Factory. Now there's a book.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #69 on: 15 Dec 2007, 00:41 »
Salinger's not dead, dude.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #70 on: 15 Dec 2007, 01:09 »
What a monumental 9000th post, man.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #71 on: 15 Dec 2007, 07:25 »
I like Mansfield Park better than Pride and Prejudice.  Probably because I've never read P&P in an academic context and I studied Mansfield Park with one of the best profs I've ever had.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #72 on: 15 Dec 2007, 08:02 »
Quote from: Johnny C on 15 Dec 2007, 00:41
Salinger's not dead, dude.

If there's one thing post-colonialism has taught us, it's that the only thing worse than a dead white man, is a living one.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #73 on: 15 Dec 2007, 08:09 »
Quote from: Linds on 12 Dec 2007, 08:12
The Catcher in the Rye is overrated. When I read it in high school everyone loved it, but I honestly didn't. It was ok, but I didn't see why so many people thought it was awesome. The Great Gatsby, however, was pretty good.

Simply because it involves the most easily identifiable-with protagonist in American literature.

That said, The Catcher in the Rye is only mindblowing untill you realize that Holden Caulfield needs to get a fucking blog.

Quote from: Dissy on 11 Dec 2007, 23:24
I also enjoyed the book.  It isn't one of those read once books.  You have to go back two maybe three times before you actually get what is going on there.

I cannot stress this enough. However, I will go so far as to say that it must be read at least five to six times before you can grasp even a shred of the meaning.

Quote from: dr.sangaygupta on 13 Dec 2007, 16:43
not to derail this thread, but this book was nowhere near as bad as The Grapes of Wrath. God how i hated that book

Quote from: audacity on 13 Dec 2007, 17:12
I haven't read it. What was so awful about it?

I'm prone to agree. I find Steinbeck incredibly dry. The overall theme of The Grapes of Wrath would have hit closer to home had it not been such an over-extended, long-winded piece of literature. Of Mice and Men is only passable because it's not as bad in this respect.
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Liz

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #74 on: 15 Dec 2007, 10:22 »
Quote from: Ballard on 15 Dec 2007, 08:09
That said, The Catcher in the Rye is only mindblowing untill you realize that Holden Caulfield needs to get a fucking blog.

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #75 on: 15 Dec 2007, 10:55 »
If you didn't like The Grapes Of Wrath, give The Winter Of Our Discontent a try. It's probably my favourite Steinbeck book.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #76 on: 15 Dec 2007, 14:52 »
Quote from: Ballard on 15 Dec 2007, 08:09
Quote from: Linds on 12 Dec 2007, 08:12
The Catcher in the Rye is overrated. When I read it in high school everyone loved it, but I honestly didn't. It was ok, but I didn't see why so many people thought it was awesome. The Great Gatsby, however, was pretty good.

Simply because it involves the most easily identifiable-with protagonist in American literature.

I just thought he was an ass. (But then again I thought all the people in my class that raved about it were asses, too.) There were few that felt the same as I did. But then again, those few and myself were also the only ones in my English class that actually liked Jane Eyre.

As for Steinbeck, my favorite novel of his was The Moon is Down. It's definitely more readable, if that's what most people don't like about Grapes.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #77 on: 15 Dec 2007, 15:41 »
I like both Jane Eyre and The Catcher In The Rye rather greatly.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #78 on: 15 Dec 2007, 15:47 »
I think J.D. Salinger made the most perfect representation of the disaffected teenager and, as such, Catcher in the Rye is a great book.

I also think that I don't like disaffected teenagers and I did not enjoy it.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #79 on: 15 Dec 2007, 21:16 »
Oh man.

No dissing on the fucking Bronte sisters. Not on my watch.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #80 on: 16 Dec 2007, 12:41 »
Gatsby definitely isn't a favorite of mine, but shit? Ah, no. It's still a classic work of literature for the themes and issues it touches upon, and the style of writing was nothing less than revolutionary in its day.

The whole thing is a bit simplistic for me (Pynchon is my favorite author, so complexity in a book is something I like) but I can't deny its merits. I feel the same way about The Scarlet Letter. I don't exactly love it, but the story itself is wonderful and the narrative style works well for what the book is trying to accomplish.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #81 on: 16 Dec 2007, 17:05 »
I have to agree with you on the Scarlet Letter, although I wish I didn't. The Scarlet Letter was an extremely tedious read for me, probably because I was balancing a few books I wanted to read at the time (I was working through the Dune series in eighth grade.), and this book would just not stop talking. Of course the story was wonderful, but Hawthorne's writing style, while what someone in the 1850's would have written, still annoyed me to no end.
I should give the book a second chance.
How about the Red Badge of Courage?
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #82 on: 16 Dec 2007, 19:14 »
I only lightly skimmed this thread, but I just finished reading The Great Gatsby for school, and holy fuck you guys, it's one of my favorites. I absolutely adored it in so many ways. Made me feel pretty hopeless and depressed, but I still thought it was wonderful.

And commenting on other posts here and there that I saw, I loved Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, and Jane Eyre (one of my favorites, but I really didn't like it until about the 100th page).

What I really didn't like was Huckleberry Finn or Their Eyes Were Watching God. Dammit Janey pissed me off so much.
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Ozymandias

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #83 on: 16 Dec 2007, 19:21 »
Agreed on Their Eyes Were Watching God, not on Huck Finn.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #84 on: 17 Dec 2007, 07:22 »
I think a lot of the classic books were ruined for me because I had a couple of teachers I hated, and their stupid bullshit discussions and assignments for the books kinda ruined them. I didn't really like the Scarlet Letter or Gatsby, but I rather liked Grapes of Wrath and to Kill a Mockingbird, so I guess I should reread the first two and see if they're any better. And I never had to read Catcher in the Rye, so I suppose I should give that a shot too.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #85 on: 17 Dec 2007, 07:31 »
You see, I like about every book mentioned in this thread except for The Scarlet Letter. I don't like it when an author brutally assaults me with symbols and then takes a page and a half to analyze how great his own symbol is.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #86 on: 17 Dec 2007, 12:21 »
I don't like Of Mice and Men purely because it's so goddamn depressing.  I mean, fuck, dude.

I think talking about The Catcher in the Rye is always pointless.  People either love it or hate it, and whether they do is pretty much completely independant of its actual literary merit.  Either you identify with Holden or you think he's a whiny douchebag.  Personally, I loved the book, and I disagree that it's merely the viewpoint of a "disaffected teenager"; it's really the viewpoint of anyone who has ever looked at the human race and said "Man, you guys are fucked up."

What about All the King's Men?  That's one classic book I can never get enough of.  Much is made about the political/social aspect of it, but I think people are crazy for missing the real point of the novel, which is the viewpoint of Jackie Burden, who is in many ways basically a grown-up Holden Caulfield.
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audacity

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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #87 on: 17 Dec 2007, 12:29 »
I enjoyed All the King's Men. I also saw the movie, which was decent but nothing thrilling for me.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #88 on: 17 Dec 2007, 21:16 »
Quote from: est on 13 Dec 2007, 20:14
Johnny, I didn't really like of Mice and Men either.

and man, don't even get me started on that fucking "To kill a Mockingbird" crap

People, both these things were sarcasm.  I am sorry I couldn't light it up in neon for you.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #89 on: 17 Dec 2007, 21:39 »
Quote from: audacity on 17 Dec 2007, 12:29
I enjoyed All the King's Men. I also saw the movie, which was decent but nothing thrilling for me.

Watch the old version, which was and remains a classic. The Sean Penn version was a bloated piece of prestige trash.
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Re: The Great Gatsby
« Reply #90 on: 17 Dec 2007, 23:07 »
Quote from: est on 17 Dec 2007, 21:16
People, both these things were sarcasm.  I am sorry I couldn't light it up in neon for you.

Dude I dunno if you've noticed but this thread is basically a free-for-all of low opinions on classic literature. The sarcasm slipped right under the radar.
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