Re: Salinger & Burns (NOT George!)actually not, but Gatsby
The Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Tue, 21 Dec 1999 12:02:56 +0000 (GMT)
Inspiring, Tim! Maybe I'll dust off my old copy before starting with that
Proust project of mine. Still got 1.5 weeks left of the millenium!
>From: Tim O'Connor <tim@roughdraft.org>
>I think one reason is that it is a nearly perfect story in terms of
>structure (with a few exceptions that were noted in a recently
>published scholarly edition).
>
>In addition, we see several characters follow full circles: Nick, the
>narrator, going from the romantic idealist to the more hard-bitten,
>more cynical, yet still holding-his-integrity and, perhaps, still
>believing that magic can happen ("the green light") in life. Gatsby,
>transmogrified into, well, let me not spoil it for those who haven't
>read it. Daisy and Tom, so dull and ordinary, but still fascinating.
>
>(In recent scholarship, a researcher found that a lot of the
>beautifully written prose came about after Fitzgerald wrote the book.
>An inveterate revisor, he made changes galore. He treated his
>galleys like I treat manuscript pages on legal pads!)
>
>Then there is the writing, the craft, itself: the magic and surreal
>valley of the ashes and Dr. Eckleberg's billboard, the small scene
>with the unsavory Wolfshein, the horror of the car accident, and
>these help make the book come to life. It has humor,
>unpredictability, surprising turns of events, and one of the most
>beautiful ending sentences, like the one that ends Joyce's short
>story, "The Dead."
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