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The Great Gatsby

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What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

There’s plenty of controversy surrounding Zoe Saldana’s supposed bisexuality today. We posted the Flavorwire take earlier today, but we also suggest checking out AfterEllen.com’s super-interesting discussion on the underlying issues. We giggled over this video of people trying (and mostly failing) to explain The Great Gatsby plot. We followed… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

Some things, like this Great Gatsby/Mean Girls meme mash-up, are just perfect. There’s a Robocop statue going up in Detroit, because that’s just what the city of Detroit has been clamoring for. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is the best thing to happen to space travel in a long time; we celebrated his… Read More

Books

What Was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Attitude Toward Homosexuality?

By Emily Temple on

There has been much ado about The Great Gatsby in recent months, for obvious reasons. And with that ado has come a resurgence of interest in Nick Carraway’s unclear sexual orientation — something you probably missed as a high school sophomore, but is obvious with even a little attention as an adult reader. Earlier in the year, in an article at Salon, Greg Olear pointed out that nagging passage that suggests Nick’s homosexuality, nestled in between those ellipses and coming directly off of a blatant penis joke. And today in The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky argues that Baz Luhrman’s new film adaptation suffers from not being gay enough, and thereby undermining Nick’s character and eliminating his connection to Gatsby based on “their shared need for deception.” … Read More

Film

The Complicated — And Troubling — Role of Race and Class in Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Gatsby’

By Tyler Coates on

Now that The Great Gatsby has opened to favorable audience reviews and not-so-ecstatic critical response, there seems little left to be said about Baz Luhrmann’s garish 3D romance. As expected, Luhrmann’s picture is a mostly faithful adaptation of the book, if not a completely obvious one. And sure, for every shot of Leonardo DiCaprio practically tripping over his wing-tipped feet to reach for the green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock, there are thousands of frames filled with fireworks, confetti, champagne, and even the typewritten words of F. Scott Fitzgerald (by way of the ludicrous framing device suggesting that Nick Carraway wrote The Great Gatsby as a memoir to cure his “morbid alcoholism”) flying into the faces of the bespectacled audience. (It’s surprising that the eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg weren’t behind Dolby-branded 3D glasses.) You don’t see a Baz Luhrmann film for the subtlety, but one aspect of The Great Gatsby that is surprisingly nuanced is the complicated role that race plays in both Lurhmann’s and Fitzgerald’s cynical treatment of the American class struggle. … Read More

Film

Why Can’t Hollywood Get ‘The Great Gatsby’ Right?

By Jason Bailey on

Hollywood took its first stab at adapting The Great Gatsby for the screen only a year after its publication, and has been trying intermittently ever since — and, for the most part, failing. What is it about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic that makes it so impossible, so utterly untraslatable? It’s certainly not that the film industry hasn’t been trying hard enough: Baz Luhrmann’s new film is the fifth official adaptation. In the course of a week, I watched all of them that can be seen (and another, looser adaptation besides), and came up with a few theories. … Read More

Books

The Best ‘Great Gatsby’ Merchandise for Living the High Life

By Emily Temple on

If there’s anything Jay Gatsby went in for, it was capitalism. So if you’re getting excited for the film adaptation of your favorite book, or planning a Gatsby-centric theme party that’s just dying for some chic decor, why not follow in your favorite fictional character’s steps and spend a little green? It’s what a man with sweaters so nice they make girls cry would want. After the jump, you’ll find some of the best Gatsby merch — from rare books to earrings — available, so get shopping, and get a little literary glam in the process. … Read More

Books

Was ‘The Great Gatsby’ The Last Great New York Novel?

By Geoff Mak on

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby stands out as the finest of his four completed novels because it’s an empathetic satire that delivers the author’s most aggressive attack on New York’s high society. I’ve read it maybe five times, although I prefer the first half because I think that’s where the magic happens. It’s when all three of the novel’s parties take place, and where Fitzgerald’s psychological complexity thrives most — the simultaneous worship and disdain for wealth and celebrity that characterizes his body of work. It’s often praised as a top contender for the Great American Novel, but Gatsby also remains as the best New York novel I’ve ever read because it so fully embodies the city in the time during which it was written, while continuing to speak to readers (and especially New Yorkers) of every generation. … Read More

Film

10 Disappointing Film Adaptations of Classic American Novels

By Tyler Coates on

Not all great American novels make great American movies, and after three previous Gatsby movies, it’s surprising that Baz Luhrmann decided to try his hand at Fitzgerald’s novel. With the exception of John Steinbeck (and, depending on your taste, John Grisham), few American authors have produced a handful of novels fit for the cinema. This is not necessarily a bad thing — as far as artistic mediums go, film and novels are strikingly different. But while the literary world is a go-to for Hollywood executives hoping that popular novels will seamlessly transition to the screen (and achieve the same positive response), it isn’t exactly a reliable source of artistic or commercial hits. Among these ten adaptations are valiant efforts as well as unmitigated disasters, none of which successfully captured the charm of their source material. … Read More

Books

15 Awesome ‘Great Gatsby’ Tattoos

By Emily Temple on

You may think you’re a fan of The Great Gatsby, but how committed are you really? Lots of folks have proven their love of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece by inking its words and images on their bodies — the floating face of the classic cover and the final lines are perennial favorites in this regard. After the jump, check out some of the greatest Gatsby tattoos from around the web. … Read More

Web

7 Totally Easy Steps to a Spoiler-Free Life

By Jason Bailey on

Jennie Lamere is a 17-year-old computer coder from Nashua, New Hampshire, and the focus of a fascinating article over at Mother Jones. It seems that late last month, Ms. Lamere was the only woman among the 80 competitors at TVnext Hack 2013 in Boston, where programmers and coders were charged with creating apps and programs to enrich the viewing experience. But Lamere won the whole shebang with her Twivo software, which allows users to block mentions of selected TV shows and their characters until they’ve had a chance to watch that DVR-ed episode of Game of Thrones. The whole thing is sort of awesome, a big thumbs-up for developers of both Lamere’s age and sex. And, of course, it is a decisive victory for the Spoiler-Free Rights movement. But does her app go far enough? … Read More