About a week before I got my copy of The Great Gatsby, one of my favorite writers commented on how it wasn't really all that great. It was just a quick comment, not a snide remark or anything, and even complimented Fitzgerald, but it gave me my doubts. Feeling a bit cheated by the almighty powers of AP Comp, I resigned myself to reading Fitzgerald's fiction.
And you know where I'm going with this, but I have to say it anyway--I love this book. It's this beautiful mixed bag of sweet and shallow and snarky plot and people that leaves me simultaneously delighted and uncomfortable. Yes, The Great Gatsby is full of empty conversations and superficial characters, awesome alliteration and all, but it confronts you with a force that is undeniably human. It seems that all of my favorite books have given me that emotion at least once.
With all these "America Is..." presentations, I thought about Gatsby. He is the American Dream personified. He rose from poor obscurity into money's limelight. Gatsby had it all, except for Daisy, and so he shifted his priorities from the present to the past. To me, Daisy seems to demonstrate the "good old days"--charming and innocent, easily able to rivet you with (ridiculous) words, and full of promise and potential. When Gatsby tried to return to the past through any price, any risk, he ran into consequences. If America only focuses on what was instead of what could be, there's no doubt that She will fall.
I also enjoyed Fitzgerald's Wilson character. A poor man among the ashes of industry whose wife goes after the very man keeping their income on tenterhooks--it reminded me how America feeds on others. Our claim to capitalism keeps us assured that we are doing it for their economy, to help them, really. However, that's a load of crap--we're just using them for our own ends. And when those places revolt, we won’t hesitate to shove the blame aside to save our own skins.
On that cheery note, thanks for reading, and may Dr. T.J. Eckleburg be with you!
(If you're feeling especially literate or curious or bored, check out one of my favorite writer's stuff here!)
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Independence
On these sacred documents in which Providence has rightly blessed, we declare one thing: a renewed and reaffirmed vivification without the curling webs of secondary education to squander precious time.
It is only just and right to rectify that time spent in a morning’s precarious beginnings. Drugged from warm cloths and pompous pillows, our youths have again and again subjected themselves to the injustices of early morns coupled with exacting education. In those hours whence sleep is most required, our youths are wronged, kept languor and listless, longing for nothing more than a few deserved hours rest. Is it such a sin to bring salvation to these children from their time oft demanded in the doldrums of mathematics and pop quizzes?
Nay! For what man, woman, or child does not long for a minute more of comfort and warmth before partaking in the day-to-day delirium these early mornings hath wrought? Nay, not one could rightly raise his hand and exclaim his love for this monstrous monotony without betraying truth. Not one could sing praises to those who built the temple of tedious testing before ten in the morning. Not one could honestly deny the promise, the peace, the purity of two hours more sleep. Not one.
But the asinine and extreme declare that the zombie-like appearance of our youth are for the good of all. Blasphemous, they ignore how they have become the profiler to our youth, cutting them into ‘perfect’ form, ready to mold our children into ashen-faced employers of a future none are certain of. Those in power, forgoing the health of the many for the prosperity of the few, ought to pry away from beloved beds at the shrill shriek of an alarm clock before casting damnation upon our youth.
So again, there is none we are more certain of than the Declaration of Independence from the pagan capitalistic worshipping of days begun too soon for too little. It is our Honor, our Duty, our Promise to edify the very foundations of our days before they are nothing more than the ghosts of hope.
It is only just and right to rectify that time spent in a morning’s precarious beginnings. Drugged from warm cloths and pompous pillows, our youths have again and again subjected themselves to the injustices of early morns coupled with exacting education. In those hours whence sleep is most required, our youths are wronged, kept languor and listless, longing for nothing more than a few deserved hours rest. Is it such a sin to bring salvation to these children from their time oft demanded in the doldrums of mathematics and pop quizzes?
Nay! For what man, woman, or child does not long for a minute more of comfort and warmth before partaking in the day-to-day delirium these early mornings hath wrought? Nay, not one could rightly raise his hand and exclaim his love for this monstrous monotony without betraying truth. Not one could sing praises to those who built the temple of tedious testing before ten in the morning. Not one could honestly deny the promise, the peace, the purity of two hours more sleep. Not one.
But the asinine and extreme declare that the zombie-like appearance of our youth are for the good of all. Blasphemous, they ignore how they have become the profiler to our youth, cutting them into ‘perfect’ form, ready to mold our children into ashen-faced employers of a future none are certain of. Those in power, forgoing the health of the many for the prosperity of the few, ought to pry away from beloved beds at the shrill shriek of an alarm clock before casting damnation upon our youth.
So again, there is none we are more certain of than the Declaration of Independence from the pagan capitalistic worshipping of days begun too soon for too little. It is our Honor, our Duty, our Promise to edify the very foundations of our days before they are nothing more than the ghosts of hope.
You are BEAUTIFUL
Lately, in AP Comp, we've been talking about different views of America. There is so much negativity ignited just by how people look. I think that is something brought on Americans by Americans even today. So I don't think I'm the only one bothered by modern society's emphasis on putting people down--especially us, girls. There is so much hate, so much sadness, that it breaks my heart.
We need to stop it, together, but I don't think that can happen without you realizing a few things first.
You are funny--
You are brilliant--
You are gorgeous--
Just the way you are.
You may not believe me, but it's true.
So smile and check out operationbeautiful.com!
Also, givesmehope.com is also a gem. Check that out too if you ever need a smile. ;) Let's stop the hate. There are more things to be concerned about than how people look.
We need to stop it, together, but I don't think that can happen without you realizing a few things first.
You are funny--
You are brilliant--
You are gorgeous--
Just the way you are.
You may not believe me, but it's true.
So smile and check out operationbeautiful.com!
Also, givesmehope.com is also a gem. Check that out too if you ever need a smile. ;) Let's stop the hate. There are more things to be concerned about than how people look.
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