The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald

I wanted to do a review on The Great Gatsby, but I don't think I would be able to do a better job than John Green. In fact, I got interested in reading the book, partly, because of him. I watched the series Crash Course Literature on Youtube, he really has a way of talking people into reading and learning new knowledge, and he got me. In my opinion, he is the most interesting Youtube celebrity that I have known so far. He is also an author. His books will soon be my next choices after The Catcher In The Rye, which also is one of the books discussed on his channels, vlogbrothers and crashcourse.

Let's talk about what I feel about The Great Gatsby. There are so many new vocab for me. Eventhough the book is barely 200 pages, it took me ages to finish it. Honestly, if it wasn't John Green's video, I would probably drop the book after the first 5 chapters. And like many others who had read the book, I agree that all the characters are not very likable, even Jay Gatsby himself. I don't really like Jay Gatsby may because of a part of myself I found in Gatsby, the part of myself that I hate the most, the part that Jay Gatsby still cannot forget the girl he fell in love with five years ago, Daisy, still cannot put aside the past and move on. 

In fact, I had read a few works of Scott Fitzgerald before The Great Gatsby, without knowing who was the author beforehand. I had read one of his short story collections, Babylon Revisited and Other Stories, in translated Chinese version though. I actually bought the book because the bookstore was doing promotion, with 3 or more books bought, every each of the book would be 8 Ringgit Malaysia. I took this book randomly just to make the target of 3 books. What a big surprise. After reading The Great Gatsby, it all suddenly makes sense now. There are so many similarities in between this short story collection and Gatsby. I am lazy to review every single short story in the collection here. But to quote Scott Fitzgerald himself, 

     Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.

This quote basically sums up all his works in the collection. And yes, most of the short stories are about human relationship. But there won't be any Twilight romance, no living happily ever after, and depressing ending most of the time. Each of the stories are so true and would probably be so relatable to many people. In fact, so true that somehow I found the short stories and also The Great Gatsby, brutal.

I still remember Tom Hiddleston's interpretation of Scott Fitzgerald in the movie, Midnight in Paris, by Woody Allen. This is yet another great movie, in my opinion. Woody Allen explains very well how I feel about Paris in the movie.

 

If anyone remember the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, this is also adapted from one of Fitzgerald's short stories. However, the screenplay differs greatly from the short story, as to quote Wikipedia. Personally, I haven't read the original story yet. 

So, his works are not meant for those teenage girls with fancy dream of prince charming. If you are depressed, don't read them too. A deep sense of sorrow is what I found in his books. The movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby is coming soon. I am looking forward for Leonardo Dicaprio's interpretation of Gatsby. I am really excited for yet another chance to be depressed by the story again.