Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are going to love Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola.
i definitely will give it a try
La Bête Humane
The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
111–120 of 182 posts
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#112I think readers are free to interpret a work of fiction any way they choose to, and nobody should be chided for "misunderstanding" anything.
Yep. Time has taught us that often the author is a vehicle for the work, not the other way around.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
i definitely will give it a try
La Bête Humane
I know Zola, but I don't know why I haven't read his works yet. Just by reading the introduction, I know I would probably love all his works. Maybe it's because I've been reading more history and less fiction in recent years.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry - I was messing around by selectively misquoting you. Giving more of your original context: > where people achieve success through relentless struggle In my limited experience of Russian literature, the struggle doesn't lead to success!
> In my limited experience of Russian literature, the struggle doesn't lead to success! There is a meme comparing different countries’ literature: France: “I would die for love.” England: “I would die for honor.” America: “I would die for freedom.” Russia: “I will die.” The harsh climate and scarce resources in Russia prevent it from producing something like the American Dream. People there seem to be more pessimisti…
> scarce resources
What now??? Russia is one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet! They are just very inefficient in doing anything with it. The country and all its people should all be among the wealthiest on the planet.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#115Personally, aside from Russian literature, I now prefer American literature, which I think is underestimated in China. I really like that film adaptation, but what the film expresses is something else, not the same as the novel’s core theme. My own understanding is that American literature has at least three themes that are very distinctive and different from Europe(or other countries). One is the depiction of desola…
> Because you feel as if they lack nothing, yet they seem like empty shells: their lives are filled with commodities, and all their actions seem stripped of a spiritual dimension. This is exactly the situation I am in. I really really don't know what to do.
I am always a strong advocate of doing volunteer/nonprofit work.
Folks on HN have some truly valuable skills that could make a huge difference. NPO work also brings together passionate, like-minded people. It’s an automatic community.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#116Personally, aside from Russian literature, I now prefer American literature, which I think is underestimated in China. I really like that film adaptation, but what the film expresses is something else, not the same as the novel’s core theme. My own understanding is that American literature has at least three themes that are very distinctive and different from Europe(or other countries). One is the depiction of desola…
Also that the "spiritual world" (i.e. religion) in America has been colonized by money, consumption and commodities as well, which has drained all the spirituality from it. Religion in America is as desolate of meaning and sustenance as the American Western Frontier. You have to be a heretic to find spirituality that's worth anything here.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In my limited experience of Russian literature, the struggle doesn't lead to success! There is a meme comparing different countries’ literature: France: “I would die for love.” England: “I would die for honor.” America: “I would die for freedom.” Russia: “I will die.” The harsh climate and scarce resources in Russia prevent it from producing something like the American Dream. People there seem to be more pessimisti…
> scarce resources What now??? Russia is one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet! They are just very inefficient in doing anything with it. The country and all its people should all be among the wealthiest on the planet.
> The country and all its people should all be among the wealthiest on the planet.
...because natural resources make a country wealthy? It hasn't worked anywhere else.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#118Personally, aside from Russian literature, I now prefer American literature, which I think is underestimated in China. I really like that film adaptation, but what the film expresses is something else, not the same as the novel’s core theme. My own understanding is that American literature has at least three themes that are very distinctive and different from Europe(or other countries). One is the depiction of desola…
I've read thousands of books. There are good novels everywhere, and no country has the exclusivity of any theme.
> One is the depiction of desolation and human loneliness before the American continent was developed into a prosperous land.
Of course, classical European literature didn't focus on the American wilderness. Though the most famous book on this theme is probably Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. And I enjoyed T.E. Lawrence' Seven Pillars of Wisdom which most people know through the film; the Arabian desert was a good place for loneliness in the wilderness.
> Another is the pursuit of the American Dream, where people achieve success through relentless struggle.
Like wise, the American Dream is an American myth, which is rarely the focus outside of the USA. But searching success through relentless struggle is a frequent theme. For instance, Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir or Maupassant's Bel-ami. These are from two of the most famous classical French authors, but there are many novels about hard-working people that reach success.
> The third is what this novel expresses: what happens after success? Money and career cannot solve all problems; people need more to fill an entire life.
As you like Russian literature, I suppose you've read Goncharov's Oblomov and Chekov's theater, especially Uncle Vania. That theme is central in one of the most famous French novel, Flaubert's Madame Bovary. The excellent Italian writer Alberto Moravia also has many novels about this, the most famous being Il disprezzo and my favourite being Gli indifferenti. I also like D'Annunzio's Il piacere much more than The Great Gatsby. I would argue that variations of this theme are universal, with old writings like the Bibles's Qohelet and even more Sumer's Gilgamesh.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
> scarce resources What now??? Russia is one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet! They are just very inefficient in doing anything with it. The country and all its people should all be among the wealthiest on the planet.
> The country and all its people should all be among the wealthiest on the planet. ...because natural resources make a country wealthy? It hasn't worked anywhere else.
It can. Look at Norway.
Re: The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel (2021)
#120I am in (perhaps) a tiny minority in that I love American literature but just don’t get what the fuss is about The Great Gatsby. I just don’t think it’s that good a novel. Off the top of my head I could come up with a list of at least 10 American novels that I have read that I think are significantly superior. In no order here goes 1. Blood meridian 2. The Bell Jar 3. Of Mice and Men 4. Mason and Dixon (everyone’s go…
I never really understood Infinite Jest, and I've tried to read it several times over the past couple of decades. I don't really get on with the "wacky wacky wacky" nonsense humour, and the constant sesquipedalian polysyllablism in every incongruent sentence makes it read like it was written by a smartarse 14-year-old who has just found they can look up long words in a thesaurus and thinks it makes them sound clever.
It's hard work to read with no payoff, I guess unless you like endless drivelling descriptions of drug use, which I don't.