So we beat on--

[trinityofone]

Today I am supposed to: write my Great Gatsby essay.

Today I have:

1) Managed a vague outline of my Great Gatsby essay while mostly looking over various bits of the book and sobbing, sobbing, because no book ever has or does move me like this one; it tears me apart and I am totally inadequate to the task of explaining why.

2) Eaten a sandwich.

But seriously, regarding 1)--I maintain and will continue to maintain that Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written, packing more into less than 200 pages than what others can manage in nearly 2,000 (and I have read War and Peace, so I know *g*). I cry every time I read it (and when I'm reviewing my notes to write an essay on it, apparently). Those of you who have read it: does it effect you in the same way? The class I'm writing the essay for is an American Lit class taught at an Irish university; the tutor has stressed that she thinks the novel highlights American themes--do you think that's true? I would say that the themes of Gatsby--trying to recapture the past, yearning to be known, loved--are universal. But then I am American, so I could be projecting. We do that.

What's your favorite book of all time? What book has moved you more than any other?

Comments

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In fanfic, I wonder - but since even that is lead by American/Australian writers, it might just have spread. In what is considered literature, I think it is predominantly American (and again, OZ) to have a childhood in a rural setting and then move to a city, if that makes sense. Flashbacks seem to be even more "historical" that way, lifespans are demarcated more clearly, and I feel a bit lost as if I missed a time AND a place. European past tends to be WWII, but if I think of eg UK fiction, not such a move between country and city. And this is not perfectly explained, I know :S