So we beat on--
Mar. 8th, 2006 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityofoneToday 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?
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?
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-08 06:00 pm (UTC)Another in the same catagory is All the King's Men. I think I would be a bit in love with that one, were I to read it again.
I'll jump on the bandwagon and say my favorite 'serious' book is To Kill a Mockingbird. Aside from my unnatural adoration of Atticus, I love the balance between what a child takes in and what floats along on the surface of her observations, waiting for her to grow into them.
The three books that travel everywhere with me, however, are far less 'noble', but best-loved: Good Omens, Lamb, and Maniac Magee. The first is self-evident. The second is the way I pretend the Bible meant to be. The third is the story of my childhood, told as legend.
Thus proving once and for all I'm a dork, but possibly a fun one.