Adjectives on the Typewriter

she moves her words like a prizefighter

27 August 2006

Summer in Summary

Number of Hours Worked: 530.25

Miles put on Car: 2969

Movies Watched (in theatres): 3

Books Read, in order of preference:
1) I am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe
2) Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis
3) Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
4) The Bonfire of Vanities, Tom Wolfe
5) Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
6) The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis
7) Driving Blind, Ray Bradbury
8) The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
9) Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut

Labels:

2 Comments:

Blogger Nate said...

How was the great gatsby? I was looking at the other day and was atleast pretending that I was thinking about reading it.

August 31, 2006 at 7:28 PM  
Blogger em²ile² said...

Pretending that you were thinking about reading it...sounds like me and A Clockwork Orange (which I incidentally will be forced to read this semester). The Great Gatsby was a decent book, solid in its 1920's style and well-written. But I'm still not convinced it's the literary masterpiece some claim.

When I'm reading, I always jot down quotes (instead of notes) that either strike me as insightful or ingenious, or else just thought-provoking. The Great Gatsby provided me with only 2 such quotes, one on the second page and the other the book's final sentence. Fitzgerald writes: "Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope." But by the end of story he concludes that "We beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Basically, the tale of love, mystery, and betrayed loyalties is flipped on its head and turned into a grand deception. Like most post-war books, The Great Gatsby flounders in waves of futility, and ultimately sinks.

September 2, 2006 at 5:20 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home