The Great Gatsby (book)

Now two days overdue, which is what happens when you stay in your room all Sunday. Read this book incredibly slow, occasionally because I was tired and had to re-read parts, but mostly because I was determined to sink this book into my head (fourth times the charm).

Maybe fourth time is too generous... the way I was re-reading lines so meticulously I've practically gone through the book two more times.

Page numbers:

P.38- "Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action. Taking out my handkerchief I wiped from his cheek the spot of dried lather that had worried me all the afternoon."

I really hope this passage gets played up in the movie, like when we get to the scene the camera will keep quick cutting, close up to the spot of lather on the guys neck with an intense look of concern from Tobey Maguire staring at it. Tobey has the eyes to make that hilarious. You know the kind of look I mean.

P. 77- "A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.'"

Liked the phrase, recorded it.

P.85- "...so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple..."

Just recording the lack of reference I have for that one. Need to look up Kant in this context. Likely still Kantian philosopher guy.

P. 129- After the big confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, really the turning point where Gatsby is defeated, things get awkward for outsiders Nick Carraway (narrator) and Jordan Baker (professional golfer, flake, and Nick's girlfriend throughout the book. Nick says:
"'No... I just remembered that today's my birthday.'
"I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.
It was seven o'clock when we got into the coupe with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foriegn clamour on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty - the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age. As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat's shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.
So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight."

Checking the birth and release dates, Fitzgerald was 30 when this book was made. Reminds me of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock",  which was itself, according to wikipedia, published in the Chicago area in 1915, and was certainly read by Fitzgerald (Gatsby was written in 1926). All together, it's more evidence for Nick as author avator of Fitzgerald, not that that's too surprising. I'm sure the argument can be made for Gatsby as author as well... though I doubt Fitzgerald himself would agree with that statement!

P. 154- "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete."

Can't help but be interested in that passage, use of "holocaust" before advent of THE holocaust.

Long list of words to look up for this book. As ever, in my defence, most of them I know partially or get the gist from context, but if I were point blank asked "define THIS" I'd be in trouble. So it goes. Oh, though some are clearly names or somesuch, the historical context would of course be outside my grasp.

Adventitious associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part; extrinsic.

Trimalchio is a character in the 1st century AD Roman work of fiction Satyricon by Petronius. Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. The fundamental meaning of the root is "King," and the name Trimalchio would thus mean "Thrice King," "greatest King."^[Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties. He seeks to impress his guests—the Roman nouveau riche, mostly freedmen—with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism. So he's "Ancient Gatsby".

nonolfactory of or pertaining to the sense of smell

abtrusive seems to just be a corruption of obtrusive. No dictionary results.

dilatory 

1.

tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy.

2.

intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision

punctilious  strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions.

modish in the current fashion; stylish.

echolalia 1. Psychiatry. the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.

2. the imitation by a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others, occurring as a natural phase of childhood development.

vinous of, resembling, or containing wine.

meretricious 1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.

2. based on pretense, deception, or insincerity.

3. pertaining to or characteristic of a prostitute.

(dude, I was way off on this one...)

sharper 1. a shrewd swindler.

2. a professional gambler.

El Greco born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname,^[a][b] a reference to his national Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.

pasquinade a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.

extemporize

to perform, speak, or compose (an act, speech, piece of music, etc) without planning or preparation

contiguous

1.	touching along the side or boundary; in contact
2.	physically adjacent; neighbouring
3.	preceding or following in time

peremptory  leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative

hauteur haughty manner or spirit; arrogance.

supercilious haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.

mincing  (of the gait, speech, behavior, etc.) affectedly dainty, nice, or elegant.

Kaiser Wilhelm ruler of Germany, 1871-1918

Belasco David Belasco (1853-1931); U.S. theatrical producer, playwright, and actor.

Frisco looks like this is just short for San Francisco

tortuously 1. full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.

2. not direct or straightforward, as in procedure or speech; intricate; circuitous: tortuous negotiations lasting for months. 

3. deceitfully indirect or morally crooked, as proceedings, methods, or policy; devious.

 

FINALLY THAT'S ALL OF THEM!

 

All right, that should be everything I need the book for. I'll post this, return the book to the library, and then talk a bit about the book when I get back.