#I read the great gatsby

[blueskittlesart]

in the nicest and most non-confrontational way possible. i feel like some of you think that anything that isn't directly openly spelled out for you within a story is "missed potential" or "unexplored." like. sometimes there are implied narratives. sometimes the point is that you as the reader are supposed to think and draw your own conclusions and participate in the story. the writers not directly spelling every little detail out for you doesn't mean that the story is poorly written or missed its own plot details somehow. PLEASE.

[windwenn]

People who write novellas must be absolutely going though it bc I've never read a novella that wasnt utterly devastating. These people really have Things to Say and whats more they do it in under 200 pages.

[real-odark]

people always hate on books you read in school just because theyre being forced to read them i PROMISE it is so much better when you read at your own will because the books ARE good youre just associating them with you being buckled down and made to "enjoy" them

[going-down-to-orlando]

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced-or seemed to face, the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey." Nick Carraway about Jay Gatsby, 'The Great Gatsby'

This is a PARAGRAPH about Gatsby's smile. Not even Gatsby, just his smile. Nick wrote 2 sentences about Jordan and his thoughts on her appearance. Jordan, his supposed "love interest".

This shows us two things. Firstly, Nick is definitely not a good, unbiased narrator. Secondly, Nick is a flaming homosexual.

[zu-is-here]

in a messy poster mood cause bang bang ♪

[pwippy]

tl;dr till sings the "hope theme" motif and a note progression that represents love (typically of a woman) (disclaimer i dont actually study music theory BUT I DID look at sources)

while i was listening to blink gone i noticed that till sang a minor 7th leap followed by a minor 3rd leap down. (his parts below!!)

respectively, the lyrics he sings translates to "before this piercing radiant moment / fades away" and "and the fiery thrill / blazes out to the sky" both generally are about something star-like. regardless of the way they disappear (fading or exiting with a blaze of glory), the moment itself was thrilling, exciting, and bright.

wow i wonder where we've seen that concept before! wonder if it has anything to do with beta round 6 and how he was trapped in the meteor shower! (also how some of beta round 6's concepts bled into round 7!)

in addition, the celestial qualities of the lyrics could symbolize the faraway stars or points of brightness in his life, like mizi or ivan. in his graduation note, he refers to mizi as an angel ("If angels were real you’d be one wouldn’t you?" <- crossed out) , while luka reminds till of ivan prior to the "and the fiery thrill" line.

NOT TO MENTION the callback to ivans lyrics but thats a whole other thing

but i digress with the lyrics symbolism, let's talk about the note progression! similarly to the lyrics, the musical significance of the minor 7th leap is related to distance, or the concept of something/someone far away. (this is due to the minor 7th leap being almost a full octave!!)

in other media, the leap is used in a similar way, mainly underscoring other themes within the narrative. most notably the leap is used in the joy luck club opening (overarching thematics of the american dream)

sylvia maltby, a professor at the british columbia conservatory of music refers to this leap as the "hope theme." "The upward leap of a minor seventh has positive attributes; hope, joy, happiness and prosperity."

in relation to alnst, at this point in the episode theres a distinct lack of hope. till isn't singing because he believes he'll be saved, he's singing because it's a necessity. because it's guaranteed he'll be shot if he stops. and he's tried that before.

imo, since these leaps happen earlier in the round, they serve more as foreshadowing for his literal leap of faith and hope. haha depressing

"but it's only 3 notes! how important could they be?" well. according to richard wagner, a notable composer (and another source maltby cited), the minor 7th leap not only represents hope but the love of a woman. woww wonder where that shows up

mizi is both a faraway concept and loved. prior to till seeing her, he believed she was dead. she was physically gone, forever, and even before her alleged death, she was a deified and treated like an angel. till himself didn't even know mizi well, but despite this, he wanted to protect her.

as i mentioned before, this leitmotif foreshadows till's actions, chiefly his leap into hope. throughout the round he was broken down and constantly in a state of guilt, stress, and regret. of course the appearance of mizi would blast him with hope, she was supposed to be dead. till believed he would die alone, knowing he's only on stage because another died for him.

but then mizi shows up, a beacon that carries hopes and dreams. of unadulterated love. he reaches out, and-

did i ever mention how the next note is left musically unresolved?

how about the ending lullaby never hitting the last note?

[morganadelacour]

The thing that really gets me about Natsby is that neither of them realised that they were in love with eachother. Nick was too busy trying to be straight and dating Jordan while Gatsby was obviously too busy pursuing Daisy because he had irrevocably connected her to his grand vision of himself. If Nick had accepted his homosexuality and if Gatsby had accepted that Daisy wasn't essential to his vision and that visions can change they could have possibly been happy together. To me, that's the real tragedy in The Great Gatsby.

[nothinggold13]

This is canon, btw.

[myokk]

My writing/reading question of the day:

Do you prefer present tense or past tense? Or something entirely different like future tense? For writing AND reading🫶

The more I write (I wish I realized how fun it was before this year😭😭😭) the more I realize I like to play around with language & tense choice can have such a profound impact on how your writing comes across & even how I feel as I’m writing. With my oneshots I’ve been playing around with only present tense & my main fic is past tense (but present during the flashbacks - idk don’t ask it just felt right😆).

Or does nobody else think about tense and I’m just alone in this😆😆😆 LANGUAGE IS JUST SO COOL !!!!

[more-than-tender-curiosity]

The funniest part about having (unfortunately) picked jay to carry around in my pocket all the time is finding out fitz didn’t actually give a shit about him. Tom was his favorite. Tom was his favorite.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

The quote at the very beginning of Reverse 1999 (spoilers for the Great Gatsby by Scot Fitzgerald i guess)

Speculation

I haven't seen anyone talk about this quote, I don't blame anyone since the text appears very briefly in which Vertin starts speaking, but I think the quote should be taken into consideration for the game to introduced by this quote + the fact that Fitzgerald's novels are referenced twice in game (the fore mentioned quote and Chapter Two)

The quote:

"It eluded us the but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster stretch our arms out farther .... And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past"

This is the final line in the Great Gatsby published in 1925 as the penultimate novel by Fitzgerald, the final being Tender is the Night (I haven't read yet but probably should later heh).

This describes the tragedy of Gatsby's dream, an effort to reclaim the past and his love Daisy Buchanan that ultimately ends in his death. The line can be interpreted as either the inevitability of the past coming back or the futility of obtaining your dreams because of obstacles or the "current" (for Gatsby this is his social class and the hedonism of the Jazz Age/ 1920s).

So... Reverse 1999 introduces us with this quote and notably we hear Vertin say "No, it is not, the storm is coming" almost as a response to the quote.

This is again speculation but it sounds like the quote here sets up the narrative themes of the game, the concept of being trapped or doomed by your own past is made into a literal (physical?) entity of the storm - actively stealing away the future away from 1999. It sets up how Vertin stands in opposition to the Storm and seeks to find the truth and return to the year 1999.

I may explore this further but the game narratively deals with themes of being defined the trapped by your past (Forget Me Not, Manus Vindicate) vs moving forward to the future (Druvis, Vertin, etc) which can be seen in very chapter and event story so far.

It should be noted that the Great Gatsby is tragedy, if this is implying that Vertin's goal is ultimately doomed to fail it is too early to make concrete answers (but 100% we all on the pain train with no breaks and orange snacks).

In short the quote could be establishing Reverse 1999's theme of attempting to reclaim/ go back to the past vs moving forward to the future.

(Wow this is long)

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

young and beautiful always made a trillion more sense from a natsby perspective. in my opinion.

[spectroscopic-gayety]

Being in the gravity falls fandom rn is realizing I’m the only person in the world who enjoyed reading the Great Gatsby in school.

The prose is so much fun? Fitzgerald just casually makes up his own phrases for expressive clarity and it’s so good.

The main annoyance for most people (best part for me) is how obnoxiously formal the pov guy is for the whole book. Part of the joy of the book is how he describes “not so polite” situations without losing his formality.

Examples:

“…beside her stood a tall, red haired young lady from a famous chorus, engaged in songs. She had drunk a quantity of champagne and during the course of her song she had decided ineptly that everything was very very sad-…” pg. 56

Translation: Singer got smashed and started bawling suddenly.

“She looked at me and laughed pointlessly. Then she flounced over to the dog, kissed it with ecstasy and swept into the kitchen, implying that a dozen chefs awaited her orders there.” pg. 36

Translation: no translation needed this lady is drunk but also based about this dog.

“…and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.” pg. 49

Translation: Spectroscopic gayety is a term he made up to describe a party created by the generationally wealthy to be so obnoxious and fun that it insults the new rich.

The whole book is written like this and it’s just a blast to read. The symbolism is really good too, but despite what your English teacher says, you don’t need to understand the symbolism to enjoy the plot.

[cheesy-bagels]

reading great gatsby in english class, time to be so so normal about this book

[lesbiansandco]

My opinions on The Great Gatsby characters compared to Bill and especially young Ford

Gatsby and Bill are copies of each other, no doubt about it. A lot of people, myself included, have put Ford into the role of Daisy. However, Daisy and Ford are only alike in the sense that they are the object of Gatsby's/Bill's devotion. I think Ford is really a lot more like Nick.

Bill and Gatsby both build magnificent lives for themselves out of dirt and pine after lovers they will never get back (The comparison between Gatsby and Bill deserves its own long post, but this is mainly about Ford). Gatsby pines after Daisy, and Bill pines after Ford, but that's the only thing Daisy and Ford have in common, is their role in the story. And even then, Ford plays parts of Nick's role as well.

Perhaps most obviously, Nick and Ford are both writers. Nick narrates the fateful summer he knew Gatsby, and Ford writes the Journals, narrating his life and experiences in both Gravity Falls and the multiverse.

Nick claims to be one of the few honest person he's ever known, but his writing is littered with bias towards people he admires, namely Gatsby. He admires Gatsby in a way that causes Nick to write long and poetically about him, leaving less room for other characters that are arguably just as important (notably, leaving out many details about his supposed relationship with Jordan). There is also reasonable evidence that Nick's writing about Gatsby has queer undertones.

Who mirrors this? Ford. Pre-betrayal, he writes about Bill much more favorably than his good friend Fiddleford or his brother Stanley. Ford clearly admires Bill, calling him his "Muse," and Ford even takes it a step further from admiration and worships Bill like a god. Fiddleford and Stanley are definitely important characters to the story - Fiddleford leaves his wife and son to help Ford with the portal, and Ford hasn't seen Stanley in years while Stanley wishes to reconnect - yet Ford chooses to focus on Bill's impact in his life in his writing. Very similarly to Nick, there is reasonable evidence of queer undertones in Ford's writing about Bill.

Nick (and the rest of New York) sees Gatsby as a mysterious entity, with a surely fascinating past that has to be guessed at and puzzled together. Ford also sees Bill as a mysterious entity, an anomaly that has come to inspire him in his work. Ford can't help but be curious about his muse and the divine insight Bill gives him.

Nick is drawn in by the mystery that is Gatsby himself, and Gatsby feeds him fantastic lies on their car ride up to New York for lunch with Wolfshiem. Bill lies to Ford about being a "Muse" and makes extravagant claims to earn Ford's trust and build up his ego.

Nick only learned the truth about Gatsby after everything came crashing down the day they all decided to go into the city. Ford only started to learn the truth about Bill when Bill's true plans for the portal were revealed.

I think there's more than sufficient evidence that Ford is the character that represents Nick in every aspect except for his one parallel to Daisy. And there really is only one parallel between them; they both have a crazy, devoted, blinded-by-desire ex-lover who can't seem to let it go. In every other way, they are different.

Daisy is careless and overly emotional; she romanticizes the past and can't help but worry about the future. She only wants what she thinks is the best for those she cares about (one good example being her daughter. She wants her daughter to be foolish and happy in a world where Daisy is a pessimist after everything she's seen and done). Meanwhile, Ford takes time to plan things out and is generally very stoic. He doesn't like to think about the past and would rather manifest a glorious future for himself. And while he cares about who he loves deep down, on the surface he can come across as cold and uncaring - towards his assistant who suffered a lot of trauma during the time it took to build the portal, to his brother who he only reached out to for a favor and not to reconnect after many years - which makes him seem very selfish (which he can be).

Daisy is trapped in a romantic relationship with a her husband, and while she still has some feelings for Gatsby, she doesn't wish to be in a relationship or run away with him. On the other hand, Ford isn't tried down to any romantic relationship, and he doesn't seem to have any feelings for Bill post-betrayal.

That's all. I know this got long, but with all of this comparison, it makes sense to me to view Ford as a very Nick-like character rather than Daisy. And of course, Bill is the magnificent Gatsby.

[i-cant-think-of-a-name-today]

it’s that stupid FUCKING triangle again, he’s ruining my life