September 18, 2012
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Good Eggs
"So basically this is about people who drink too much and have affairs all the time," my son said, referring to The Great Gatsby.
I snorted milk across the dinner table.
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He agreed to come to yoga today. (!!!!) He agreed to consider a trip to Indian Cave State Park to go hiking over the weekend.
"Or suggest something that is not Sit on the Porch," I said.
I'm thinking about opera season tickets and I know that he will not go with me. I will ask anyway.
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I've always thought that The Great Gatsby is about love - Gatsby's love for Daisy. Last night I started thinking about what a good marriage that Tom and Daisy Buchanan had if a good marriage is judged by couples that do things together and support each other. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
I think I will swear off yellow Rolls-Royces.
Comments (5)
Your son summed up a big chunk of great literature there.
Tiff, no kidding! I appreciate the disdain that this generation has for past generation's literature, but it scares me a bit. None of my kids have liked Cather in the Rye, for instance. I don't get that. To Kill a Mockingbird was not popular with them either. I don't get it. I blame Harry Potter. Or the Internet. Something.
We recently saw the preview for the new _Anna Karenina_ movie. I gasped when I saw the train (it looks super cool! I can't wait to see this movie.) and I could hear my teen rolling her eyes next to me. And hey, another book about people who drink too much and sleep around!
@BettyC - They'll come around. I didn't appreciate "literature" until college, at least. I only recently read Catcher in the Rye myself! But I do worry that the subtleties and angst of the human condition and emotions may not have the *flair* and appeal of dragons and demons. Now I sound like a curmudgeon, though.
my eldest daughter read Gatsby last year, and is thrilled by the trailers from the movie. middle daughter hasn't read the book but is thrilled by the handsome men in the trailer. it was also the first time i read the book, and i've gone back a few times to read it again since.
it feels like literature now isn't weaving themes into the stories, or when it does it hits you over the head with them and occasionally even allows the characters to speak the main ideas as dialogue.
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