Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Green Light


Well, it's been almost forever since I last posted. I blame it all on Facebook, my latest addiction. If you haven't tried facebook yet, you should. It's big fun and a great way to keep in touch.
Okay, enough of that. I just finished reading the The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I hadn't read it since high school, well...honestly I probably didn't really read it then. I more than likely read the first 10 pages or so and then asked my friends about it and fudged my way through any tests or quizes because I was a horrible, repeat HORRIBLE, student.
So, as I was saying, I just finshed reading The Great Gatsby, and I must say, what a depressing book! I'm sure ol' Nick thought to himself, on more than one occasion, "I am completely surrounded by idiots." Not that I didn't enjoy the book. I LOVED the book....the prose is absolutely lyrical. (Yes, I realize that is an oxymoron of sorts...that's why I wrote it.) The facade of fabulous reminds me alot of today's culture. I'm sure there are volumes one could write about this novel, but for me, it's all summed up in the green light. I'm a bit embarrassed to talk about the green light because when I first read it, I found it to be very poignant, and the poignancy came so unexpectantly, I could almost hear Gatsby suck in his breath as he realized what he has done in telling Daisy about the light. I read the sentences over and over again...
"...His count of enchanted objects had diminshed by one...."

It's comparable to when a magician reveals a secret. The wonder of it all is gone and you immediately regret asking how he did it, because while you have this new knowledge, you can never go back to the wonder of not knowing. And so, should you have left well enough alone?
Anyway.... so here I am, pondering Gatsby's thoughts, along with Nick...did he realize what he just did? Did he loose something or gain something? Shouldn't he feel victorious since he has Daisy with him? Did he realize his illusion was dissolving? On and on and on I thought about that dumb green light. And I kept thinking about it as things progressed unfortunately along..."Green light...he lost the green light!" I tried to forget the green light because I was beginning to feel a bit neurotic about it (and stupid) since the author didn't mention it whenever I thought "green light!" So, as you can imagine, when it was mentioned on the last page, I felt just a little giddy! Told ya....green light.

Read it.

2 comments:

Elysa said...

Hmmmm...and I wonder what scooter-riding, cheese-sneaking, vintage-wearing, homeschool teenager inspired the reading of this book? ;)

I'm just sayin'.

Rhonda Jeanne said...

Who could it be??? ;-)