Terre Haute Tribune Star Big Read columns

Gary Daily : ‘Time’ is most frequently used ‘excuse word’ for not reading GO HERE

Stephanie Salter : At age 82, ‘Gatsby’ still rocks GO HERE

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair"

A film version of Fitzgerald's 1920 short story "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" will be shown Tuesday, Feb. 27, 6:30 pm, at the Indiana State University Library. In this clip, Marjorie is instructing Bernice on how to be a "modern" young woman--especially in terms of attracting men. The story in print has a darker edge than the film version. The film opens up the story and includes more laughs. Both indicate how society and gender roles were changing in the 1920s. In interesting ways, story and film raise the question: How really different are things today as compared to the Roaring Twenties Fitzgerald depicted in his art and his life?

Read the story, see the movie. And submit comments and questions here.

Terre Haute Tribune Star column on The Big Read

Terre Haute Tribune Star --Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007

Gary Daily : "The Big Read Comes to Vigo County--and not a day too soon"

Go Here for column

20s Charleston Compilation

Checking out this video, I’m wondering if someone who once danced the Charleston ever forgets how to kick out and shimmy about the dance floor in this ‘20s style of wild abandon. And in this age of slithering, worm-mating moves under flashing strobe lights, does dancing the Charleston constitute an adventure or is it closer to being a manic version of the latest exercise workout video?

Once, and in The Great Gatsby, this dance craze seemed to make a statement about life and society. Post your views on what that statement might have been. Or, more particularly in relation to the novel, your reading of the descriptions and significance of the Gatsby parties.

For those of you in Terre Haute and Vigo County, Charleston dancing lessons will be available for the forgetful and the adventurous at “The Big Party for the Big Read.” This party is slated for Friday, March 2. The party is free but reservations are required. This is a hot ticket so call Community Services, Vigo County Public Library (232-1113) now and get your name on the guest list.

Mobile Flapper

Twenties Tube of the Week

It's hard for me to imagine Daisy on a twenties style cell phone. Maybe you can. Any thoughts?

The women in Fitzgerald's writings are often characterized as independent and determined. Do these qualities come through in The Great Gatsby?

READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY Here

Welcome to READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY

This online space supports Vigo County’s Big Read program (go here) and many across the country (go here). Read Gatsby–Discuss Gatsby provides a place on the internet for the online discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The Big Read is designed to encourage people to read this great American novel and then discuss Fitzgerald’s deep, thought-provoking look into American society. However you found your way here, you are a reader and you are welcome.

Please pass the word along on Read Gatsby--Discuss Gatsby. The more readers who participate the livelier the discussion and more we all learn.

What READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY Offers You

Big Read programs in Vigo County for the month of March 2007 are extensive and well worth attending. (Go here for calendar of events and scheduled book discussions.) Recognizing that many readers of The Great Gatsby will not be able to participate in these outstanding programs, Read Gatsby--Discuss Gatsby offers those readers the opportunity to comment and raise questions about the novel on this blog. You can contribute to the discussion right here.

For those of you who do attend scheduled Big Read events, how many times have you walked out of a program or meeting with a buzz in your head, saying to yourself: Why didn’t I say this . . . ? Why didn’t I ask this . . .? Through READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY, you can ask the questions and make the comments you never quite managed to formulate and contribute at these events. This is your chance to say what you really meant and wanted to say; ask what wasn’t asked and what was needed to be asked.

What to expect on READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY

Great books expand our imaginations and deepen our personal experiences–we should all revel in this.

All points of view on every question pertaining to the novel and its author are welcome here. Not everyone will read Gatsby and be bowled over. Lovers of the book need to hear other’s reasons for a luke warm or cold reception to Fitzgerald’s novel. And it is expected (and hoped) that discussions and disagreements will become passionate and heated but always courteous and civil.

I (and guest contributors) will raise questions and post comments on the The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald that you may want to respond to. But the best questions and comments will be yours and the responses they elicit in others. Jump in whenever and as often as you are moved to do so.

Once again, welcome. You’ve read The Great Gatsby, but it’s a good guess that the last page in this book is not really the last page. On Read Gatsby–Discuss Gatsby you can continue the conversation with Gatsby and Fitzgerald that's going on in your mind. And this blog will not be the last page either. Great literature doesn’t allow for easy closure. Let’s just call Read Gatsby–Discuss Gatsby a next page.--Gary W. Daily

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[As Jay Gatsby might put it: "OK, sport, here's a brief guide on how to post comments if you're not familiar with blog apparatus." Look for this line on the blog:

"Posted by Blog Contact: gdaily@indstate.edu at 5:07 PM 0 comments"

To post a question or a comment on Read Gatsby–Discuss Gatsby you need only click on the term "comments." This will take you to a page that includes a "Leave your comment" box. Type in your ideas and send them off to the community and the rest of the world. If you have questions or a problem, email me at:
gdaily@indstate.edu ]

Why not send your first post now? Here are a few questions you might respond to:

--Are you reading The Great Gatsby for the first time? What are some of your impressions of
the novel?

--Are you re-reading The Great Gatsby? If you are re-reading this book is it as you remember it? What has changed, what remains unchanged?

--Or, better yet, post your own question or comment.

Do You Think Jay Gatsby Is Number One?

READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY Here

Welcome to READ GATSBY--DISCUSS GATSBY

This online space supports Vigo County’s Big Read program (go here) and many across the country (go here). Read Gatsby–Discuss Gatsby provides a place on the internet for the online discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. However you found your way here, you are a reader and you are welcome.
Please pass the word along on Read Gatsby--Discuss Gatsby. The more readers who participate the livelier the discussion and more we all learn.
_______________________

100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900
From Book magazine, March/April 2002

1 - Jay Gatsby, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
2 - Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 1951
3 - Humbert Humbert, Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
4 - Leopold Bloom, Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922
5 - Rabbit Angstrom, Rabbit, Run, John Updike, 1960
6 - Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902
7 - Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960
8 - Molly Bloom, Ulysses, James Joyce, 1922
9 - Stephen Dedalus, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce, 1916
10 - Lily Bart, The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton, 1905
&
100 - Augie March, The Adventures of Augie March, Saul Bellow 1953

Fitzgerald was always writing up lists and Americans today are crazy for lists. Is it that lists–“Antique Automobiles” to “Zoo Animals, Favorites”–provide us with a sense of control or direction? Each day we shovel great quantities of information into our consciousness and too often end up with something resembling a pile of gravel. Beset by stony facts without context, flayling about in a sandbox of statistics, we gratefully reach for the help offered by a nicely ordered list of Bests, Worsts, Must Sees and the ever popular, Most Populars. What a relief to turn the trouble of sorting and ordering those mountains of datum so easily plucked from magazines and websites over to authority-- X, Y and Z-dot-com.

The above list, 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900, can serve as Example A.

But think a little about 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900. (I’ve mercifully left out 11 to 99 -- full list here.) It tells us very little of interest and importance unless you have read or plan to read at least a few of these books. Otherwise, it’s like waving a 100 Best New Zealand Wines list in front of me. I have neither the nose, the taste buds nor the all important experience to gravely nod, yes, #76 on the list of 100 Kiwi vintages is clearly superior to #77.

As part of The Big Read, as a reader of The Great Gatsby, you have the nose, the taste and now the experience to respond to the following questions:

Does Jay Gatsby deserve the "I'm Number One" spot on this Best Characters list? Why or why not? Cast a vote on this and let other readers know what you think.
--Gary W. Daily