F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
“I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. 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.”― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great GatsbyReading the Great Gatsby for the first or 12th time means a delicious immersion in a shimmering world of beauty, wealth and excitement…but there is corruption beneath the surface and even our honest (non-judgemental?)narrator learns anew the dangerous seduction of beautiful people. To read this work deeply, we must sit close enough to the narrator to be in his world while allowing ourselves the space necessary to gauge the critical perception of the writer. Of course, the work has a particular poetic language that feeds the pleasure of the read- that is also what you will appreciate with the close reading and critical consideration that is the meat of the Salon. The Salon studies underscore the recognition that “reading, while a private activity, is deeply enriched by the act of sharing with fellow readers” ( J. Ingram).
SALON DETAILS
- Five- hour, one -meeting intensive study
- Recommended edition: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Wisehouse Classics; 2016 ed.; ISBN-13: 978-9176371213
The Salon intensive is a five-hour gulp…we take in the whole book at once and the resulting discussion tends to be energetic. To participate in this Salon, you will want to read the book in preparation.
