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General: Gatsby without greatness

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2011
     
    •  
      CommentAuthorInkblot
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2011
     

    weeps

  3.  

    I’M GONNA FRICKIN’ KILL SOMETHING.

  4.  

    .....Wow. That is truly awful.

  5.  

    I’m not upset that there is a ‘junior translation’ or whatever you’d call that- I read the one for ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and many others in elementary school. Then I read the originals when I was more ready to understand them and realized how much better they were and have since never looked back.

    But if those editions are what we’re reading in school, then that’s simply ridiculous.

  6.  

    WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT

  7.  

    Wat.

    (Apparently there’s an editor’s note saying the book is intended for ESL... Ebert makes sensible comments about why that doesn’t make it much better)

    •  
      CommentAuthorThea
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2011 edited
     

    What?

    But why?

    I like Ebert’s point about just offering YA novels for ESL readers. They’ll have the lighter vocabulary, less complex sentence structure, etc, while still telling a story, instead of summarizing. You know, instead of teaching people (who may well like to read in their original language) that English just doesn’t do that sort of thing. And why The Great Gatsby anyway?

    •  
      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2011
     

    I. Words. Cannot. Find. Them.

    All I can manage is: THIS MADE ME WANT TO KICK A PUPPY!

  10.  

    I think WulfRitter just had a Face Heel Turn moment.

  11.  

    •  
      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeJul 8th 2011
     

    I think WulfRitter just had a Face Heel Turn moment.

    Pretty much. Perhaps I will one day return to being a face, but after what I have seen of the world, probably not.

    • CommentAuthorNo One
    • CommentTimeJul 8th 2011 edited
     

    I haven’t read this book before, but I’ve read enough to say this:

    UNBELIEVABLE

    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeJul 8th 2011
     

    Perhaps they think that ESL readers should be introduced to the American Dream as they are new immigrants… but I don’t think The Great Gatsby is really best introduction to that anyway.

  15.  

    Perhaps they think that ESL readers should be introduced to the American Dream as they are new immigrants… but I don’t think The Great Gatsby is really best introduction to that anyway.

    Um…what kind of a message would that be sending? :P

    • CommentAuthorSlyShy
    • CommentTimeJul 8th 2011
     

    Come to America, where you can end up depressed because you got everything you thought you wanted without reaching true happiness! Woowee!

  17.  

    But Gatsby was frontin’ with all them books.

    •  
      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeJul 9th 2011
     

    Come to America, where you can end up depressed because you got everything you thought you wanted without reaching true happiness! Woowee!

    And where the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are always watching you.

  19.  

    I love the original cover of The Great Gastby. May I just say that right now? It’s possibly my favorite book cover ever.

  20.  

    Oh yeah.

  21.  
    Um, doesn't the whole "You can't become literate by being taught illiteracy" sort of apply to ESL students as well?

    I'm just saying, I didn't get my current vocabulary by reading that shit....
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2011
     

    Emil, I think the idea is to gradually work up to complex texts, but that ESL and adult literacy students don’t want to be saddled with a bunch of preschool picture books.

  23.  

    Which they just turned The Great Gatsby into by simplifying the language. Seriously, without the language and the symbolism it brings, The Great Gatsby’s just a preschool picture book about .

    (hidden for spoilers)

    •  
      CommentAuthorWulfRitter
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2011 edited
     

    ESL and adult literacy students don’t want to be saddled with a bunch of preschool picture books.

    I completely understand that. However (and perhaps I am too sensitive), I would feel even more awkward if my classmates were reading the real Great Gatsby and I were reading the dumbed-down version. I would really rather read Hank the Cowdog than read a book for adults that has been neutered to the point of reading like a kid’s book. Again, maybe I’m too sensitive, but I can see myself walking away with the message that I’m too dumb to understand the real Great Gatsby.

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeJul 14th 2011
     

    ...OK, so I’m not the biggest Gatsby fan in the world (I recognize and appreciate that Fitzgerald had a masterful handle on the English language and that the story has important themes about society and whatnot, I just never have found it a very interesting book), but it was physically painful for me to read the “retellings”. Fitzgerald had an absolutely incredible way with language. The last line, about the boats against the current beating on and so on, it’s just so perfect, even if you have no idea what it means. It just sounds good and makes the perfect finish to the book. To cut that down to babytalk… that’s just terrible.

    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeJul 14th 2011
     

    Heh… I am insulted by the desecration of the book, but I hated the damn thing. So painfully pretentious…

    I actually hated the boat current thing :P

  27.  

    The book is kind of my favourite novel. I feel justified in screaming, and I appreciate your efforts, too.

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