ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MY ONLY POST ABOUT THE GREAT GATSBY FILM

The odds of me going to see The Great Gatsby are not very high, mainly because – quite honestly – I’m not a big fan of the book. I read it in high school, then I re-read it in college to see what I missed the first time, and generally I found it okay but too soap-opera-ish. 

But I did get the point of the book (at least the second time round) – namely, that it was a critique of the American Dream, the hypocrisy of high society, and what people will do to attain access to it and fit in.

So naturally, there is a trend of throwing Great Gatsby parties that basically miss the whole point of the book and celebrate the money-drenched decadence of Gatsby’s weekend soirees, according to The Atlantic:

Gatsby parties can be found all over town. They are staples of spring on many Ivy League campuses and a frequent theme of galas in Manhattan. Just the other day, vacation rental startup Airbnb sent out invitations to a "Gatsby-inspired soiree" at a multi-million-dollar home on Long Island, seemingly oblivious to the novel's undertones.

And then of course you have the tie-in clothing promotions from Prada and Brooks Brothers and other designer brands. We went to Macau over the weekend, and inside the galleria of the Venetian I saw a few designer boutiques promoting the film and the fact that their clothing appears in it.

Even the hosiery gets a plug.



“You too can look like Jay Gatsby or a close personal friend of his.”

Granted, a lot of that is the usual film cash-in stuff. Also, regardless of how many wealthy people have (1) actually read the book and (2) got the point of it, they’re going to throw or attend lavish parties regardless of the theme, so why not based on TGG? In fact, in a way they kind of make Fitzgerald’s point for him. Throwing trendy parties that miss the point of the literature they're emulating is a very Gatsby thing to do. It’s like throwing a lavish Les Miserables theme party where everyone dresses like poor people – only not quite as tasteless.

(See also: hobo parties that make looking homeless and poor kinda jaunty fun. Like pirates!)

Still, the Atlantic piece does point out one other thing: part of the problem is that even high schools tend to teach TGG as a metaphor for striving for success, by way of the symbolism of the green light:

At Boston Latin School, however, the green light is just good old American ambition. "My green light is Harvard," a 14-year-old Chinese-American immigrant told a reporter visiting her English class. On the wall of the classroom, students had written their own "green lights" (pdf) on a large piece of green construction paper in the shape of a lightbulb: Pediatric neurosurgeon ... Earn a black belt ... Make it to junior year... Become incredibly rich.

Res ipsa loquitur.

All this useless beauty,

This is dF

LISTEN TO IT #74: I’LL BUY YOU OUT

Sometimes I find the damnedest things via record store listening stations.

Like the new album from Taiwanese singer/songwriter Joanna Wang.

I’d never heard of her, and as her new album was on the same listening station as a couple of bossanova chillout-lounge comps, I hadn’t planned on checking it out. But then I got bored, and took a closer look, and I saw the title of the album: Galaxy Crisis: The Strangest Midnight Broadcast.

So I put on the headphones.

And was charmed.

Ostensibly it’s a concept album with videogames as the central theme, with some tracks serving as soundtracks for videogames that don’t exist. (There’s even a couple of theme songs to non-existent TV shows that, if they did exist, would probably have been produced by Gerry Anderson in the 70s). And Wang – who writes and sings in English – has a very playful approach to her lyrics.

There’s a lot of reference points here, from Regina Spector, They Might Be Giants and Sparks to The Bird and The Bee, Pizzicato 5 and Barry Gray – not to mention old 8-bit videogame music. If any of the above appeals to you, this is worth checking out.

Listen.

Jingle jangle in my pocket,

This is dF