The Great Gatsby

work · in 16 videos (2009–2013)

Mentions by year: 2009: 1 · 2010: 3 · 2011: 11 · 2013: 1

Threads

Blurbing Book Club 2011: group reading of The Great Gatsby — stage, milestone, 2011–2011
John asks Nerdfighters to read The Great Gatsby with him for the Blurbing Book Club (summer 2011) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2011–2011
John asks readers whether The Great Gatsby's portrait of wealth and the American dream is true, to discuss on Your Pants (2011) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2011–2011

What the videos say

2009

2009-02-11 · Paper Towns Tastic Question Tuesday — Paper Towns shares many of The Great Gatsby's questions, above all whether there is such a thing as the self-made man; John then jokingly declines the 'modern-day Gatsby' label. (00:03:05)
2009-02-11 · Paper Towns Tastic Question Tuesday — Alternate titles: 'More Light Than Heat', from a line in Hamlet, and 'Under the Red, the White, and the Blue', one of Fitzgerald's alternate titles for Gatsby. (00:03:27)

2010

2010-01-11 · Ecosystem Services 101 with Hank — Hank contrasts his Master of Science with John's 'froofy' Bachelor of Arts: he can teach John scientific explanation, John can teach him that the Gatsby billboard was God or something. (00:00:00)
2010-01-14 · Froghoppin' with Gatsby — John corrects Hank: in The Great Gatsby the metaphor for God is not the billboard but the disembodied, bespectacled eyes depicted on it. (00:00:29)
2010-01-14 · Froghoppin' with Gatsby — John points out that key plot events happen beneath the giant bespectacled eyes, and at the end only Nick, Gatsby's father and Owl Eyes, a character with big eyes and glasses, are there for Gatsby. (00:01:30)
2010-01-14 · Froghoppin' with Gatsby — Eyes only see, John notes, and in the novel's context that matters: life isn't fair, bad people often escape what's coming to them, and wealth and social standing improve those chances. (00:01:59)

2011

2011-05-18 · The Education Continuum WARNER CHILCOTTED — John tells math people that imaginary stories can be as engaging as imaginary numbers, and literature people that set theory is as beautiful as The Great Gatsby. (00:03:23)
2011-06-06 · Men Running on Tanks and the Truth about Book Editors — John notes that The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises were edited by the same man. (00:03:29)
2011-06-15 · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) — Since summer in Nerdfighteria means SPF 30 and classic American literature, John announces The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the new Nerdfighter Blurbing Book Club book. (00:01:22)
2011-06-15 · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) — John points to a purchase link (outside the US the book is probably public domain and free) and asks readers, first-time or returning, even past haters, to read Gatsby with him. (00:01:32)
2011-06-15 · Question Tuesday! Paula Deen Riding Me (and critical reading) — What matters is critical reading as a concrete way into hard questions — e.g. nature's indifference, expressed by white in Moby-Dick, lest you end up like Ahab — using story to think about our lives; that's how they'll read Gatsby. (00:03:15)
2011-06-29 · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS — John starts talking about The Great Gatsby today, but only its epigraph and first sentence, so no spoilers. (00:02:13)
2011-06-29 · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS — Gatsby's famous epigraph is attributed to the poet Thomas Parke D'Invilliers, who, John points out, doesn't exist. (00:02:13)
2011-06-29 · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS — The epigraph matters because it is made up and twice says 'gold': Gatsby is essentially a book about things that are made up and/or golden. (00:02:43)
2011-06-29 · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS — Readers should also watch anyone wearing glasses and the green light, John's favourite metaphor in any book, except maybe Holden's hunting hat. (00:02:43)
2011-06-29 · THE FAULT IN OUR STARS — John's assignment: read the first six chapters of Gatsby within two weeks from today, and there will be a quiz. (00:03:12)
2011-09-07 · The Great Gatsby: Living the Dream in the Valley of Ashes — John calls the last chapter one of the saddest passages in American literature, showing muddied innocence and guilt and the unfairness of a society supposedly founded on equality. (00:05:54)
2011-09-12 · Adorable Baby and Insufficient Cartography — John agrees with everything Hank said about memory, 9/11 and terror, but says that, like any map, Hank's video was distorted and insufficient; so was John's Gatsby video last week, though the 9/11 map is more emotionally charged. (00:01:32)
…and 10 more statements in 2011 (most important shown)

2013

2013-05-17 · GIFs, JIFs, Whip Pans, Trivia, and BATMAN! — Hank says the best answers to this week's Question Tuesday came from Nerdfighteria, citing viewer answers on invisibility, the Great Gatsby film and ferrets. (00:02:57)