the great gatsby soundtrack;
the newly released deluxe version with bonus tracks!
(listen)
sad young cardinals: Jay Gatsby was black: an explanation
So let me explain this theory for those of you who haven’t heard it before already.
The Great Gatsby is a story of a man that makes his fortune bootlegging and throws countless magnificent parties all in hopes of attracting the attention of his old flame Daisy.
But it’s really a story about insurmountable class barriers. Daisy will never be with Gatsby, no matter how much she claims to love him. No matter how hard Gatsby tries, he will always be stuck on West Egg, only able to admire the ‘green light’ of upper class american romanticism from afar.
Themes of insurmountable class barriers permeate the entire novel right from some of the famous opening lines:
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
And so here’s the theory:
Jay Gatsby was black, passing for white (“High yellow”)
Lower class vs upper class. Old money vs new money. East Egg vs West Egg. White vs black. Don’t believe me?
- Early in the novel, Daisy’s beau Tom goes on a full fledged rant about the oncoming threat of the rise of the black race in society
- Another reference to race is made when Nick and Gatsby pass by a limo driven by a white chauffeur with “three modish negroes”
- Numerous references are made to Gatsby’s notably dark skintone in comparison to Daisy’s lighter skintone
- “I would have accepted without question the information that Gatsby sprang from the swamps of Louisiana or from the lower East Side of New York. That was comprehensible. But young men didn’t— at least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn’t— drift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound.”
Not only was the insurmountable barrier between him and Daisy one of class and upbringing, but also one of race.
What we take for granted as Gatsby’s whiteness is actually a omission of detail rather than a specific indicator that he was white.
From the article Was Gatsby Black?
Thompson adds, “When I ask people what basis there is for Gatsby being white, I get silence. I have asked students, colleagues. They don’t know. They cannot give me any evidence to back up the speculation. And why haven’t people made this argument so far?”
Of course as with any theory or reading of a classic text, there’s room for disagreement:
Fitzgerald scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli has one answer. “Because it’s mishigas! If Fitzgerald wanted to write about blacks, it wouldn’t have taken 75 years to figure it out. If that’s what Fitzgerald wanted, he would have made it perfectly clear in April 1925. Great works of literature are not fodder for guessing games. This kind of thing is bad for literature, bad for Fitzgerald, bad for ‘The Great Gatsby’ and bad for students who get exposed to this kind of guessing game.”
But why shouldn’t we play a guessing game with it? We don’t have Fitzgerald around to verify any of these details so why not have a bit of fun with the text? It’s a very modern reading of the text and it makes it not only more relatable but more heartbreaking.
Everyone has their own reasons why they can’t be with their own Daisy.
Why shouldn’t Gatsby be black? And why can’t he really be with Daisy?
In this discussion about whether or not Beethoven was black, the point is made:
Another tight question along these lines: Was Jay Gatsby black? Again, it’s probably not literally the case (as Fitzgerald intended it) –- but what’s much more interesting is everyone’s utter inability to take it seriously as a legitimate reading of the text, which it is.
People Magazine’s review on ‘The Great Gatsby’
Did these people even read the book? I mean seriously, now…
(via bennywhistleswhileheworks)
OMFG….
(via konstantinova-petrova-dobreva)
Dot dot dot.
(via alexandraerin)
Jay Gatsby seriously needs to check his privilege.I got 8 of 13 right
A collection of “Great Gatsby” editions offers an illuminating cross section of 83 years of book design.
New ‘Great Gatsby’ Trailer with Beyonce and Andre 3000’s “Back to Black”
PARTY AT GATSBY’S: HITS FROM THE EARLY 1920SThe Great Gatsby is set in the summer of 1922, a year when popular culture was defined by music. I took the liberty of collecting all the songs alluded to in the novel, as well a few hits from that era, into a little collection. Think of it as a soundtrack, of sorts. You might be surprised to find how relatively low-key some of the music is, as well as the notable absence of some Jazz Age hits- remember, 1922 and before only! (I’m a nerd and spent a few hours cross-referencing.) Hope you all like it!
Tracklist:
- Sheik of Araby- Harry B. Smith; Francis Wheeler; Ted Snyder
- Hot Lips- Paul Whiteman
- Ain’t We Got Fun- Gus Kahn; Raymond B. Egan; Richard Whiting
- Love Nest- Otto Harbach; Louis A. Hirsch
- Swanee- Al Jolson
- Limehouse Blues- Douglas Furber; Philip Braham
- Whispering- Paul Whiteman
- Avalon- Al Jolson
- Three O’Clock in the Morning- Paul Whiteman
