I'm genuinely intrigued by this, so much so that I need to reread Gatsby again, along with Thompson and Savage's work. I'm imagining someone doing another Gatsby film, with a black lead who is light-skinned enough to play a passing black man, and the very idea of it driving the usual suspects to frothing madness.
Exactly! Some people have put this on as a play following this theory but each time they cast a dark-skinned black man as Gatsby. The whole point is that there's somebody sitting at Tom's table who he doesn't know is black. Contact me if you ever want to discuss!
Wow! I’ve read and re-read this book a few times. I feel like I need to go back for another read through this lens. This was a fascinating article about a great piece of literature.
Wow. Makes me wonder if Fitzgerald touched on race--as it were--elsewhere.
I suppose if he'd been more obvious about Gatsby's real identity (assuming this take has it right) the book would have changed entirely, been a totally different book?
And he would have been run out of town. There's a whole discussion between him and Maxwell Perkins that can be interpreted about it being impractical to be more clear about the racial theme.
Wow! Thank you, sir! I don’t remember the last time I received such a completely new interpretation of an “American Classic”. It was the “ . . . on the white steps an obscene word, scrawled . . . ” for me. I am excited to reread it after 47yrs (I still have my copy from HS).
This is a revelation. I’ve often felt that I was missing something about Gatsby—that the jewel box of a novel had one remaining hidden drawer I couldn’t decipher how to open. It was in plain sight.
And Fitzgerald was the kind of the writer who was crushed to be misunderstood, but too proud to defend himself against the misunderstanding.
Thank you for this. I’m going back to the texts, the annotated texts, the correspondences, and to the bios. And I’m looking forward to reading Thompson and Savage. Thanks, again.
It definitely never occurred to me gatsby might be Black, but the thing that was off to me about that book was that it was hiding something. None of the discussions or analysis around it satisfied me, so I settled on it was another book by a white man that we were told was an important classic even though it was wholly unsatisfying in delivering important insight. But if this was what he had in mind, it's quite brilliant and rises above the sort of boring soap opera into something more broadly meaningful for class, race and all the lies america tells itself in order to never grow up.
It would be hard for me as I didn’t read it until AFTER the film with Gatsby portrayed by Redford.
I’m not sure it got to be wholly dismissed (?) it’s one of the most important novels ever written , but I could name 200-500.
Are dickens classics like Oliver Twist to be dismissed?
I really like this theory - never thought of it this way , but think of it more as is he writing this , or just walking us up to the ?
I’d add that I now think anyone of any race,
Culture can end up this way - see Belinda character at end up White Lotus season 3. A fascinating turn … or the female hotel owner from Thailand , Sritala. Wow -
And I just had this weird feeling about end of the movie gatsby with him floating in the pool and Careless Tom and Daisy (sritala and hubby) driving away , while the white couple
Left in the water dead.
Too much jumbled up , but will go back a reread . This one of the few novels I repeatedly think about , having read decades ago.
Fascinating. This is such an important take on The Great Gatsby, and demonstrates much more of the friction and oppression that shapes America than the reading I was given in school.
I'm reminded here of the fuss that came out of the (excellent) Andrea Arnold 2011 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, casting a young black man as Heathcliff - it made far more sense to the story - and even in the text, there are explicit references to H being dark - a street child - possibly a gypsy and almost inevitably mixed race - but the diehard fans just couldn't accept it.
This is exactly right. By the way, Wuthering heights in The Great Gatsby are the same story and it is the same idea. Someone in England wrote a piece called A Regular Black and it is about this theory of Heathcliff being black. I've looked into it and I've started to write it. I think it's true.
I really enjoyed reading this and it makes me want to go back through the book and see it with new eyes and they definitely need to make an updated film with a Black man to play Gatsby! I have not seen the one with DiCaprio but I would watch a new one if they updated Gatsby!
I'm genuinely intrigued by this, so much so that I need to reread Gatsby again, along with Thompson and Savage's work. I'm imagining someone doing another Gatsby film, with a black lead who is light-skinned enough to play a passing black man, and the very idea of it driving the usual suspects to frothing madness.
Yesssss! Make the movie!
Exactly! Some people have put this on as a play following this theory but each time they cast a dark-skinned black man as Gatsby. The whole point is that there's somebody sitting at Tom's table who he doesn't know is black. Contact me if you ever want to discuss!
Not only is this Gatsby a quintessentially American story, the book itself having "passed" for so long is somehow even more quintessentially American.
Wow! I’ve read and re-read this book a few times. I feel like I need to go back for another read through this lens. This was a fascinating article about a great piece of literature.
This took my breath away at the possibility of it all....
Definitely need to revisit the text.
People often have that point of view after reading my book, but you probably won't find it jumping out at you still.
Wow. Makes me wonder if Fitzgerald touched on race--as it were--elsewhere.
I suppose if he'd been more obvious about Gatsby's real identity (assuming this take has it right) the book would have changed entirely, been a totally different book?
Does Percival Everett know about this?
And he would have been run out of town. There's a whole discussion between him and Maxwell Perkins that can be interpreted about it being impractical to be more clear about the racial theme.
Wow! Thank you, sir! I don’t remember the last time I received such a completely new interpretation of an “American Classic”. It was the “ . . . on the white steps an obscene word, scrawled . . . ” for me. I am excited to reread it after 47yrs (I still have my copy from HS).
This is a revelation. I’ve often felt that I was missing something about Gatsby—that the jewel box of a novel had one remaining hidden drawer I couldn’t decipher how to open. It was in plain sight.
And Fitzgerald was the kind of the writer who was crushed to be misunderstood, but too proud to defend himself against the misunderstanding.
Thank you for this. I’m going back to the texts, the annotated texts, the correspondences, and to the bios. And I’m looking forward to reading Thompson and Savage. Thanks, again.
His comment about missing something is the most frequent comment I get after people read my book. The theory helps the novel make sense.
It definitely never occurred to me gatsby might be Black, but the thing that was off to me about that book was that it was hiding something. None of the discussions or analysis around it satisfied me, so I settled on it was another book by a white man that we were told was an important classic even though it was wholly unsatisfying in delivering important insight. But if this was what he had in mind, it's quite brilliant and rises above the sort of boring soap opera into something more broadly meaningful for class, race and all the lies america tells itself in order to never grow up.
It would be hard for me as I didn’t read it until AFTER the film with Gatsby portrayed by Redford.
I’m not sure it got to be wholly dismissed (?) it’s one of the most important novels ever written , but I could name 200-500.
Are dickens classics like Oliver Twist to be dismissed?
I really like this theory - never thought of it this way , but think of it more as is he writing this , or just walking us up to the ?
I’d add that I now think anyone of any race,
Culture can end up this way - see Belinda character at end up White Lotus season 3. A fascinating turn … or the female hotel owner from Thailand , Sritala. Wow -
And I just had this weird feeling about end of the movie gatsby with him floating in the pool and Careless Tom and Daisy (sritala and hubby) driving away , while the white couple
Left in the water dead.
Too much jumbled up , but will go back a reread . This one of the few novels I repeatedly think about , having read decades ago.
Same
So interesting. My son just read Gatsby in HS, I’m going to run this by him.
Wow, that just blew my mind. Thank you for this article.
Fascinating. This is such an important take on The Great Gatsby, and demonstrates much more of the friction and oppression that shapes America than the reading I was given in school.
Incredible piece. Simply Incredible.
This is the book that hooked me on reading the classics. And now you have blown my mind. Like everyone else here, I have to reread this.
Them saying “ridiculous” reminds me of my dad saying “there’s no way Thomas Jefferson was the father. It was Randolph.”
I'm reminded here of the fuss that came out of the (excellent) Andrea Arnold 2011 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, casting a young black man as Heathcliff - it made far more sense to the story - and even in the text, there are explicit references to H being dark - a street child - possibly a gypsy and almost inevitably mixed race - but the diehard fans just couldn't accept it.
This is exactly right. By the way, Wuthering heights in The Great Gatsby are the same story and it is the same idea. Someone in England wrote a piece called A Regular Black and it is about this theory of Heathcliff being black. I've looked into it and I've started to write it. I think it's true.
I really enjoyed reading this and it makes me want to go back through the book and see it with new eyes and they definitely need to make an updated film with a Black man to play Gatsby! I have not seen the one with DiCaprio but I would watch a new one if they updated Gatsby!
I have tried to read "Gatsby" before and couldn't get into it.
I think perhaps this new knowledge of its real character might very well open the story to me.
Thanks! 🙏🏼