The Great Gatsby New Millenium Style
Keith Patterson recently created an infographic that explores how the 1920's world of Jay Gatsby stacks up against the rich and famous today -- specifically the rich and famous who are playing the roles of the Roaring Twenties uberwealthy characters in the recently released Great Gatsby movie directed by Baz Luhrmann.
Click here to view the full-size original over at Electric.com.
According to Patterson, "Fitzgerald's young artist, writer and multi-talented friends inspired his classic novel about one of America's most indulgent periods." How do you think the nouveau riche of the new millenium compare to those at the beginning of the 20th century? How do you think our hip-hop, movie star, reality TV megalomaniacs compare to the characters of The Great Gatsby?
How do books reflect culture? If you wrote an updated version of The Great Gatsby where would you set your book and how would you define your characters?
According to Patterson, "Fitzgerald's young artist, writer and multi-talented friends inspired his classic novel about one of America's most indulgent periods." How do you think the nouveau riche of the new millenium compare to those at the beginning of the 20th century? How do you think our hip-hop, movie star, reality TV megalomaniacs compare to the characters of The Great Gatsby?
How do books reflect culture? If you wrote an updated version of The Great Gatsby where would you set your book and how would you define your characters?
Hip-Hop artists are more likely to be compared to those characters in The Great Gatsby because of their lavish lifestyles. If i were to Rewrite and updated version of The Great Gatsby, I would not change a thing. I actually saw The new updated movie recently and thought it reflected the book very well.
ReplyDeleteI would say that the Great Gatsby characters most resemble people that live in high-class areas such as Beverly Hills. People that live there live lavishly, expensivley and have parties like Mr. Gatsby for no reason. More specifically, the chacters ars similar to the women from "The Beverly Hills Housewives" or the house wives from Orange County. Books reflect culture, because whatever may be happening at the time in society are expressed by authors in the books they write. The only difference is that they have different characters but it is the same plot and story line that occurs in real life scenarios. Therefore, If I were to rewrite the Great Gatsby I would set my book in the Orange County/ Beverly Hills area. My characters would live in huge homes, shop all the time, wear fancy gauty jewlery and be snobby. They would not care about world conflicts or about the environment, basically they would be self-centered and eccentric.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell Gothem. Nick Carraway is secretly spiderman.
ReplyDeleteI think the nouveau riche of the new millennium compared to the beginning of the 20th century is different in few ways. First of all today, money is much more abundant while in the 20's the amount of money was worth much more than it is today. The blog had comparisons of the actors incomes (or worth) and the actual characters they played incomes. The amounts were vastly different.Of course there some comparisons such as, the parties, drinking and festivities that have not changed throughout the years. I think the rich and famous differ greatly from those in the Great Gatsby. Firstly, the rich and famous today think that acting bad makes them look cooler while in the 20's that was not always the case. It seems to me that in the 20's the rich and famous were nice and today famous people do not always have the best reputations. I think books reflect culture immensely. It depends on the writer and the time era ,but books are a way of describing what we see on a daily basis. From high school hallways to the deep jungles of another continent, books are a great way of reflecting any type of culture. If I were to write an updated version of the Great Gatsby I would set the story in Beverly Hills because it is a very rich income area. I would define my characters as anyone whose worth is over 3 million dollars and whoever owns more than one home in some exotic location.
ReplyDeleteI think the nouveau riche of the new millennium is far less impressive than that of the roaring 20's. Not only was money valued higher, but prohibition created a lust for alcohol that probably made partying then way more worth it than now. Fashion was also evolving and really reaching it's peak in that time, adding to the overall decorum of the era. Without social media and the internet, people were more focused at event happening rather than being confined to their mobile devices for entertainment. I think the new millennium has a lot of privliages, things are much easier for us now than they were in the 20's.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Gatsby is a reflection of our current culture as well as the roaring 20's in that the the extravagance and indifference of the filthy rich mirror each other. If an updated version were needed it would be set in Hollywood celebrity houses. The characters would be Hollywood elite and socialites and would mirror the film in most respects except the date.
ReplyDeleteThe Great Gatsby is concurrent to our culture now. Both time periods have their poor and their rich. Jay Gatsby is the books version of our Tom Brady"s and Tom Cruises of the world. Then we have Mertyl and her husband, who in reality are the working class people that we have today, the ones who work hard and break their backs everyday. Our millennium has more to work with than the 1920s but we still have to break our backs now like we did back in the 1920s
ReplyDeleteOur generation’s men and women who have achieved substantial economic wealth—our nouveau riche—are not entirely different from those wealthy individuals from the 1920’s. Our generation’s wealthy elite earn about the same salaries as those who lived eighty decades ago, and the living costs are just as lavish. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents to the literary milieu of his time, a group of individuals from the “Roaring 20’s” who had achieved economic prosperity, some through hard work, and others through a quasi-spiritual bloodline blessing which introduced them to commodity as a reward for poise and physical beauty. In our day, it is not Fitzgerald, or any other author, who introduces the reality of wealth and lavish lifestyles to a small group of readers, but it is the media which has taken a vociferous stance for its own “great Gatsby’s”—for its actors—and has introduced them to the world indiscriminately. This goes to show that fiction novels are as fictitious as they are historical and prophetic. If The Great Gatsby were to be re-written (which, it should not), the setting and its characters would undoubtedly be found in southern California, or in the Big Apple, and the content of the book would not deviate much from what Fitzgerald concocted in his literary gift to the world.
ReplyDeleteNot much as changed in the last 90 years. People who are sucessful are still flaunting there money, having extravagant parties, drinking, etc. Monogomy is still very hard to come by especially in this day in age, it seems that commitment and marriage are non-existent. One of the few difference that I noticed between the two eras is that people form the 20's would spend their money on things of value, and high quality. Now people are spending money just because they have it. When you think of the 20's you think of sophistication and innovation, now its just a matter if who has more money and can flash their money better.
ReplyDeleteNot much as changed in the last 90 years. People who are sucessful are still flaunting there money, having extravagant parties, drinking, etc. Monogomy is still very hard to come by especially in this day in age, it seems that commitment and marriage are non-existent. One of the few difference that I noticed between the two eras is that people form the 20's would spend their money on things of value, and high quality. Now people are spending money just because they have it. When you think of the 20's you think of sophistication and innovation, now its just a matter if who has more money and can flash their money better.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think our hip-hop, movie star, reality TV megalomaniacs compare to the characters of The Great Gatsby?
ReplyDeleteHow do books reflect culture? If you wrote an updated version of The Great Gatsby where would you set your book and how would you define your charact
Today there are still those of old and new money who continue to make more money. Back then however, the new money people had to educate themselves and work hard to get what they had (like how Gatsby went to Harvard, traveled the world for knowledge, and invested in stocks). Today you can see youtube stars say something absolutely stupid, and if it gets views it also gets bucks (For example: "Charlie bit my finger", a baby simply bites a kid's finger and overnight, they are millionaires).
Books reflect our culture, by showing the satirical flaws as well as the accomplishments of a society in order to teach a lesson or promote a message of change. If I were to write an updated version of the Great Gatsby, I would make the main character a youtube star, who cannot decide on what to spend his amount of infinite money on. But later he meets a side character who works a minimum wage job and struggles to even make enough to afford basic necessities (irony).
The great thing about the Great Gatsby is that it is almost ageless in the story telling. The core concepts of the book would not change. Some detail would change like instead of hiding alcohol from the cops, it'd be marijuana, and Gatsby wouldn't be white he'd probably be a man of color. New money would be people who make their profits from vines or youtube videos. Old school money would still be inherited, but it could also be from rising up in a company because that is "actual" work. The language may change, as well.
ReplyDeleteBooks reflect culture by changing names but keeping to the story. Like the book Of Mice and Men, an accurate depiction of the time. So, accurate it got banned from libraries for a time. Books tend to show us the fault in society unapologetic. The biggest difference is that the book has to make sense to sell while our society sells in not making sense.
I believe that the characters in the Great Gatsby were meant to hyperbolize characters that we already see in movies and tv. Fitzgerald recognized these timeless starlet archtypes, as they still appear today. There are actress's that come from wealth, only fall flat with any actual talent. Or the struggling, yet talented actor trying to make in way in the world. There are many different reasons why people became actors, many reasonably compared to the hip hop and movie stars of today. The Great Gatsby reflected the indulgent culture of the time.And although many don't live like that today, stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire probably aren't worrying that much about their rent or taxes. This privilege to be carefree with expenditure hasn't changed that drastically since the 20's. If I could rewrite a current version of the great gatsby, I would set it in LA. And the cast of characters would be upper middle class tech boom millennials. The Lavish parties of the 20's would turn into exclusive bars, and the characters wouldn't change much. Because even thought the passage of time, the starlet archetype carries certain personality traits that don't discriminate.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Kuberski
ReplyDeleteEngl 1001-10
Clearly there are many similarities then and now, the way these figures spend their money as well as the lifestyle they lead. The main difference I see currently is that the rich people of that time lived in an era where the economy was much more impressive than it is now. This would be the rich people get richer, obviously. The figures of today, however, have very similar spending habits as well as lavish lifestyles. Books reflect our culture because they are written from one perspective of a society that already exists. Writers take from what they know and incorporate it in their books. The books are often hypothetical, however, they are situations that could happen in real life because they reflect our current society. If the Great Gatsby were written now, Gatsby would be most likely a CEO of some software company or a music producer, areas where a lot of money is made. Daisy would probably be a model, actress, singer, etc. She would most likely have a self-made career to represent those of today. Nick would probably be a free-lancing author, working in some sort of high-paying forum.