How reading with stimuli creates a very different experience.

The act of reading is rather amorphic. Its change is dramatic based on a multitude of factors. Our there pictures to support what you’re reading? Are you reading in the magnified silence of a library, or the numbing symphony of a subway train? Are you reading along silently or reciting out loud? All these things change the way a reader perceives what they’re reading.

This week I read, watched and listened to Flash Gordon.  And boy, was I surprised by the spectrum of changes this work of literature went through. I started with some of the original comic strips drawn by Alex Raymond. It had a very 1940s SciFi feel and I kept thinking about Leigh Brackett as I read about the characters and saw/ imagined them in my head. Story wise. It was very, The Wizard of Oz.

Listening to Flash Gordon was an entirely different horse. There was voice acting, sound effects and commercials for Kellogs. I think the act of reading with pictures as opposed to listening or reading and seeing through the minds eye hinders certain types of literature but not all.  Visuals work for stories with a very branded character. Like Batman or Snoopy. It would be hard to explain them correctly without some form of visual aid. Other characters, like Kvothe or Tindwyl are captured perfectly in my head. Because that is what I’m used to doing, it is what I was forced to do.

There’s something else that goes along with this. I call it, The Movie Effect. This changes the act of reading immensely. Say you watch a movie for a book you’ve revisited throughout the years. It’s a book you’ve grown up with. The movie just came out and you go see it and it was, “meh, the book was better.” Your friend who hasn’t read the book LOVED the movie. Now they are going to go read the book. You’re used to the characters you’ve created. You’ve known them so long your way that this movie was blasphemous. Your friend however, will read it and see the stars.

These are just a couple of ways that reading with pictures or imagery or and kind of sensual stimulation is vastly different from sitting down and reading from a book. 

Is Gatsby Truly Great?

I think a literary work is like an Iceberg. What’s on the surface might be great, it might even be majestic, but when you dig deep you realize how truly marvelous it really is.

Many things can be said about The Great Gatsby. No other novel has invaded my life so profoundly. The thing is, I never would have read it unless I wasn’t forced to. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great book that oozes with character. But year after academic year teachers will add it to their curriculum. It’s a literary work because people SAY it is. People BELIEVE it is, and that’s what’s important. 

Here are a couple reasons why it’s a literary work. The Great Gatsby has a wide spectrum of characters that are all somehow related. I think the best example of this is the relationship between Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and George Wilson. At the surface, it’s a love story between a man and a woman. But when you dig deep you see the so much more than that. It’s the American Dream, It’s idealism in an abysmal time, it’s hope and love and courage —in 5 characters.

I don’t even know how to describe the mix of characters properly. I guess it’s kind of like a mixed drink. Sour, sweet and in charge of the senses.

The book was ahead of its time. It talked about the moral issues of the time. Commenting on the unabashed ostentation of the 1920s. You see this in the parties that Gatsby throws and the world he has bitten his teeth into.

This is a book that was contemporary but also timeless. The poor will always have their plight and the rich will have their emptiness and it’s up to the people of the time to do something about it. I think that’s what makes this novel great. It has a wonderful surface story but once you dig deep. You realize it’s a rather large iceberg.