Martini Musing - A Bit of Great Writing
Since blogs are (or should be) about effective and affective writing - the following is a passage that I consider one of the single greatest bits of writing in history. From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
…And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
The reader doesn’t have to know anything about Gatsby or the plot. We’ve all beat on against the current and we all have a green light in some form. Plus, if you love literature, it’s sheer joy to read such a well-crafted passage.
And - yes - Gatsby has been analyzed to death in lit classes for decades…but that doesn’t change the fact it’s wonderful writing. If you’ve not read it since high school, take another crack this weekend. I re-read the book about once a year - preferably with an ice-cold martini at hand and classic jazz playing in the background…and I get a bit teary every time.
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