About this episode Join two passionate critics every week as they dive deep into beloved classic films, albums, and books, asking the crucial question: Does It Still Hold Up? With insightful arguments and a healthy dose of good-natured disagreement, this podcast offers a fresh, engaging perspective on the cultural touchstones that shaped us. Tune in to reconsider your favorite masterpieces and discover new ways to appreciate their enduring legacy, all while enjoying a truly captivating intellectual sparring match.
0:00 Is The Great Gatsby the timeless American novel, or is it just a beautifully written story about rich, sad people we can't relate to anymore?0:10 Okay, right to it.0:11 I feel like this is the final boss of our whole "Does It Still Hold Up?" series we kicked off in our last episode.0:19 It really is.0:20 It's the one everyone has an opinion on, usually because they were forced to read it in tenth grade and, uh, never quite recovered.0:29 And that’s the thing!0:31 People resent it for being assigned reading, but they miss how sharp it still is.0:37 I mean, the critique of the American Dream?0:40 The idea that you can just invent a new self with enough money and the right clothes?0:46 That is the story of social media.0:48 Oh, come on.0:49 No, really!0:50 Jay Gatsby is the original influencer.0:53 He curated this entire persona, this brand, based on nothing but aspiration.0:58 The original influencer...1:00 I like that.1:01 But is he, though?1:02 Influencers today are selling a lifestyle that, theoretically, you can buy into.1:08 Gatsby’s selling a fantasy to win over ONE person.1:12 It’s incredibly specific and, honestly, a little pathetic.1:16 But the performance is the same!1:18 The curated parties, the perfect shirts, the mysterious backstory...1:23 it's all a front.1:24 And Nick watches him, both admiring the spectacle and seeing the absolute hollowness underneath.1:31 That tension is MORE relevant now, not less.1:34 We're all Nick Carraway scrolling through our feeds.1:38 Okay, I see the parallel with performance.1:41 I do.1:41 But my core issue is with the characters themselves.1:45 They're all so...1:46 thin.1:47 They're symbols, not people.1:49 Daisy is just this idea of a woman, Tom is brute force, and Gatsby himself is more of a concept than a character.1:57 I just don't CARE about any of them.1:59 You don't have to like them to find them compelling!2:03 That's the point.2:04 Fitzgerald isn't asking for your sympathy.2:07 He's putting a very specific, very toxic slice of the upper class under a microscope.2:13 But it's SUCH a specific slice!2:16 It's a critique of a dream that was only ever available to a tiny, wealthy, white sliver of the population.2:23 Does that really speak to the "American Dream" in the twenty-first century?2:29 For most people, the dream isn't about, you know, a mansion on the Long Island Sound, it's about affording healthcare.2:37 Alright, I'll give you that one.2:39 The scope of their problems is absolutely drenched in privilege.2:44 Right?2:44 It's hard to feel the tragedy of a man who owns a hydroplane.2:49 But the emotions are universal.2:51 The longing for a past that never really existed?2:55 The disillusionment when you finally get the thing you wanted and it feels empty?3:00 That's not about class, that's human.3:03 Is it, though?3:04 Or is it just a specific kind of ennui that comes from having too much money and no real problems?3:11 Nick Carraway is our way in, and he's so passive.3:15 He just stands by and judges everyone without ever really DOING anything.3:20 Why should we trust this guy's perspective?3:23 Because he’s us!3:24 He’s the person who is both drawn to the glamour and repulsed by the moral decay.3:30 He’s implicated.3:31 He’s not a hero, he’s a witness.3:33 That’s what makes the narration so brilliant and so modern.3:38 He's complicit.3:39 Huh.3:39 Complicit.3:40 I hadn’t really thought of it that way.3:42 I always just saw him as...3:44 well, weak.3:45 But maybe you're right, maybe that's the point of him.3:49 I think so.3:50 And maybe that's the real tension here.3:53 It's not about whether Gatsby is a "good book" in a vacuum.3:57 It's about what we expect from a "Great American Novel" today.4:01 Yeah, you're right.4:03 We want it to be two things at once, don't we?4:06 We want it to be a perfect, beautiful time capsule of the 1920s...4:11 ...and we also want it to be a perfect moral and social mirror for today.4:16 With characters who are relatable and have the right opinions about everything.4:22 And it just can't be both.4:24 So the question isn't really "does it hold up?" It's more like...4:28 "what parts of it do we choose to hold up?" The gorgeous prose and the critique of empty wealth?4:35 Or do we focus on the dated gender roles and the narrowness of its world?4:40 Exactly.4:41 And the fact that we're still arguing about it, almost a hundred years later, probably means it's doing something right.
