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Comment by Avicebron | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure I would necessarily agree with "strange torture" more like "sore muscles from exercising mental muscles". Yes I remember hating The Great Gatsby when I was 14 and having to read it critically in school, I sure didn't have a lot context, but I remember having to do it, and I can look back after years of secondary and post secondary schooling and appreciate the exercise.

I think we should be much denser and more rigorous with school material in the middle/high schoolers, at least relative to what my experience in public school USA was, but that's sort of a separate discussion.

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Gatsby is one of those books I hated in high school. A few years ago I read it again and confirmed it’s a terrible book filled with shallow characters living boring lives doing nothing of interest to me.

My opinion of 1984 also dropped when I reread it. Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, Canticle for Leibowitz, The Chrysalids, and Lost Horizon are all books I liked more when I reread them as an adult.

English teachers aren't really there to provide you books you'll "like" or else they'd just be assigning the latest teen melodrama. They're instructing you on the different ways the English language has been used throughout its history and give you practice in analyzing it.

The Great Gatsby has themes about the American Dream, wealth, social class, love, ambition, and the gap between appearance and reality. Symbolism is easily teachable in the book, as well. And it's short, with relatively simple language and simple characters, which makes it a practical book for students.

I’m certain the vapidity of the characters in Gatsby is entirely the point.

Vapid characters aren’t a problem if they are doing something interesting or if there is non-trivial conflict or mystery or confusion or tension or drama of any sort or anything that leads to some kind of meaningful change in a character. Gatsby's death might have counted if Fitzgerald hadn't telegraphed it from so far away that it became a non-event.

You know how kids’ books for beginning readers are mostly about stringing together words that are easy to read and make a sensible sentence? See Jane run. Run, Jane, run! why is Jane running? Because she wants to. That’s how Gatsby read to me with more complex words and sentences.

I don’t even mind books where nothing much happens (Iyashikei) if the setting is novel. But Gatsby was predictable and dull for me with cardboard characters living passive lives.

The other book that lots of people seem to love that I've never been able to finish is Moby Dick. I don't dislike it but he pace is a bit slow for me.

The closest analogy I can think of to The Great Gatsby is American Psycho. The whole point of it is to feel like a pretentious act played by the characters. They’re not meant to be relatable or show growth. I guess it’s one of those things that either resonates with you or doesn’t, but it still has value in “getting it.” Most people never escape their status chase and behavior loops.

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