Frustrated by Great Gatsby

Yesterday I decided to commit myself to daily reading to improve my verbal ability.
My first choice novel was Great Gatsby.
I set out to read for an hour, but ridiculously, I spent the whole hour reading only two pages.
The main reason of this would be that there were some weird phrases and sentences I could not understand.
Even though I understand all the vocabularies and grammar making up the phrases and sentences, I can't figure out what they mean.

Those that troubled me are the following:
1. "...the victim of not a few veteran bores"
2. "The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secrect griefs of wild, unknown men."
3. "Most of the confidences were unsought-frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marrered by obvious suppresions."
4. "...after bosting this way of my tolerance"
5."...it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men"

I considered just skipping those weirdos and moving on, but I got worried that if I don't get those phrases, then I'll have trouble understanding what comes later in the novel. My assumption is that every single thing, no matter how small, builds up to the overall story, and that missing any part of them will adversly affect understanding the novel. What should I do to be able to understand those kinds of weird phrases? I'm guessing the novel has more of those phrases as the novel proceeds. What should I do? I'm really frustrated.

Thanks for reading.

Hi,

First, if you are finding this novel frustrating, I would advise selecting another one to read instead. This is because getting frustrated usually does very little to enhance anyone's verbal ability, and because there are plenty of other books out there that you can use to hone your skills.

Now, for what it's worth, and without any further information, here's my take on the listed passages...

1. By reserving all judgment, he has made it very easy for people to talk to him, including extremely long-winded and boring people ("veteran bores") that he would rather not listen to at all.

2. The people who are most likely to sense that he is not only normal but also won't pass judgment on them are people with abnormal minds, who feel that they can tell him everything. Because he has access to so much information on how people feel (even when he doesn't know them in any but the most superficial sense) his friends assume that he must be a politician who is able to get any information he wants out of people after the briefest of contacts.

3. He doesn't want people revealing the most intimate details of their lives to him, and has tried everything he can think of to stop people from doing this. He finds listening to these things boring, since this information always seems to be described in the same terms.

4. He has spent the opening paragraphs bragging about how tolerant he is of listening to very boring people.

5. The story of Gatsby and the effect of his life on others makes every other story he has ever heard seem as though it were hardly worth listening to.

Don't sweat it man. I had to read Gatsby twice to truly capture the hidden genious of the novel. It is definitely a tough read, so why torture yourself, unless you truly feel the need to absorb a great American novel simply to regale your friends?

JP, thanks so much for your interpretations.
Now that I read your interpretations, most of them makes sense. But I still don't get #2 and #5. I think I'm dumb. :'(
Why didn't Fitzgerald just say things simply? Why did he say everything so complicatedly? To frustrate readers or show off his verbal skill? I don't get why he wrote the way he did.

How do you figure out the meaning of those phrases and sentences easily and quickly? Do you have to be born with this ability, or can you nurture it? I really want to be a wizard in reading and understanding difficult things like this.


Mr. Richter, before I attempted Gatsby, I didn't know it would be this tough. I'm only half-way through Chapter 1. I will keep reading up to Chapter 3, and if I'm even more lost after that, then I'll switch to another, less-perplexing novel. Thanks for your suggestion by the way.

<<JP, thanks so much for your interpretations.
Now that I read your interpretations, most of them makes sense. But I still don't get #2 and #5. I think I'm dumb. :'(

Why didn't Fitzgerald just say things simply? Why did he say everything so complicatedly? To frustrate readers or show off his verbal skill? I don't get why he wrote the way he did.

How do you figure out the meaning of those phrases and sentences easily and quickly? Do you have to be born with this ability, or can you nurture it? I really want to be a wizard in reading and understanding difficult things like this.>>

All right, I'll try again with #2 and #5...

#2-The people who are the quickest to perceive that they can tell him anything are the ones with abnormal minds, and they tend to be the ones with the most to tell him. Because he has access to so much information about other people, his friends think he must be a politician able to charm information out of anyone, even people he doesn't know very well.

#5-The story of Gatsby, and how Gatsby's life affected others, is making him even less interested in hearing the details of anyone else's life, whether the stories are sad or happy.

Maybe you could expand on what is bothering you about these passages. It might make them easier to discuss.

Why didn't he say things simply? Because to him, the best way to express what he wanted to say was to use more complex language. I doubt his intent was either to show off or to frustrate anyone; I would say that he simply assumed that whoever read the book would understand.

I'm not quite sure how to answer your last question. To me, it is intuitive and comes naturally, but I am a native speaker.

The only thing I can immediately think of is that it might be useful to keep some form of reading journal to write about what you just read. For example, it might include your initial response to the writing, possible interpretations, and perhaps a list of any sentences that seemed either exceptionally clear or especially perplexing, and why they seemed that way. Then ask questions about the things that just aren't making sense, just like now. Any responses could also be included. This is just a thought; if it seems like it wouldn't work at all, feel free to ignore it.

In any event, these things take time and extensive experience with the English language; you are not dumb.

JP, I'll try what you suggested. Thanks for all your commentaries and advice.

ysk1,

If you're interested in any further discussion, my e-mail address is zzirconia@hotmail.com