Gatsby

My concern about the new Gatsby movie is that it's going to be treated like a lament of the excesses of the 1920s, as if Fitzgerald knew about the Crash and isn't it clear that this was going to happen? The book came out in 1925, four years before Black
Monday, so it was popular even when most investors (including the public) were expecting the party to continue indefinitely.

As a Reactive - like Gatsby and Nick and Fitzgerald - I see "The Great Gatsby" as symbolic of aspiration, of trying your best and beyond, of wanting to be more. It's a tragedy that he fails, not that he tries.

And he doesn't fail because he's bad - no shock, that, him being a Reactive and all - but because he's taking on Society. Some positive aspects of society oppose him: Daisy is married with a child and it's Not Okay - but it's the negative that gets in his way and ultimately kills him. It's the upper-class jerk Daisy is married to who's seeing the lady and leads people to think Gatsby was driving, and who is unapologetic about the lie and its consequences.