the white palaces of fashionable East Egg

 

Tomorrow the copyright on The Great Gatsby expires, according to an article in The Washington Post.

The novel was published in 1925.  So -- copyrights last -- 96 years...?

     (Instead of "96 Tears" it's "96 Years"...)

     "Finally set loose in the public domain," the article says, the novel can now be copied, embroidered upon, modified, etc.

     "We'll see new illustrated editions, scholarly editions, cheap knockoff editions and editions with introductions by John Grisham and others.  Fitzgerald's lines could make their way into more songs, plays and operas."

     Remakes can be set in the 1420s, the 1720s and outer space.

     When I read that part, I thought:

Vampire Gatsby.

Zombie Gatsby.

     Author Michael Farris Smith is publishing Nick, a prequel to The Great Gatsby.  It tells about the years leading up to Nick Carraway's move to Long Island.

One Wash. Post Reader Comment questioned the trajectory of the Nick plot--Nick Carraway wouldn't be the same man and would therefore not react to the East Egg characters he meets in the same way....  The Commenter wrote,

------------ I am reminded of the great analysis (by Harold Bloom?) of Shakespeare's facility of building plays around diverse characters:  If you swapped Hamlet and Othello there would be no plays.  Hamlet would instantly see through Iago, and Othello would, without hesitation or internal debate, kill Claudius. -------------------

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     When the article says, "Fitzgerald's lines could make their way into more songs, plays and operas"--I thought of Bob Dylan's song, "Summer Days" on the Love and Theft album:

...She's looking into my eyes, she's holding my hand

She's looking into my eyes, she's holding my hand

She says, "You can't repeat the past."  I say, "You can't?

What do you mean, you can't? Of course you can."...

     That part about repeating the past is from The Great Gatsby.  I wonder if Dylan had to get permission from Scribner's and the Fitzgerald literary estate, to use that line...?

     See, there is always work for authors, songwriters, journalists, and lawyers....

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