[ SECRET POST #4558 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4558 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[El Orfanato]


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03.
[Stephen Merchant, English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian and actor but NOT the guy who did A Room With a View and Howard's End]


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04.
[Horatio Hornblower]


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05.
[Good Omens]


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06.
[Queer Eye]


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07.
[Gotham]









Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #653.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/nlrJaZu.png

Transcript by OP

[fscom]

[Image: The Wordsworth Classics cover for "The Great Gatsby". It's a painting of a woman sitting at a table in a garden during the evening, the sea and some lights off in the distance.]

Text: I love The Great Gatsby for its plot and Fitzgerald's way with words...but I really hate the cover the book is most famous for.

I am very aware that this is petty. But the "classic" cover is just way too abstract for me.

Pictured: My edition of the book, which I like much better.

Bonus secret: Why is there no green on the "classic" cover? Of all the colors to leave out, they picked THAT one?!

[(Anonymous)]

F. Scott Fitzgerald picked out the cover himself...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-f-scott-fitzgerald-judged-gatsby-by-its-cover-61925763/

[(Anonymous)]

So? Doesn't mean OP has to like it.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

Did anon say the op has to like it?

It's interesting info.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I had no idea. Wow. That explains why it's stuck around so long. Now I kind of feel bad for not liking it, though my feeling about it still stands.

[tabaqui]

It's kind of hilarious how that links to another article of people hating on and complaining about the movie tie-in cover of the newest edition. Any book like that with a movie attached gets a cover with a movie picture! Brideshead Revisited, Out of Africa, even Rambo - movie-picture covers to lure in movie fans.

[(Anonymous)]

I always get confused between the classic cover and the cover for Yann Martel's novel "Self". Both are blue with eyes floating on them.

[(Anonymous)]

I never liked that cover either, op. The eyes and mouth floating in the sky look slightly creepy.

[(Anonymous)]

Is that not the point?

[(Anonymous)]

I doubt it. Why would the publisher want a creepy looking cover for something that isn't a horror novel? Even if that was their intended point, so what?

[(Anonymous)]

It's not a horror novel but it's still a pretty decent thematic fit, I feel like? The sort of malaise etc that permeates the book lines up fairly well.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't find "creepy" to be a good descriptor of the book's themes.

[(Anonymous)]

You don't think that's part of the reaction that Nick has, and that Fitzgerald wants us to share at least to some extent? Obviously not horror-movie creepy, but slightly creepy?

[(Anonymous)]

It isn't horror like The Exorcist but it is a horror in the idea of how fucked up everyone is. More of an adult horror.

[(Anonymous)]

IA with the fucked upness of everything, but I don't think "horror creepy face = existential horror" was their goal.

[(Anonymous)]

I love the original cover. A sad, heavily made-up woman alone in a dark sky settling menacingly over a dying carnival. Perfect! Tells me exactly what the story is about. And the typeface signals the era.

Your cover looks like it's about a woman from definitely-not-the-1920s who likes to sit around peacefully and happily and read. I don't get the relevance.

(Disclaimer that yes, obviously you're allowed to like/dislike anything as you choose because apparently any contrary opinion around here gets cries of "but people are allowed to-!" *eyeroll*)

[(Anonymous)]

(Disclaimer that yes, obviously you're allowed to like/dislike anything as you choose because apparently any contrary opinion around here gets cries of "but people are allowed to-!" *eyeroll*)

ikr? It's so tiresome.

[(Anonymous)]

I love the original cover. A sad, heavily made-up woman alone in a dark sky settling menacingly over a dying carnival. Perfect! Tells me exactly what the story is about. And the typeface signals the era.

Well put! I'm only so-so on the novel itself, but I've always loved the cover. I think it's gorgeous, and wonderfully evocative of the themes and elements present in the story, without being the least bit prosaic.

[(Anonymous)]

Nothing about your preferred cover seems relevant to The Great Gatsby, especially not the woman who doesn't look to be from the 1910s, "20s or "30s.

Of course, I also think the original cover is ugly AF - I just don't think yours is an improvement.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not sure what your cover of what appears to be a serene Edwardian woman lounging on a veranda has to do with The Great Gatsby. It's kind of pretty in a generic impressionist sort of way though.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Admittedly, I like the cover more for the look than for any thematic connection to the story (though personally, I always thought it was meant to be tied in to the gulf between East and West Egg, with our focus being on the wealth of East Egg). I've always had a soft spot for impressionism, so that's probably partly why I like it.

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t like The Great Gatsby, but that’s a nice cover.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not that fond of Gatsby, but I do think that the original cover makes more sense than the one you put here, which strikes me as one of those typical cover of almost any classic literature that basically signifies "this novel could be about anything really, okay, we promise there is no manly war inside, and there might be feelings, but it's all very respectable, are we good?" .

[(Anonymous)]

That cover is absolutely horrible though. Each to their own I guess.