Der groe Gatsby: Roman Neu bersetzt von Lutz-W. Wolff | 
#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView
Thanks for the tag @RaeLovesToRead !
1. I think the further in time you move from a particular decade or generation, the easier it is to reduce it to a set of characteristics, events, or images that come to be emblematic of the whole. In that sense, you can absolutely have a book that defines the popular view of a generation.
2. The Great Gatsby defines the Jazz Age and the 1920s.
RaeLovesToRead I think maybe I'm taking this question more literally than everyone else. My relatives were mostly working down the mines in the 1920s, and to them The Great Gatsby would be about as alien as you can get. So I think literature can capture a particular time and place. But I don't think one book could capture all the voices of a particular decade or generation. 1d
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead I think that's sort of the point. My relatives were either subsistence farmers or worked on the railroads. But when you talk about the 1920s, especially in America, you think of The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age, and this book is one of the reasons. It "defined" the decade. That doesn't mean it's a comprehensive catalog of life at that time, just that it's emblematic of what people think of when they picture "the 1920s". 1d
TheSpineView Well said @The_Penniless_Author Thanks for playing! 1d
RaeLovesToRead Hmm... I guess my point would be is that the way we SHOULD define the 1920s. Emblematic, sure. Truly representational, definitely not. Maybe we are using the word "define" to mean different things. 1d
20 likes4 comments
pick
so-so
