The+Just-Okay+Gatsby



The Just-Okay Gatsby is a parody, just written for a little bit of fun, or as Nick might say, on a lark.

I wanted to make the Just-Okay Gatsby not as great as the Great Gatsby, but at the same time a bit better. In class, we mostly agreed that the Great Gatsby was not "great" in every sense of the word. What was actually great about him was his dream; the man was corrupt, and every bit as decadent as the other inhabitants of the Eggs. So I wanted to give the Just-Okay Gatsby a not only a real dream, but also a good fortune, in the sense that his money was gotten through honest means. Also, since one of the Great Gatsby's shortcomings was in his view of time ("'Can't repeat the past?' he cried incredulously. 'Why of course you can!'"), I wrote it so that the Just-Okay Gatsby had more... respect for the value and power of time.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. __The Great Gatsby__. New York: Scribner, 2004.