# Question about "The Great Gatsby" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246 "2012-04-19T04:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Shig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shig)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/1 "2012-04-19T04:16:04Z")
I have never read the book and really know nothing about it. My mom brought it up the other day and when I said the only thing I know (or think I know) about it, she didn’t know what I was talking about. I’m hoping someone who knows the story can help me out. I’ve read a femise synopsis of it, and can’t find anything that matches what I was thinking about it. Is there a guy in the story that has a large library of books that he owns simply to impress people or to appear educated, or something along those lines? Thanks in advance! ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/2 "2012-04-19T04:41:22Z")
That sounds familiar yes, though I can’t remember if it was books or not. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/3 "2012-04-19T04:50:11Z")
It’s Gatsby’s library. A character dubbed Owl Eyes because of his glasses is in there looking at books when another comes in and he marvels that the books are actually real, and not made out of cardboard just to impress people. It’s actually a funny bit of dialog: > [@](#): > > A stout, middle-aged man, with enormous owl-eyed spectacles, was sitting somewhat drunk on the edge of a great table, staring with unsteady concentration at the shelves of books. As we entered he wheeled excitedly around and examined Jordan from head to foot. > > “What do you think?” he demanded impetuously. > > "About what?’ > > He waved his hand toward the book-shelves. > > "About that. As a matter of fact you needn’t bother to ascertain. I ascertained. They’re real. > > “The books?” > > He nodded. > > “Absolutely real - have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of face, they’re absolutely real. Pages and - Here! Lemme show you.” > > Taking our scepticism for granted, he rushed to the book-cases and returned with Volume One of the Stoddard Lectures. > > “See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too - didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?” > > He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse. Belasco was a playwright and a bit of a perfectionist who might have used real books on the set of a play instead of fake props. To “cut the pages” means that the book has been opened. So, he is saying that Gatsby is so good at crafting his appearance that he even got real books to put in the library, and he didn’t waste time opening them because they’re just props. Owl Eyes is regarded as one of the few people who really understands Gatsby and that everything he does is just for show. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/4 "2012-04-19T10:42:30Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > To “cut the pages” means that the book has been opened. No, it means it has been read, or, at least, opened to every page. Time was, books were sometimes bound with concertina folded paper, so that each pair of pages was just folded at the outer edge, rather than truly separated. To read such a book you had to literally cut every other pair of pages apart along the fold, with a knife. It tended to leave a bit of a ragged edge though. (A few books today are sold with the outer edges of the pages deliberately made ragged, to simulate the appearance of old fashioned books.) ---
**Author:** ![glaeken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@glaeken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glaeken)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/5 "2012-04-19T10:55:37Z")
The character of Gatsby is pretty much all about doing things to impress people. It’s sort of what he does. The library is just one element of that. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/6 "2012-04-19T12:06:19Z")
Yep, The GG is full of such imagery. I remember the part where Daisy is impressed with Gatsby’s collection of english-made shirts- so many that he could not possibly wear them. It wasn’t just to impress people-Gatsby NEEDED abundance to prove to himself that he wasn’t a poor nobody. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/7 "2012-04-19T15:12:48Z")
You ought to read the book; I remember it as being a fairly quick read, and very approachable. In fact, it got me onto a Fitzgerald kick, and I read everything of his I could find (which isn’t much; he didn’t write many novels). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/8 "2012-04-19T15:17:09Z")
The original question having been answered, I’ll chip in that it’s one of the very few classics popular with English teachers that I didn’t mind reading. It wasn’t exactly _Catch-22_, but it was a million miles from _Ethan Frome._ ---
**Author:** ![Shig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Shig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shig)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/9 "2012-04-19T20:03:27Z")
Been trying to remember where I had heard this info since last night when I started this thread. FINALLY it just came to me! Any fellow fans of “The Wire” might remember Deangelo talking about it in prison. The part I’m talking about starts at 0:40 [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M2AUYYKfxk) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/10 "2012-04-19T20:57:39Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > No, it means it has been read, or, at least, opened to every page. Time was, books were sometimes bound with concertina folded paper, so that each pair of pages was just folded at the outer edge, rather than truly separated. To read such a book you had to literally cut every other pair of pages apart along the fold, with a knife. It tended to leave a bit of a ragged edge though. (A few books today are sold with the outer edges of the pages deliberately made ragged, to simulate the appearance of old fashioned books.) Books were cut by the manufacturer, but if the pages weren’t aligned exactly right it would result in some pages still folded rather than separated. So if you opened a book and found that some of the pages were still stuck together, you knew that no one had opened every page of the book. Here’s a thread on the subject: [Should I Cut the Pages in my Old Book? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=464877) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-the-great-gatsby/619246/11 "2012-04-19T21:35:14Z")
Book question? Cafe Society. Moved from GQ. **samclem** , Moderator