Jan 7th, 2009 at 8:40 am
And So We Blogged On, Boats Against the Current, Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past
This gives me some doubts:
“Have I read The Great Gatsby?” Combs said to a London newspaper in 2001. “I am the Great Gatsby.”
Would someone who’d read The Great Gatsby say something like that? Perhaps more interesting, would acknowledging one’s Gatsby-esque status even be consistent with being Gatsby? I think it’s sort of integral to Gatsby’s character that he lacks this particular insight about his role in the scheme of things.
40 Responses to “And So We Blogged On, Boats Against the Current, Borne Back Ceaselessly into the Past”
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January 7th, 2009 at 8:48 am
“borne,” I think.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Yes, someone who had read the Great Gatsby would say something like that — if they had a sense of irony, which I fully believe that Combs does.
The point — of the article, and of Combs’ bravado — isn’t really in the equals sign between Combs and Gatsby. The point is *in* the irony and excess, in the overplaying of the connection.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Is this sort of like when Kanye West explained that he is the voice of this generation?
January 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
The next paragraph in the article actually discusses the issue of the Artist Formally Known as P. Diddy being a self-conscious Gatsby.
As far as one of points of the article itself, I will pre-empt the “Waah! White privilege!” complaints post-historical, antagonistic progressives and other complaints from rightist trolls who like to get angry about things by saying that Things White People Like really over-estimates (of course, for sarcastic purposes) the role that concerns diversity plays in white culture (I don’t want to get into a whole identity thing). The interest in diversity among liberal whites has many cultural precedents and does not necessarily preclude living one’s own life as an individual (important difference between culture and identity) according to certain patterns that are related to and developed by white people. The choice between NASCAR and extreme forms of political correctness where the primary goal of human endeavor is to reflect on more and more obscure forms of victimization (including self-consciousness about white identity), is false.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
I meant the Artist Formerly Known as Puff Daddy when I wrote the Artist Formally Knowm as P. Diddy.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:21 am
True, but a hallmark of this decade has been incognizant irony, often marked by references to The Great Gatsby that don’t betray an appreciation for its conclusion. (See, e.g., “Gastby’s Green Light Beckons a New Set of Strivers,” NYT; “Forbes to host $20K Gatsby Festivities,” Daily Princetonian.)
January 7th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I believe what he meant to say was, “Are you familiar with the term ‘Sucka M.C.’? I am a Sucka M.C.”
January 7th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Why would anyone want to actually *read* (as opposed to ‘be’) The Great Gatsby nowadays? It would be like literally breaking camels’ backs with straw.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I believe he is also the walrus as well.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:06 am
And, if he’s Gatsby, he’s naturally also the (West) Eggman.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:33 am
you can have your Gatsby’s and Eggmen, for i am The God Of Hellfire.
and i bring you… well, fire, of course. what did you expect, flowers?
January 7th, 2009 at 10:52 am
If he had been the Great Gatsby, he would be dead.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Maybe he’s confessing to be an accomplice to a hit-and-run.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
A quasi-Gatsby could, in a rare moment of clarity, realize the vanity of everything he was striving for (though obviously the O.G. never had such an epiphany), yet still be unable to give up the game. Yet, pace comment #2, nothing I have ever heard from Sean Combs, in performance or in interviews, gives the slightest inkling that he is capable of that kind of self-awareness.
Besides, rap’s Gatsby was surely Biggie Smalls, no?
January 7th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Pesto,
I concede to your eggman post.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Puff isn’t a deep thinker (though he is an underrated pop artist). Of course he could’ve read the book and not gotten it at all.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
It’s worth noting the context opf the quote. Combs didn’t come up with the comparison. Appreciative party-goers did. So the question becomes, I suppose, are the party-goers in Gatsby in any way similar to the party-goers Combs so often hosts? That seems plausible. It also seems plausible that to them, Combs does strike a very Gatsby-esque figure. That is, he hosts wild parties.
Should Combs guests be familiar with the coinlcusion of Gatsby? I am not sure why. It doesn’t seem that Gatsby’s guests ever got all that nuanced in their debauchery.
That is, I am not sure that it’s too much of a stretch to make a comparison between gatsby and people who throw lavish parties.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Not only that – if he changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to be the Great Gatsby anymore, it would be too late, because there are no second acts in American life.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Ok, ya’ll a bunch of haters. Sean Combs is as good a modern version of Gatsby as you’re gonna find. A self-made man who found himself running with gangsters. Changed his name to change his persona. Did it all for a girl (okay, J-Lo dumped him, but during those days, he was positively Gatsby-esque). And of course, who throws the most fantastic parties in the history of Long Island? Is it Gatsby? Or is it Puffy?
Come on, now, folks, don’t hate the man because he’s beautiful.
The greatest irony seems to be anonymous folks posting on a message board in the middle of a work day calling a guy who is practically a self-made billionaire an idiot. You may not like his music, his clothes or his style, but the man is deadly smart.
Mo money, mo problems…
January 7th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Well, to be fair, he didn’t ever actually claim to have read the book. Maybe he just likes the name.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
“…there are no second acts in American life.”
What I love about that quote is that you only ever see it when someone wants to disagree with it. It is constantly used as the lead sentence of newspaper and magazine stories, and usually takes the form, “F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American life, but someone forgot to tell [public figure making a comeback].”
January 7th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Well, to be fair, he didn’t ever actually claim to have read the book.
Though he has a first edition in his sumptuous library.
I’m going to take the other side here: to say ‘I’m the Great Gatsby’ without quite knowing what that means (in terms of how it all ends) actually gives the comparison some weight. In a weird way.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Sam M beat me to it, but it bears repeating. I assume that when Combs says, “I _am_ Gatsby” what he really means is, “I give awesome parties!”
January 7th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
The fact that the snobs posting here just assume that Diddy doesn’t know how Gatsby ends makes me sick. Is it because he’s a pop star? Or a black guy? Or what? Would you have the same reaction if Brad Pitt said he was Gatsby?
Plus, the idea that all you sophisticates think that the reason Diddy couldn’t possibly be a strong analog for Gatsby is because “Gatsby died” just shows how shallow your readings of the book are. Since you put no stock in the fact that Gatsby’s death was just an accident, a case of mistaken identity, since Wilson’s wife was killed by Daisy and not Gatsby, and the result of Daisy and Tom’s extravagances, not Gatsby’s…
But whatever. The snobs and the snarkers love to jump on any black man that makes money, especially one who does so without shame and is proud of his accomplishments.
Anyway, Gatsby’s parties couldn’t hold a candle to Puffy’s. Ya’ll just wish you got an invite…
January 7th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Dude’s a rapper. He’s not doing literary analysis. Give it a rest, boys.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Would you have the same reaction if Brad Pitt said he was Gatsby?
Yeah. And the unravelling at the story’s end brings more than the protagonist’s death. It was discussed by Matt before at his previous abode, about how people interpret Gatsby.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I get the sense that Puffy probably has read The Great Gatsby and his identification strikes me as somewhat apt.
What is interesting to consider is how the culture has changed since Gatsby’s time.
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