This reading was surprising to the say the least, especially in the conclusions she formed. For one, she (Tyson) says "the novel gives the credit for jazz symbolically to whites." (Tyson 405) I thought that this was slightly misleading, and I feel that she is saying only blacks can create jazz, and that statement is racist in and of itself. Another note I agree with slightly more is the absence of Harlem in The Great Gatsby, as noted on page 404 of CTT. It does seem peculiar that Harlem is not mentioned, but there are multiple ways into Manhattan, and may be justified. The lack of mention of the Jazz clubs is suspicious, however.
I don't feel that it changes my reading too much, but more raises my attention to this lack of scenery. The lack of Harlem in The Great Gatsby is far too suspicious to warrant ignore it and should be brought to light. The bit on the giving of jazz to whites was a bit far fetched, and could be omitted.
A question: Do you think the bit on the giving of jazz to whites was well concluded? Could it have been omitted? should it have been expanded on?
-Christian
I agree that Tyson's claim that the Jazz Age was being credited to the whites was somewhat shocking, and while it was backed up to some extent, I thought all in all it was somewhat far-fetched. "The only musicians we see playing jazz are the white musicians at Gatsby's party." (Tyson 405) She goes on to point out that it wasn't some "five-piece affair" as stated in the book, but rather a full orchestra. What she seems to leave out is that the setting is an upper class party in the 1920s. Of course the musicians are classy and white, it just makes sense for the setting.
ReplyDeleteThat said, this in combination of the fact of the complete absence of Harlem despite Nick and the gang going to into New York on multiple occasions does further back up Tyson's claim. In the end however I don't feel her initial evidence is stable enough, and as you said, there could be other explanations for the absence of Harlem.
I, like Jaffe agree that the claim that the Jazz era was the brainchild of the Whites was an egregious error. However, I do not think that exclusion is a form of racism at all. It seems to me that the exclusion of Harlem is not an intentional slight but a necessary 'device' to allow the story to flow properly. As it is not essential to the plot line it is excluded, a rather silly comparison is the exclusion of the characters blinking as we do in real life. Now as the characters are supposed people this would be a necessary addition to make the story truly complete and realistic to the fullest degree however it is simply pointless to the plot of the great Gatsby to mention. Despite the fact that we are more or less oblivious to authorial intent we must remember that it is a work of literature and must be taken as such with appropriate accommodation for omission which further the plot .
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