Old Criticism (Willie)

Not to beat a dead horse and echo everyone else's sentiments, but New Criticism has not changed my view on The Great Gatsby at all. I don't even see at as a lens. It is essentially looking at the text without one and taking everything in its own context as opposed to that of its historical period. This is the way I looked at Gatsby upon my initial readings. Nothing has changed. That being said, I like this way of picking apart a text. However, I would get rid of the objectivity of it that its practitioners believe in and acknowledge that we will all see different things and that those different things are simply our way of reflecting ourselves into whatever it is that we are reading. For this reason, I think it is utterly vacuous to attempt to reach some sort of conclusion that is objective. The greatest thing about art is that it is all subjective. John sees things in Jane Eyre that Jill does not, and vice versa. If these seemingly elitist critics would acknowledge it, it might be a bit more fun. Granted they probably do, but whatever; I'm ignorant.