An almost post-modern moment
One final reference to the mid-August re-reading tradition before we move on to other matters. Before we come to it, however, it might be worth looking back at Thursday's post about what passes for journalism in much of Britain's media today. Yes, hacking a person's phone is a new twist on things, but it's all part of a tradition. The tyrannical nature of celebrity reportage was well established by 1925 when The Great Gatsby was published. Fitzgerald captured it perfectly with a short exchange that forms an almost post-modern moment:
About this time an ambitious young reporter from New York arrived one morning at Gatsby's door and asked him if he had anything to say."Anything to say about what?" inquired Gatsby politely.
"Why, — any statement to give out."
It transpired after a confused five minutes that the man had heard Gatsby's name around his office in a connection which he either wouldn't reveal or didn't fully understand... Gatsby's notoriety, spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past, had increased all summer until he fell just short of being news.
The mentality of those who deliver today's "scoops" is nailed memorably by Fitzgerald when he writes of Gatsby's notoriety being "spread about by the hundreds who had accepted his hospitality and so become authorities on his past." Today, we're a bit more sophisticated. Well, technologically, at least. Becoming an authority on someone's past requires the ability to hack voicemail, steal photographs or have the stomach for a bit of necrophilia.
