supergee | Nice & simple (Reply)

There is now a condensed, simplified version of The Great Gatsby, apparently for use in ESL teaching. Roger Ebert is agin it. Me too, but for the opposite reason. He says it's a debasement of a great book. I read it fifty years ago when I had more stamina, so I could pronounce what Jo Walton calls the death sentence--"I don't care what happens to these people"-- fairly early and still finish the book because it is supposed to be a Classic. Are people with ESL the ideal audience for a book about Rich White Assholes, when the style, which is the good part, has been purged from it? Ebert and I agree that there's a lot of better material for ESL courses, such as YA books.

Thanx to