"However, I don't think Fitzgerald wrote just to write a story. There's definitely a political message in there. Perhaps you meant he didn't have it in mind to be as politically charged as the reluctant fundamentalist..."
Right, that's exactly what I mean. It would be naive of me to assert that Gatsby (or any novel) does not have a political message. Every novel has some political content, even if it is just a tacit affirmation of the status quo (romance novels are a good example of this-- as would be Erica's trite garbage in TRF)-- but I think there is something distasteful and wrongheaded about a novel that sets out to prove a political point or even, to cite a less-charged example of what bothers me about this sort of thing, to make a particular moral point. A story that was written only to make me feel bad (or good) about stealing would provoke the same reaction from me, maybe with a different level of intensity, but the same instinct to bristle at a sort of violation of art.
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I see what you mean now. Thank you.
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