By Ben Carlson

Staff Writer

Many aspiring intellectuals, especially those attending this university, love to use the cliché phrase “the book was way better than the movie,” when referring to the film version of a popular novel.

With the film version of “The Great Gatsby,” hitting theaters May 10, this is a preemptive review to save you, the reader, from making the mistake of using that annoying phrase in front of your friends or colleagues and also to remind you that no film version of this American classic will ever do it justice. It’s been tried before.

Most of us will see the film for its own sake, but one should not outsource a reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel entirely to a few hours in a dark, air-conditioned room. Bookstores everywhere have the paperback edition for cheap (less than a movie ticket) and I insist you pick it up and revisit Fitzgerald’s tale of young elites obsessed with their idea of the American dream. It is a novel that will speak to those graduating this spring in that its themes explore the relationship between the pursuit of wealth and the dream of happiness and individualism.

In leaving academia behind, graduates have the opportunity to remind themselves what he or she intends to accomplish in their professional lives. Fitzgerald challenges the reader to examine his or her own American dream. Many graduates have noble goals in mind, which should be protected against the influence or pursuits of pleasure and greed, however tempting. As Fitzgerald put it, “it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams.” Gatsby’s own downfall was his obsession with the past.

But the future is both daring and exciting. The exploration of unknown territory and the plans we students intend on pursuing in that territory that lies ahead. As the narrator exclaims at the end of the novel, “tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.” So, to the class of 2013, I recommend revisiting this landmark in American literature before you charge bravely into the world.