The Great Gatsby enters the public domain in 2021, and fans intent on writing new versions of the novel are already sharpening their pencils—somewhat figuratively, I assume. Does anyone write with a pencil? Who knows, that’s the joy of fan fiction: When Gatsby belongs to everyone, everyone is a writer, and there are a lot of pencils in the public domain.
If I were playing along, I’d work on Daisy first. I’ll have her leave that mean, controlling husband and his old money, which is bricked up in banks and safely locked in the DNA, and move her into Gatsby’s shiny new mansion where the new money gets delivered in paper bags and where there is gin in the bathtubs. Wait: Can I see her sitting around in her white dress and wispy scarf surrounded by all that dirty new cash? I’m not sure. She doesn’t have many hobbies, and it is a long time between coffee and cocktails. What am I going to do with her all day?
Maybe I’d better help Myrtle, imprisoned as she is in her working-class life, longing for all the trappings that belong to her lover’s wife. Oh, the web Mr. Fitzgerald wove! I’ll let her keep her puppy, but I’ll send her to night school when her lover is at home. That way, she’ll be able to make something of herself when she realizes he doesn’t really care about her. Her rehabilitation will create a new problem, of course. If I find her a way out, what will I do with the ending? How can one compete with this: A beautiful blond with wealth watermarked on her soul runs down and kills her husband’s impoverished mistress? It would be hard to beat that.
Nick then is the one. I’ll relieve him of his narrative role long enough for him to fall in love with a pretty young widow who has inherited a fortune—surely we can dig up one of those over there in blue-blooded East Egg. They will meet at one of Gatsby’s parties while the host himself is mooning around on the dock in the dark. I’ll have to liven Nick up a bit to make this plotline work, but their love story will be fabulous, and Nick and the rich young widow will transcend class and wealth and live happily ever after.
Or maybe not: I guess I’m too much of a fan of the original. Change one little piece of the story and the whole thing unravels like a sweater with a dropped stitch. It is not a story crafted for a happy ending. It is, after all, about greed and class warfare and unrequited love.
Not to worry, fans of fan fiction, while I haven’t found a new tale to tell, I can almost hear those pencil sharpeners grinding away.
Photo: My pencil and my original paperback Gatsby, on which I cannot improve.
