Which is not to say that your reading of The Great Gatsby is like reading the Bible and shooting an abortion doctor. Just wanted to make that clear. I'm just saying. Freedom of interpretation isn't unlimited.

But that's not really what it's about. I mean, yes, that's obviously part of it. But it's not like Madam Bovary, in which the failure of a marriage is the central premise of the book. To say that TGG is about a failed love affair is to radically reduce it's complexity and nuance and depth.

Seriously, I did not spoil anything. Gavagirl is right, it's like saying, "Oh my god when James Bond banged that lady." Not spoiled, the reference doesn't make sense until you read the books.

Wait, spoiler alert a book that came out several years ago? Also I didn't really give anything away...

I have literally blocked out most of the plot because it was so depressing. I remember when I finished it I felt like I was suffocating with sadness.

I would definitely put Jude the Obscure in with books written in not-modern times.

I think it's mostly to do with the fact that it's canonical English (or European) literature and the Europeans who have had time and money to write books and who decide what gets to be put into the canon are only interested in rich or rich-ish white people.

You think that The Great Gatsby was a story about a man who's punished for his choices in love?

I won't be able to see The Hunger Games film. Not only will it surely be too violent (the end, when Katnis has to mercy-kill the douchebag, oh god oh god oh god!), but it will fail to live up to my expectation. I loved the books, the character is great, but they'll inevitably make everyone white and pretty and not…

I'm not implying that men can—or do—just walk away. Nor am I implying that women are automatically attached to their offspring. Neither is true. However, it is true that only a woman grows a baby in her body. That shit is a serious consequence of having sex. The consequences of growing another person inside your body…

Indeed, it is.

First of all, I'm pretty sure that in the US you can force a paternity test. Second of all, I'm not sure where you're idea that women have a priori rights to a kid comes from. In the US, if a father sues for custody of his kid, he gets it almost every time. It's just that fathers rarely sue for custody.

Have you read it recently? It's implied—more than implied—that the first Mrs. Rochester is not entirely English. They make it clear that her craziness is a taint of the blood which comes from the swarthy, wild-haired, barbaric ancestors on her mother's side, and it's made clear that not all of her ancestors are white:…

Well, in my opinion the BEST literature can actually present women as fully human. The best of the best is literature that depicts women as humans who are treated as less than human, because they're women.

Any historian (or, I suppose, student of olde timey literature) can tell you that the idea that men are super sexual compared to women is total bullshit. In the middle ages and the renaissance, women were considered insatiable sex maniacs whose "open" body was constantly looking to be filled. This is why the Greeks…

It's definitely after WWI. After WWII, too. Think about the 50s—that shit happened (to rich folk) until the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s.

Mr. Rochester would be an example of a miserable man because of marriage.

The thing about consequences is still true, though—"having sex" is a behavior, "having a baby" is a consequence of that behavior, and it's true that only women can get pregnant from having sex. Having a baby, in your body, is a "graver consequence" than having a kid with a crazy person—which is something that happens…

Because the British government has worked really hard at making the British Isles seem like one nation-state with one national history and culture for the past seven-hundred years? Especially since the 19th century?

Well, my point is that just because something doesn't pass the Bechdel test, doesn't mean it's antifeminist. Nobody's going to convince me that The Duchess of Malfi is anything but a feminist text. It's like an expose of patriarchy and fucked up men. Even if it doesn't pass the test, it's still feminist.