林语堂解读盖茨比

Four characteristics of Human Dignity

1. a playful curiosity 一种嬉戏的好奇心

2. a capacity for dream 一种梦想的能力

3. a sense of humor to correct those dreams 一种纠正这些梦想的幽默感

4. a certain waywardness and incalcuability of behaviour

一种在行为上任性的，不可测度的质素

The Great Gatsby

If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.

(sensitivity to changes)

This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the "creative temperament"– it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

一种异乎寻常的永保希望的天赋，一种富于浪漫色彩的敏捷

(体现了a certain waywardness and incalcuability of behaviour and a capacity for dreams)

Fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out of to determine what share was his of our local heavens.

(体现了a playful curiosity)

He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire and freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

(体现了a capacity for dreams)

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's not matter–tomorrow we will run faster. Stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning–

So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

不断回到往昔的纯真时代

(体现了a sense of humor to correct those dreams)

爱自己记忆中的人很容易，但是当他们出现在你面前，向你迎面走来的时候依然去爱，是一件困难的事

clear-eyed evaluation of Daisy

Her voice is full of money.

林语堂解读盖茨比

He can always start again.