#matsby

o sono troppo attento,

oppure troppo assente.

Un pò troppo impulsivo,

se ferito dalla gente;

ma poi troppo riflessivo,

fino a incolparmi sempre."

So a couple months ago, I was telling my mom about how I had just finished The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo because I really liked it. The conversation turned to “How would you expand on The Great Gatsby?”, and I had no real answer. My mom, however, came up with a concept almost on the spot:

How did Dan Cody become Dan Cody?

I asked her to elaborate because, of course, I was interested in what she meant. She said she thought it would be great if there was a prequel to Gatsby where we got to find out how Dan Cody gained all of his money. She kind of just wanted the life and times of Dan Cody. So we mused about that for a little while. And then it sort of… faded into oblivion for a month?

But last night, she told me that she’d been thinking about her “Dan Cody prequel” again, so often that she kept thinking it was canon. So, of course, I made her tell me everything she had in her head about it. And we built in a little extra lore together.

So, without further ado… welcome to the Gatsby novel my mom will never write!! (And… it’s not a Dan Cody prequel at all.)

So Dan Cody basically sets off a chain reaction when he takes in Jay. By this I mean Jay, after establishing himself and getting all the money he needs, becomes the mentor to another kid trying to make it.

And that’s literally all I know about Dan Cody because honestly my mom was really focused on the OC she created instead of Dan Cody

The OC is this kid who my mom calls “Matsby” and it’s pretty much short for “Mentored-by-Gatsby” cause she doesn’t actually have a name for him.

Anyway so Jay meets Matsby in England (literally I don't know why in England but that’s what my mom said) and pretty much just adopts him cause he’s like

“Whoa… Dan Cody mentored me… I can ALSO mentor a kid! I’m so glad Dan Cody taught me how to fit in with rich people so I can teach other people how…”

So Gatsby teaches Matsby how to act, how to “old sport”... you know. Basically from the ages of 14-19 Matsby is learning Life Skills from Jay and Wolfsheim.

Anyway so while the book is taking place, Matsby is like… somewhere else? Failing to fit in with other rich people? Concocting his own empire of bootlegging?

The point is he’s not in the picture because he’s on a trial business deal for the summer. Like an internship or something. I don’t know.

But Nick doesn’t even know about Matsby! So he can’t call him or anything for the funeral. So Matsby doesn’t even know about Gatsby’s death until Wolfsheim does, but Matsby doesn’t really know all of the details.

So Matsby mopes for a little while and then ends out that section of the story with something that implies there’s a promising future for him, even though Gatsby is gone…

ON TO THE NEXT SECTION!!

It’s been like 15 years. Matsby is VERY successful. He’s making money even though it’s the Great Depression. Everything is going great for him.

However, our least favorite couple (the Buchanans) is NOT doing so well… they lost a whole lot of their money to the market crash. Tom is given a tip to ask Matsby for help.

And you’d think this would be a point of contention, yeah? Matsby would refuse Tom? But Jay coincidentally just… didn’t really tell Matsby about why he was throwing all the parties. So Matsby doesn’t really have anything against Tom. He allows him into his ambiguous business. (Ambiguous because my mom didn’t actually name a line of business for Matsby…)

So Tom starts making money again, and he and Matsby are kind of pals. As much as you can be when you know one of you has the high ground.

Anyway one day Tom invites Matsby to come over for dinner to properly meet his wife and daughter. And so, at dinner, they start making conversation, and the night is going really well…Until Matsby off-handedly ends a sentence with “old sport”

Tom and Daisy just sort of look at each other funny for a moment and keep the conversation going in a marginally more awkward tone.

But a little later when Matsby does it a second time, Tom finally asks where he picked that up. Matsby tells him he used to know someone who said it often. Tom asks when Matsby knew this someone. Matsby tells him 15 years ago, before he died. Shot in his own pool.

Daisy and Tom really know they’re fucked then. But what can they do? Matsby’s their ticket to the luxurious life they want to stay in. Daisy makes a meaningless comment in an effort to distract from the silence, but the rest of the night is too careful, too tense.

And Pammy is just watching this all. She’s heard the whispers her parents think are too quiet for her to hear. She can piece together parts of the puzzle, but she doesn’t know all of what fits into where. Not yet.

Uhhh so eventually Matsby finds out that the Buchanans played a part in Gatsby’s death

He recruits Pammy and they’re basically pen pals (because she suspects her parents, too) while Matsby goes on a search for the truth about Gatsby

Because Pammy told Matsby about her mother’s cousin who used to be Gatsby’s neighbor (Nick)

So Matsby goes to track down Nick, but Nick refuses because he doesn’t want to revisit that summer and also because he doesn’t want to be indirectly responsible for the revenge Matsby is attempting to exact on the Buchanans

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"Post-Teenager" è il nuovo album di Matsby, in uscita il 12 maggio 2022

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