Fame and Luck

We all know who Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and other similar famous people are. We also know how they became so famous. Fame has always been something that many want to achieve, but the means of getting it has not always been so clear. 

Recently, more and more videos have been popping up in my Youtube recommended feed that I would have never watched had it not been there, and many of these are from youtubers with over one million subscribers. As I browsed through more and more of these videos, I noticed that many of these youtubers are actually very close to my age. I started thinking, “how did kids as young as me get so famous?’ I have noticed a obvious trend to many of these videos: kids go out and do some rather interesting things in public and record it, then post it online. Somehow, this content racks up hundreds of thousands of views. Others simply document their daily lives and people love it. Now, I am not throwing any hate towards these youtubers, but I feel like fame and riches these days is a lot easier to achieve than it was maybe ten years ago.

I think that this, in some part, has to do with luck. If someone very influential or famous happened to see your videos or work and enjoyed it, then they would share it and bring tons of others to view it. This relates to “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” because the Washingtons “stumbled on [the] great discovery” completely out of luck, and because of this luck, they are able to live an extremely luxurious life. While many people do work very hard and definitely deserve all the money and fame they receive, I cant’t help but feel that part of it all is just based on their luck, too.

Age

As we all continue to grow up, the simple number that binds us to who we are becomes more and more prominent in our lives - our age. For me, the most recent experience I’ve had with this was actually today, the day I turn 16. This means that I can finally drive by myself and do many more previously unattainable things. Age can play a factor in many different things, like where you live, what job you get, and what you do everyday. However, I recently stumbled upon a very interesting subject on the news. A man from The Netherlands is actually trying to legally change his age from 69 to 49, just to get more girls on Tinder. This first struck me as a funny joke, but as I continued reading, I realized that it was, in fact, not a joke at all. He claims that changing his age is no different than changing his gender. In my opinion, this is absurd and should not be allowed, but I can still see his point. 

“Time”, as we call it, is an abstract concept. Obviously, there are clocks and other things we use to keep track of it, but what would happen if we just one day decided that one minute was actually 100 seconds? It’s not like it’s not allowed or anything, since the only reason one minute is 60 seconds is because it is agreed upon by the entire world. Actually, there are many examples of differing time scales, like the Chinese lunar calendar.

Gatsby faces a similar issue in The Great Gatsby. “For five years... [they] loved each other”, but in the end, Daisy ended up marrying someone else. I think that if Gatsby lived today, he would also try and legally change his age to be younger in order to relive his past and continue to love her.

Imaginary Locations

We all know what New York is. Many of us have even gone there in 8th grade. The setting of the new book we started in class this week, The Great Gatsby, is also in New York. The main character, Nick, lives in West Egg, a “slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York”. The next day, however, the class was presented with a shocking truth: East and West Egg don’t actually exist!

Since then, I have been wondering why the author decided to create an imaginary setting for the book, especially since West Egg is in New York, which is definitely a very real place. Why not just have Nick live in Manhattan? After some time, I have decided that this is actually an extremely clever choice. Because West Egg is a fake location in an actual US state, Fitzgerald can add in many realistic elements without having to worry too much about the fine details. For example, the author can include certain buildings and sights that match New York to develop his plot, but he doesn’t have to do extensive research to find an existing location that will work.

Furthermore, by utilizing this method, authors have no need to spend time creating an entirely new world or place. This allows readers to relate to the story more, and truly allows them to experience what they are reading. When iconic things like the Empire State Building are mentioned, readers know exactly what the author is referring to, which in turn creates an easier to follow and understand plotline.

While at first it was a bit confusing and unclear why Fitzgerald would have the setting be in New York but also in a fake town, now I realize that there are actually many benefits to doing so.