p. 83:
He came alive to me, delivered from the womb of his purposeless splendor.
Jordan reveals that there was no coincidence in these sudden neighbors: ‘“Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” And Nick realizes that Gatsby ‘had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could “come over” some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.”
This is the moment where Gatsby lost his greatness – not from something he did but because of the realization by others of his purpose. He went from a swirling mass of secrets and rumors, a human Rorschach test, to a man with a shockingly modest plan of grandiose proportion. He is revealed as having made the most extravagantly romantic ploy, delivering him from the greatness of his purposeless splendor. His life can only unravel from here.
ginsudo 