4.19 Green Light: Gatsby and Lorde
Lorde’s song Green Light is not about the infamous green light featured in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby … So then why do so many people think it is? In this week’s audio essay, I analyse and compare the green lights in both Green Light and The Great Gatsby. I try to understand why, like Gatsby, artists and audiences keep coming back to the green light.
Listen to the episode here
The Great Gatsby References
‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
‘The Great Gatsby: The Authorized Edition – with Introduction by Jesmyn Ward’ – Simon & Schuster, 27th May 2003
‘The Epic of America’ by James Truslow Adams, 1931
‘A History of New York Traffic Lights’ by Christopher Gray – The New York Times, 16th May, 2014
‘Old New York in Photos #19 – First Traffic Light Signals’ – Stuff Nobody Cares About, 27th June, 2012
Green Light References
‘Green Light’ by Lorde Genius Lyrics annotations
‘Lorde Joyfully Crashes Into Her Next Chapter’ by Spencer Kornhaber – The Atlantic, 3rd March 2017
‘We’re Done Waiting For It – Lorde drops new track ‘Green Light’’ by Izzie Ramirez, NYU Local, 4th March 2017
‘What does “Green Light” by Lorde mean?’ by Clifford Stumme – The Pop Song Professor, 5th March 2017
‘Perfect Places’ by Lorde Genius Lyrics annotations
Other References
‘I read Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend and Becoming at the same time’ by Cindy Pham – withcindy on YouTube, 3rd November 2019
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