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when the captioning sponsored by comedy central ( theme song playing ) ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen colbert presents, the c-oh-lbert book club. tonight's selection-- "great gatsby" by f. scotts fitzgerald. ( cheers and applause )

>> stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen! stephen. >> stephen: thank you so much. welcome to the report, everybody. thank you so much for joining us. thank you. please, everybody. ( cheers and applause ). folks, thank you for joining us here for a huge night, unpress departmented on the the "colbert report." as you know, folks, as any who watches this show knows, i have a vast and growing media empire. so far, i have this show, three bestselling books, and a very active-- ( cheers ) pinterest page. ( cheers and applause ). i am going to have the most beautiful wedding ever. ( laughter ) and now the c-oh-lbert book club. remember the first rule of book club-- don't read "fight club."

now, tonight in strict adherence to book club guidelines, i have been drinking chardonnay since 1:00 p.m. ( cheers and applause ). and our inaugural book is "the great gatsby" by f. scott fitzgerald. i chose it in part because there's a new "great gatsby" manufacture the same way when the movie "life of pi" come out, i read the number pi to the 500th decimal. spoiler alert? >> spoiler alert-- 2. after that it gets kind of repetitive. but, folks, it's nost just because there's a movie coming out. we're also reading "the great gatsby" because it's believe to be a classic of american literature. the modern library calls it one of the five novels of alm time and amazon reviewrl "the jakal,"

gave it three out of five stars, rating: decent. ( cheers and applause ). she's good. a lot of jackal fans here tonight. ( laughter ) now, tonight to explore this book, i will be joined by pulitzer prize-winning novelist jennifer egan. and to discuss his movie, i'll be talking to director baz luhrman, who you may remember, for having written william shakespeare's "romeo and juliette." ( applause ) now, of course, since i have known for the past two weeks that i was going to be stussing this book on television, i have been preparing. first, by reading it. ( laughter ) , which i really enjoyed and definitely did do. ( laughter ) but to really bone up on all of that reading of this book that did, earlier today, i compared notes with oscar-nominated star

of "an education," can the drive, and the dry, carey mulligan. jim. >> hello? ( laughter ) >> stephen: carey. thanks for stopping by to talk about the book. >> my pleasure. ( applause ) >> stephen: i am loving this story. >> so many people don't read anymore sphwhri know. it's sad. now, let's talk "gatsby. of the. >> the movie is very true to the book and the human complications are just as painful and perceptive on the big screen as on the page. and i can't say enough about toby and nick and leah as gatsby who is just perfect. >> stephen: when i read "gatsby" i thought leo pop whose idea was it to cast him?

>> leo. >> stephen: what would you say are the major plot point of the movie. >> all the actions and scenes are the same as they are in the book, which you'd know if you read it. >> stephen: i just, you know, i just love how he's constantly gats being in a really great away, you know. for me, the question valley, "great gatsby" or the "greatestest gatsby." i'm going to go the greatest. >> have you read the book? >> stephen: yes. >> stephen? >> displ some of the it. >> how much? >> stephen: none. >> stephen! >> carey, i work half an hour a night four night a week. how am i supposed to read this thing? it's a monster! you have to help me. what am i going to do jennifer egan is going to be here and be all puleitzer and smart talking and i-- you have to help me. just tell me the plot of the movie. you're in it. you should know. >> i know, i'm in the movie. stephen, naturally, i know what happens.

>> stephen: thank god! so just please, just tell me enough to fake it. >> all right. well, my character is daisy buchanan. >> stephen: daisy, is that the flower? is that a metaphor. >> sure. >> stephen: okay. >> she lives in a big house with her husband, tom. >> stephen: slow down. tom. >> but she is in love with gatsby. because, you know, he throws these big parties, you know, and it's spectacular and it's 3d and it's sex and costumes and the daisy soundtrack, it's baz luhrman, i mean. come on. >> stephen: yeah, i know. >> yeah. >> stephen: and then what happens? um, then, it turns out that gatsby has a secret past. >> stephen: wow! and what is that? >> he is a, um, a movie stunt driver who also drives geft away

cars and he gets in trouble with these really bad guys and hammers a nail in thiz head. ( laughter ) >> stephen: carey? >> um. >> stephen: that's the plot of the movie "drive"." you don't know what you're talking about. >> no! >> stephen: carey? >> stephen, i only get my part of the script and you shoot movies out of order. i can never figure out the plot. you shoot the scene and then you break for lunch. is lunch in the movie? i'm too afraid to ask. >> stephen: why don't you just look at the script? >> i can't read. >> stephen: what does this say? >> happy... you. >> stephen: can't read. you seem so smart. how do you learn your lines? >> i don't. they use the same trick as in the talking dog movies. they put peanut butter on the roof of my mouth and when i try

to lick it off, they use another voice. i was counting on you tow tell me about the book. i just told ryan seacrest, "the great gatsby" is a great, and i think bird. >> stephen: is it? >> possible. hey, it's a butterfly. >> stephen: maybe it's a metaphor. let's follow it ♪ butterfly in the sky it's in a book ♪ a reading rainbow ♪ a reading rainbow ♪ a reading rainbow ♪ >> lerks val, of burton. >> welcome to a very special edition of "a reading rein bow." would you like to hear a story about the disliewgz of identity and unfillable void in us all. >> the very hungry caterpillar.

>> no, it's "the great gatsby." >> huh? >> the book you were just talking about. it's a searching indictment of self-delusion and material excess in which the greed of the times completely corrodes the very fabric of the american dream. >> shut up and tell us what happens. >> carey, a book isn't just go bwhat happens. it's about the author's imagination. every word say magic carpet waiting to whisk you off to another time or place. but you don't have to take my word for it. read the book! >> >> stephen: he's reet, carey, this whole time we've running away from the book when we could have just sat down and read it. >> you're so right, steen picouldn't have said it better myself. >> stephen: thanks, lavar. >> i still can't read. >> here, try my reading glasses.

>> oh, my god. i can see. ( laughter ) ( applause ) >> okay, you two, get the hell out of my rainbow. ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ). >> stephen: we'll be right back with ca jennifer egan.

( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: ...into the past. all right. okay. welcome, everybody. now, i'm ready for the discussion, and i hope are you, too, because we are going to dive in deep, good for the real egghead stuff. i will be analyzings metaphors and similes like they were candy. laugh and discussing foreshadowing as if my life depended on it. ( laughter ) which it may. ( laughter ) and here to help me smar-tificate is the puleetser-prize winning octoberor of "a visit from the goon squad" jennifer egan. ( cheers and applause ) welcome to the c-oh-lbert book club. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> stephen: could i get a little chardonnay?

>> why not. >> stephen: jennifer, why do you think "the great gatsby" ( cheers and applause ) there you go. why would you say "the great gatsby" is the great american novel? what do you say to us? >> i think it captures something about the american psyche that most of us would recognize, which is a willingness to start over, reinvent ourselves, imagine a new life, and in a way, that dream is a lot of what built this country. >> stephen: who wouldn't want to be gatsby, you know? >> exactly. >> stephen: he's got it all. he's rich. he's face in his own way. he's got a huge house, and everything works out for him until it does not. ( laughter ) >> well, of course he starts as someone else and he creates all of that as a way of trying to the love of a woman he could not win when he was just a poor nobody. there's no question it doesn't

work power plant he doesn't get the girl and he gets killed. >> stephen: would it help if he had had a bigger house? ( laughter ) here's what i liked about him-- is that he reached for what he wanted. and didn't let anything get in his way. which brings me to the green light. what-- what is the yean light that he's reaching for? >> well, the green light to him symbolizes daisy because it's the end of her pier, and he has bought a house directly across from the pier so he could look at it and think about her. >> stephen: is that a metaphor, allegory? what is that? stay symbol? >> it's a very overt symbol. q. overt symbol.of is there. >> it's a symbol called a symbol of daisy herself. the interesting thing is when he actually finally is in her presence again and tells her he's been watching the green light and thinking of her, nick, the narrator, perceived a little disappoint independent in gatsby because suddenly the green light doesn't moeb anything any more. she's right there and fitzgerald

writes his count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. in a way, the fantasy itself is the thing. >> stephen: he threw parties to impress her, and got rich to impress her and got the house to impress her and he tells her his dream of her and what the light represents and that doesn't really impress her. and later, she leave herself husband for him, and then she hits somebody with a car that gatsby, and kills the person, and gatsby covers for her. and she still goes back to tom buchanan, who is a racist who beats women. couldn't you boil this book down to "bitches be crazy"? >> ( cheers and applause ) she not nice, either. she's not nice, either. >>un, he's shooez not perfect for sure. she's limited -- >> stephen: she kills someone. >> but remember-- well, it is an

accident. remember, the fact that days secertainly rich and maybe even a little shallow is what draws gatsby to her in the first place. >> stephen: do you think that this book is worthy of the attention it gets? because every high school kid has to read it? should we be forcing this on children? ( laughter ) >> you know, it has a lot of qualities that make it great. one of those qualities i think also makes it appealing as a high school book it is short. >> yes. i read it during the commercial break. ( laughter ) >> and the thing is upon it's very compressed which really is the job of fiction. and as i said before i think he captures something about what being an american is-- the american psyche, if youlet, which has i think from the very beginning has evolved a willingness to turn one's back on the past and turn it around. >> stephen: it's the quintessential american thing to present yourself to the world as a false image of yourself. ( laughter ) to make people like you but they

never get to meet the real you. i wish i could do that. ( laughter ) ( applause ) jennifer egan, thank you so much for joining me. a visit from the goon squad,

( cheers and applause ). >> stephen: welcome back, everybody. my guest tonight direct the new film adaptation of "the great gatsby" in 3d. it's like your homework is coming right at you. please welcome baz luhrman. baz thank you for being here. baz, people know you from "romeo and juliette its request rulon rouge. what tackle the can the gray? you're an aussie, this is the great american story. >> payback, i guess for what you guys have been taking classics and doing them in hollywood for years. >> stephen: exactly. we made an opera out of "crocodile dundee." payback time. >> actually, my own personal experience was i knew it when ii was a child. >> stephen: do they teach it over there? >> yes, they do. exactly the same as here. >> stephen: do they translate it into australian for you guys? ( laughter )

>> yes. after "rulon rouge" i was traveling on the siberian express, and had two recorded book. i can't remember what the other one was, but one was f. scott fitzgerald, the can the gray. i put it on -- >> stephen: let's talk about the other book for a while. >> next book club. pit it on and five hours later i woke up and i realized-- ( laughter ) >> stephen: you fell asleep during "the great gatsby." and you said i don't know what the ( bleep ) has happened. and i got to make a movie of that thing. >> this really needs a movie. >> stephen: why do this now? this book came out something like 90 years ago and there have been six movies made of it. there was a silent movie made of this thing. >> yes, indeed. >> stephen: why make it again now and why 3d? >> first of all, -- >> stephen: pick those questions-- pick the one you like. ( laughter ). >> stephen: first of all, i

mean, it is an incredibly modern book, and it is useful at any time and any place, and i think there should be-- it's like "hamlet." each period and each time needs its production of hamlet. and i think in l.a. when we had the financial crash, i really committed in that moment saying right here, right now. i've got to try to find a way of solving the essential problems of the book, and that is most of it is internal dialogue inside nick car way's head. >> stephen: i loved the film biker the way. >> thank you. >> stephen: i fell asleep during it, and when i woke up i thought-- ( cheers and applause ). >> stephen: thank you. go ahead, yes, yes. >> let me ask this question. ithink when nick begins this story he goes in and he didn't know who he is or what he is. and he really ends the book-- does he want to write? what is it his life journeying

if to be? what's his relationship with people. he starts on his own to find out who he is and what he wants at the end of book. >> stephen: do people have to have read the book to enjoy the movie? >> no, the film needs to stand-- in fact, i've met many people now who have seen the filmand have gone to read the book. look, when fitzgerald guyed, he was buying copies of his own book. >> stephen: because no one was reading it, right? >> just so there were some sails. he was that forgotten, and the idea that last week he sold more books in one week than his entire lifetime, that alone i think is a positive outcome of the experience of making the film for me ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: you're an artist-- why do you think-- you're an artist who was accepted in his lifetime. i'm an artist suspected in my

lifetime. are great artists more send after they're dead? >> you know what. i was reading a criticism of can the "great gatsby" and he called f. scott fitzgerald a clown, and of the book he said it was something like shallow. something hammond the other night that took me by complete surprise. we had a screening and a very regal woman came out of the audience i've never met and took me by the hand and said, "i've come all the way from vermont because i wanted to see what did you with my grandfather's book." of course i went cold. i had never met this perfect person. she was wonderful. and then she said, you know, i think he would be very proud for people have said for so long he can't turn an internal narration into a film. it will net get better for me

than that moment. the idea that f. scott fitzgerald died thinking that book was not cared for, that no one wanted to buy tand that it became the great american novel, and they're having gatsby parties this weekend, and opening here, 20 miles from where he wrote it. it's all too much of a circle. for me, with all of the effort and everything that everyone has put into it, it's already a worgt while journey. >> stephen: well, congratulations. >> thank you. ( cheers and applause ). >>hen: ephen: éxéx

captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: well that's it for the report, everybody. thanks so mucho