gastby guide book

i quote this from an actual guide book to The Great Gatsby. in analyzing nick's ambiguous sexuality:

(ref to the scene of Nick and McKee in the elevator) Nick's response to McKee's invitation is delayed by the elevator boy's rebuke which suggests that McKee's hands have strayed, inadvertently or by subconscious impulse, into contact with a forbidden lever... but the dictionary definition of a lever - 'a projecting arm or handle that is moved to operate a mechanism'- also suggests that it could be interpreted in symbolic terms as an erect penis. McKee's apology to the elevator boy ("I'm sorry, I didn't know i was touching it.") is immediately followed by Nick's "All right... I'll be glad to." This is ostensibly a reply to McKee's invitation to lunch; but [...] it also suggests that Nick would be glad to "touch the lever".

He [Nick] is uneasy about his relationship with a young woman who looks like an 'erect' young man and whose prowess at playing and allegedly cheating at golf proves that she knows how to handle her balls.


I TOTALLY LMAO-ED WHEN I SAW THAT.