The problem of blue retinas

I came upon the July/August 2007 issue of Fine Books & Collections in a stack of old magazines in my home. Inside are several fascinating articles worth a second read and a little discussion.

One short article by Rebecca Rego Barry is about a controversy surrounding F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Which Gatsby is the real Gatsby? Fourteen years later I assume the question remains unanswered, for there will always be a difference of opinion on such matters.

Some writers — Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy among them — continue to revise their work even after publication. So which version of Leaves of Grass or Two on a Tower is the true one? In Fitzgerald's case, the main controversy involves changes made by editors after Fitzgerald's death. A key point of contention in The Great Gatsby centers around Fitzgerald's description of blue retinas. Presumably this was a mistake by the author, for retinas cannot be seen. But should editors correct this apparent mistake, changing it instead to blue pupils or blue irises?

On one hand are those who maintain that a work of literature, especially one considered a masterpiece, should be left as the author left it. Others argue that mistakes are mistakes, and it's an editor's job to correct mistakes. The original editor missed this one, but does that mean subsequent editors should ignore it? Were Fitzgerald still alive, might not he be embarrassed by blue retinas?

Great works of literature are routinely, and without controversy, translated into other languages. The very act of translation involves changing what the author wrote into something else. Sometimes this change can be quite significant, for some expressions and ideas cannot be easily understood in other languages. Yet changes within the original language remain problematic.

I think this demonstrates the value of annotated editions of great literature, or at least the liberal use of footnotes. In this way an edition of Gatsby could include Fitzgerald's blue retinas along with a note saying he probably meant blue pupils.

Next time I'll have more from this edition of Fine Books & Collections.