A carless quotation

Using a quotation can be a powerful way to open a blog post or a speech. But not if you fail (receive an F) by getting both the spelling and wording wrong. On  July 6, 2019 Jane Genova opened a blog post titled “God Bless the Child That’s Got His Own…” The Alleged Curse of Privilege as follows:

“ ‘They are carless people.’ That’s how a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book ‘The Great Gatsby’ sized up the privileged. The book was fiction – a novel.”  

Of course she meant to say careless rather than carless. But the wording also is wrong. The phrase ‘careless people’ only appeared twice in that novel. First Jordan Baker says: “I hate careless people. That’s why I like you.” Second is probably what she meant: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….”

There are better quotes about privilege. In his 2013 novel, Transatlantic, Colum McCann said:

“They inherited it all. The curse of privilege. Janitors for the ambitions of the dead.”  

If you are carless, then you have to hitchhike, as shown above. The Australian road sign came from Wikimedia Commons.