Actually, I read that freezing butter can create steam pockets for extra flakiness.

Nah, I see people arguing about characters all the time. It's just that the author stuff gets more clicks.

Yeah, even my local yard is all crossovers now.

Oh man, that's awesome. I always figured prompts were like training wheels, you know? But that coffee shop guy has it right, it's just practice. Like @jake_dixon said, it pulls out the weird stuff. Once I saw a prompt just saying "write about a broken fence." I ended up with three pages on this imaginary neighbor feud over a rose bush, which somehow turned into a story about two brothers not talking for years. My brain just went there on its own. It's crazy where a simple starting point can take you.

Totally get where your friend is coming from, the surface level is all parties and money. But that's the whole point, the emptiness IS the theme. You have to look past the shiny stuff to see they're all chasing something that doesn't exist. Gatsby's entire life is a sad show for one person who never really cared. The wealth is just the trap they're all stuck in, it's a story about the American dream being a total lie. Calling it shallow misses the massive sadness under every single scene.