Ernest Hemingway

[WildBillyCrazyCat]

I'm with Boom in that I must not have the proper mindset or requisite brainpower to enjoy Hemingway. Since so many hold him in high esteem, I've always considered this some sort of personal deficiency.

I'm willing to give it another try, though. Anyone have suggestions on where I should start?

 

[Buck]

I love Hemingway because I would love to have lived the life he did ... right up until that whole pesky shotgun incident. You can't do what he did in today's world.
Hemingway's work is simple and straight forward. Maybe there are some underlying themes there that I never get out of any (author/book,song, movie, etc.). For instance, if someone is writing about black squirrels, I don't search for a hidden meaning. I take it to mean he is talking about tree-dwelling rodents with black fur.

So Moby deck is just a giant, white sperm whale? It doesn't represent anything else?

 

[Boom_70]

I'm with Boom in that I must not have the proper mindset or requisite brainpower to enjoy Hemingway. Since so many hold him in high esteem, I've always considered this some sort of personal deficiency.

I'm willing to give it another try, though. Anyone have suggestions on where I should start?

Glad I'm not alone with my personal deficiency. Perhaps I'll try again but drink
a lot of rum first.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I'm with Boom in that I must not have the proper mindset or requisite brainpower to enjoy Hemingway. Since so many hold him in high esteem, I've always considered this some sort of personal deficiency.

I'm willing to give it another try, though. Anyone have suggestions on where I should start?

Are you a hunter? http://www.amazon.com/Hemingway-Hunting-Ernest/dp/0743225295/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Do you fish? http://www.amazon.com/Hemingway-Fishing-Ernest/dp/074321918X

Are you a writer? http://www.amazon.com/Ernest-Hemingway-Writing-Larry-Phillips/dp/0684854295

Those are all collections that are easily digestible. But if you're just doing one, go with The Sun Also Rises.

 

[Songbird]

But if you're just doing one, go with For Whom the Bell Tolls.

 

[Boom_70]

Was Hemingway a member of The NRA?

 

[Point of Order]

It took me six months to plow through For Whom the Bell Tolls. I was in college at the time. I wondered why I continued to read it. By the time I finished, though, I was incredibly happy I stuck with it.

 

[YankeeFan]

The Old Man and the Sea -- 128 pages

The Sun Also Rises -- 251 pages

A Farewell to Arms -- 332 pages

For Whom the Bell Tolls -- 480 pages

Each of the first two can be banged out in one sitting.

 

[Buck]

I'm just not a fan.

I admire the man's technical proficiency, his craftsmanship, but I don't enjoy the work.

I guess I'm the opposite of Vers. I expect to enjoy myself - reading, listening to music, watching a movie.

Enjoyment doesn't mean the material should be mindless. Quite the opposite.

I enjoy material that is emotive and/or illuminating in some way. I expect to feel something or learning something about myself, the world, the author, etc.

I want to analyze the technique and creative choices, but technique and creative choices are not ends within themselves. They are means to a greater end - moving the audience in some way, emotionally or intellectually.

For me, Hemingway fails in that artistic end.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Well, I do read for enjoyment, but I gain that enjoyment more out of dissecting the writing and analyzing the writer's choices in diction and pacing and plot twists. It's not about a good story for me.

You must dislike most non-fiction work.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I've met the man's nephew.
I've had a drink in three of his favorite bars.

I have family in a city that hosted a Hemingway symposium last year. A lot of scholars came into town for it, most of whom had written many, many words about the man, and not all of whom completely understood him. For instance in the Nick Adams stories there is a reference to black squirrels. One woman thought it was a squirrel who represented evil. Nope. Black squirrels are a real thing and are native to northern-lower Michigan, the area from which Hemingway drew inspiration for those stories.

I still love some of the stories about him more than his stories (even though I did like everything of his I've read). For instance in "Is Paris Burning" there are several Hemingway stories, like how he recruited a French Resistance unit in the span of about 48 hours and 'liberated' a Paris bar.

One of the greatest nights of my life was partying like a VIP with his grandson John Hemingway in Pamplona during the bullrun a few years back.

 

[doctorquant]

I'm with Boom in that I must not have the proper mindset or requisite brainpower to enjoy Hemingway. Since so many hold him in high esteem, I've always considered this some sort of personal deficiency.

I'm willing to give it another try, though. Anyone have suggestions on where I should start?

Are you a hunter? http://www.amazon.com/Hemingway-Hunting-Ernest/dp/0743225295/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Do you fish? http://www.amazon.com/Hemingway-Fishing-Ernest/dp/074321918X

Are you a writer? http://www.amazon.com/Ernest-Hemingway-Writing-Larry-Phillips/dp/0684854295

Those are all collections that are easily digestible. But if you're just doing one, go with The Sun Also Rises.

I have found these short stories of his to be very, very powerful:

"The End of Something"

"Fifty Grand"

"Big Two-Hearted River"

"Soldier's Home"

"My Old Man"

They're all very approachable, beautifully written ... but there's a lot going on there, too.