Ernest Hemingway

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

 

[Boom_70]

Just don't have the mind to enjoy his work or get it on the level
that the experts say I should.

 

[Songbird]

Where'd you get that picture of Charlie Pierce? Que va!

 

[Boom_70]

It's fun to press people when they say that like to read Hemingway. When asked
for more detail of why they really don't have an answer. Which tells me that
they really don't read Hemingway and were just saying so to sound sophisticated
and erudite.

 

[Songbird]

I didn't start reading him till I was 32 or 33.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favorite book. The story is gripping and no one writes better dialogue.

Tarantino is the Hemingway of movie dialogue.

 

[YankeeFan]

It's fun to press people when they say that like to read Hemingway. When asked
for more detail of why they really don't have an answer. Which tells me that
they really don't read Hemingway and were just saying so to sound sophisticated
and erudite.

At least people read him.

Folks kept telling me what a great writer and reporter Helen Thomas was, but none of them could cite a single thing she had ever written.

 

[YankeeFan]

I didn't start reading him till I was 32 or 33.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is my favorite book. The story is gripping and no one writes better dialogue.

Tarantino is the Hemingway of movie dialogue.

I think he's even better at setting a scene than he is at dialogue.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It's fun to press people when they say that like to read Hemingway. When asked
for more detail of why they really don't have an answer. Which tells me that
they really don't read Hemingway and were just saying so to sound sophisticated
and erudite.

At least people read him.

Folks kept telling me what a great writer and reporter Helen Thomas was, but none of them could cite a single thing she had ever written.

Man, you are relentless. This made me laugh.

As for Hemingway, he overrated Dimaggio a bit. Should have gone with Hank Greenberg.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I bet **** has read every work.
****, come tell us about Hemingway.

 

[Songbird]

Just don't have the mind to enjoy his work or get it on the level
that the experts say I should.

Yeah, I rarely delve into "levels" of literature unless they hit me over the head.

Sometimes you just have to read a book for its story.

It's kind of funny, really. Growing up I'd hear Hemingway or Steinbeck or other literary heavyweights and be scared off not because I wouldn't have understood the works but because there was this strange importance put upon them and that made me uncomfortable, which then made me gravitate away from them, idiotically so.

Then I started reading them in my early 30s and wondered why the **** I waited so late.

They are simple, effective -- beautiful -- storytellers.

And yeah, as LTL alludes to, the DiMaggio thing. You have this whole fishing tale that stands on its own merit, and yet the tale is woven throughout with references to America's greatest ballplayer (subjective, of course, but you get my drift). Then again, any writer who can masterfully weave baseball into his or her story is good in my book.

 

[YankeeFan]

As for Hemingway, he overrated Dimaggio a bit. Should have gone with Hank Greenberg.

He had DiMaggio in mind before he wrote the rest of the book. Built a whole narrative around the idea and mythology of DiMaggio.

The whole novel falls apart with anyone else.

Besides, Greenberg was a Jew. Who's going to relate to him?

 

[LongTimeListener]

The narrative had a narrative.

 

[Brian]

I never thought it took extraordinary intelligence to understand and be moved by Hemingway. I'm a lunk who has to read and re-read and re-read Pynchon and David Foster Wallace and William Faulkner passages to get the full force of their writing in my tiny little brain.

Hemingway never took that kind of effort for me, at least.

As far as pretension and reading: I think about something James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem says as he's shaving in the opening of the documentary "Shut Up and Play the Hits" when he's talking about how everyone considers him pretentious for many reasons, including discussing Thomas Pynchon's books.

His theory kind of went: If the pretension leads you to reading the book, then it's justified because you end up reading a great novel. No matter the original reason for reading it. But I think the opposite is true: if the pretension involves not even reading the book, then it's pretty noxious.

The final dozen pages of For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises for me were surreal moments where I felt transported and understood by the writer. Almost weightless in a way only a couple dozen books can make me feel. I might be in the minority, but I even love The Garden of Eden and its look into gender roles. As much as Hemingway fumbled with writing women, I thought that one got the dynamic right. But I know a lot of people wish it had never been published.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I did my master's thesis on Hemingway. I spent a year elbow deep in everything he'd written. I have an entire bookcase about four feet from me filled with books by him and about him. And this ... "The final dozen pages of For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises for me were surreal moments where I felt transported and understood by the writer. Almost weightless in a way only a couple dozen books can make me feel." ... is one of the best things I've read about him.

 

[Songbird]

Pretension is a good word to describe what I was trying to say.

I agree on the endings to those 2 books, too, but especially FWTBT.

It was quite fascinating to watch toward the end of "Blood Diamond" -- one of the great movies of the last 10 years -- when DiCaprio dies near the top of the hill. It verily reminded me of Robert Jordan dying the way he did. DiCaprio may have been a selfish diamond thief but he died a hero by letting father and son meet the copter.

Anyway.

 

[Versatile]

One thing I've always had a problem with when it comes to reading: How do you justify reading a second or third book by one author? There are so many authors. I can probably count on one hand the authors from whom I've read more than one book.

I loved The Sun Also Rises, but then I moved on to the next author, the next style, the next set of personal mores and societal views.

I could read a book every two weeks, each by a different author, for the rest of my life and still not have read something by every literary icon.

 

[Songbird]

The final dozen pages of For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises for me were surreal moments where I felt transported and understood by the writer. Almost weightless in a way only a couple dozen books can make me feel.

Tangent, but Chapter 14 from Steinbeck's Cannery Row does that for me. It's only a few pages but it's the best chapter of any book I've ever read.

 

[TigerVols]

I inherited two oil paintings his mother created.

[/all I got]

 

[Boom_70]

I do like the Fuente Hemingway cigar

 

[cranberry]

One thing I've always had a problem with when it comes to reading: How do you justify reading a second or third book by one author? There are so many authors. I can probably count on one hand the authors from whom I've read more than one book.

I loved The Sun Also Rises, but then I moved on to the next author, the next style, the next set of personal mores and societal views.

I could read a book every two weeks, each by a different author, for the rest of my life and still not have read something by every literary icon.

Interesting thought. I often read everything written by novelists if I choose to read them, usually chronologically so I can see how they develop.