Ernest Hemingway

[buckweaver]

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.

You could make the same argument against re-reading books, too.

But here's an argument for that (which our own waterytart has helped me learn to appreciate recently), and which I think also applies to reading multiple titles from the same author:

I have found that my experience as a reader picking up the same book at age 30 that I first read at 15 has been significantly different. I am a different person than I was then, and my interpretation of certain stories, its characters, its messages and — especially — its details and nuances is often very different, too. My worldview has changed; my experiences over time have changed me.

I firmly believe the timing of when you read a book matters, just like everything else in life. Here's an extreme example to illustrate the point: When you pick up an angsty book like "Catcher in the Rye" or "On The Road" or, for me, "This Side of Paradise" at age 15 ... that book hits you in a deep place, or at least as deep as any 15-year-old can be. Pick up those same books for the first time at age 30 and you want to throw the protagonist out of a window by Chapter 5. (Some of you may have wanted to throw them out of the window at age 15, too, but y'all have no souls.)

Here's a more personal example: I read "Eight Men Out" for the first time at age 16 (and I've told that story here before.) It changed my life and directly set me on the professional/career path I'm on now. Would it do the same today? Absolutely not. I pick it up now, having learned so much about the story that I didn't know then, and my experience reading the book is very different.

That said, most books don't need or deserve a second read, and many authors don't, either. But each book you read is a different experience — and each time you read a book is a different experience, too.

You still have to be judicious in which books you read, because your time is valuable and you can't read everything. As I get older, I find myself not finishing books that suck, whereas I might have slogged through them at 15. **** that, life's too short to spend a minute more reading bad books.

Read good books, no matter who writes them. And if a couple of those books happen to be by the same author, hey, nothing wrong with that.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I had a first edition of Death in the Afternoon that was as impressive for the illustrations as it was for Hemingway's writing. Sold it, though.

I think I've read everything he wrote, mostly as a teen. A couple were assigned, the old man and the marlin and poor Jake Barnes getting his nads blown off. I think we were steered to him because of his economy with words and his ultra-macho attitude (I suppose up to the point he offed himself). Brutal story, but I suppose I like his short story Up in Michigan best:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Three_Stories_and_Ten_Poems/Up_in_Michigan

To be honest, though, I am more of a fan of Mariel Hemingway in Personal Best.

Once I took a woman to Key West. She was ultra-smart and very well-read. We were in a bar and I told her, "Hemingway drank here." She said, "So?" You're either a fan or you aren't.

 

[Songbird]

I'm still pissed off at Margot Macomber. Rotten vindictive -- murderous -- *****.

 

[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.

You could make the same argument against re-reading books, too.

But here's an argument for that (which our own waterytart has helped me learn to appreciate recently), and which I think also applies to reading multiple titles from the same author:

I have found that my experience as a reader picking up the same book at age 30 that I first read at 15 has been significantly different. I am a different person than I was then, and my interpretation of certain stories, its characters, its messages and — especially — its details and nuances is often very different, too. My worldview has changed; my experiences over time have changed me.

I firmly believe the timing of when you read a book matters, just like everything else in life. Here's an extreme example to illustrate the point: When you pick up an angsty book like "Catcher in the Rye" or "On The Road" or, for me, "This Side of Paradise" at age 15 ... that book hits you in a deep place, or at least as deep as any 15-year-old can be. Pick up those same books for the first time at age 30 and you want to throw the protagonist out of a window by Chapter 5. (Some of you may have wanted to throw them out of the window at age 15, too, but y'all have no souls.)

Here's a more personal example: I read "Eight Men Out" for the first time at age 16 (and I've told that story here before.) It changed my life and directly set me on the professional/career path I'm on now. Would it do the same today? Absolutely not. I pick it up now, having learned so much about the story that I didn't know then, and my experience reading the book is very different.

That said, most books don't need or deserve a second read, and many authors don't, either. But each book you read is a different experience — and each time you read a book is a different experience, too.

You still have to be judicious in which books you read, because your time is valuable and you can't read everything. As I get older, I find myself not finishing books that suck, whereas I might have slogged through them at 15. **** that, life's too short to spend a minute more reading bad books.

Read good books, no matter who writes them. And if a couple of those books happen to be by the same author, hey, nothing wrong with that.

I understand the argument, but we're already missing out on so much.

It frays at my nerves to think about how much good **** I'm missing out on already.

 

[YankeeFan]

I understand the argument, but we're already missing out on so much.

It frays at my nerves to think about how much good **** I'm missing out on already.

Aren't the odds you'll like a book higher if you've already enjoyed a book by the same author?

 

[Versatile]

Enjoyment isn't my main goal in reading.

 

[Versatile]

Also, not counting school assignments, I've read very few books that I didn't love. I know my general tastes and only read highly regarded books.

 

[buckweaver]

Enjoyment isn't my main goal in reading.

Even for fiction? What is your main goal?

 

[Versatile]

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.

 

[ColdCat]

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.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

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.

Visiting Key West, Hemingway's home, and the bars where he drank was great. I have a picture of him in my home and a big poster in my classroom.

I like to put myself into his books, into his adventures ... Paris, Key West, Cuba, Spain.

Lady Brett Ashley is a *****.

 

[Football_Bat]

Hemingway owns Faulkner.

 

[Boom_70]

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.

Visiting Key West, Hemingway's home, and the bars where he drank was great. I have a picture of him in my home and a big poster in my classroom.

I like to put myself into his books, into his adventures ... Paris, Key West, Cuba, Spain.

Lady Brett Ashley is a *****.

SJ - I think you hit on something. When people say they admire Hemingway
more often than not it's about the life he lead as opposed to his writing.

 

[User 11148]

Having looked at a painting/sculpture by a given artist, how can you justify looking at another painting/sculpture by that artist? I mean, having seen Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, is it worth squandering a chance to look at another artist's work just to take a peek at Guernica?

 

[cranberry]

I understand the argument, but we're already missing out on so much.

It frays at my nerves to think about how much good **** I'm missing out on already.

Aren't the odds you'll like a book higher if you've already enjoyed a book by the same author?

It also bothers me that I won't ever read all of the books I want to read, so I find myself very selective because I feel I don't have time to waste on crap. Unfortunately, that also makes me somewhat conservative in book selection and overly reliant popular opinion.

Certain authors appealed to me so much, there was no way I wasn't going to read them thoroughly.

 

[Songbird]

Paris Review FB page:

All of Tolstoy’s works are going online. “We wanted to come up with an official website that will contain academically justified information,” explains his great-great-granddaughter. The work on the site will have been triple-proofed by more than 3,000 volunteers from some forty-nine countries.

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/09/06/tolstoy-goes-digital-and-other-news/

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130905/183191485/All-of-Tolstoys-Works-Are-Online-for-Free--Descendant.html

 

[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 **** 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.