What's new

Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway.

Was he a misogynistic, self promoting, overrated, closet queen, blowhard?

Or was he an innovator, man's man, voice of a generation, American genius?

Was he both? Discuss.
 
Wow, shouldn't this be in the Literary Criticism thread?

I don't doubt that Hemingway was a lousy guy but he could write.

Actually that' pretty much my take on him too. By all accounts he was a mess as a person but I don't think you can deny his artistry. Though some will.
 
Actually that' pretty much my take on him too. By all accounts he was a mess as a person but I don't think you can deny his artistry. Though some will.

It's been a long time since I read Hemingway seriously, but the economy of his prose sticks with me. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a collection of his short stories in a bookstore and read through one while I was waiting to meet my wife. I still appreciate the effort he must have put into stripping the story down to an expressive minimum.

He still casts a pretty long shadow. I picked up Katie Kitamura's new novel, "The Longshot" during another bookstore prowl. While it seems to be popular, it reads like an honorable mention from a Bad Hemingway contest. It even features a trip to Mexico. If Hemingway knew what a Kimura was, he could have written it on the side of his chumbucket when he was out trawling in the Gulf.
 
Last edited:
I thought an F.S. Fitzgerald fan would pipe in by now and maybe trash Hem for the mention he makes in a Movable Feast about Scott's, umm, "equipment", and how Zelda didn't think it was all it could be. I never understood why anyone would put that in a book about one of their former friends especially after the guy was dead which I think Fitzgerald was then.
 
I am sure that time, commercial promotions and a good dose of romanticism has obfuscated who he may have really been. While not one of his most seminal works, Islands in the Stream had a profound effect on me as a young man. It illustrated for me Hemingway's struggle with his own mortality and the self doubt of accomplishment that permeated his works.

After all is said and done- depression and self medication with alcohol that cut short his life.

So to the OP's question-
Yes and no.
 
I love Hemingway's novels.

Well, except for the way, at the end of every single one almost, either the hero dies.

Or his woman dies. Or they both die.

Alone. In the rain.

Weeping. :biggrin:

Seriously, he was the greatest of the Lost Generation, and one of the last of a particular breed of author . . . men who LIVED bigger than life lives, and wrote what they knew, not what they conned grad students into researching for them.

Maybe he ended badly, maybe he ended it all on his own terms, just as he lived it.

Not see his like again soon either way.

NANP™
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
Might be conflicted as he was, but something about the man, or his novels resonates with me. The Nick Adams stories from Petosky & the UP , were for some of my lost youth. The other stories have similar personal memories, or connections. I don't often seek out one of his books, but when I do stumble across him I always get a great read.

Considering what came after, maybe Papa wasn't all that bad
 
Incredible writer and on the surface he exemplified what most people think the word "man" means. Underneath he seems to have been a bit of a train wreck to say the least. Not the greatest husband, father or friend. Maybe these flaws are what made him such a great artist. Anyway, one of my favorites.

Questions: Would he be as great today? Depression is nothing to be ashamed of anymore and can be controlled through medication and therapy. Would this have taken the edge off of his prose? Surely his lifestyle would not have survived today's media coverage. It would be great to see him knock a few of the paparazzi on their *** though.
 
He drank, he smoked, he hunted wild game in exotic locations, he created characters of men we all wish we could live up to and even in his grim demise there was something profound in the way he went about it. The hero always dies tragically. I vote for man's man, then I might be biased.
 
Enjoyed many of his works; they forced me to read into the story, rather than be presented the story, as is the case with 'popular' fiction.

As to the man, I know little, beyond the image that he presented of himself - that of a macho man doing things on his own terms, which seems in contrast to the man he really was.

If indeed he was a shoddy friend, husband, and father, then he pretty much fails in what is the common measure of a man, and all that's left to admire is the Artist and his work. Perhaps that was part of his depression; his failure to live up to ideals he could never meet.

I see a lot of him and his life (and death) in Hunter S Thompson as well. Though when writing, HST never knew when to shut the hell up.
 
Actually that' pretty much my take on him too. By all accounts he was a mess as a person but I don't think you can deny his artistry. Though some will.

There are a lot of great/writers, especially classics, that fit into the "mess of a person" and great artist category. Just to name a few, you have Percy Shelley, James Joyce, Johnathon Swift, and Dylan Thomas.

Not sure if the trend continues today as most modern writers don't interest me too much. Even our greatest literary figure, Bill Shakespeare, had his rather large flaws and controveries in life.

As fas as Hemingway, he definitely was a great writer. He knew ho to cut/right into a story and never bogged the reader down in anything unecessary. I can't tell you how much I hate it when a writer goes on for two pages just talking the clouds. Uggh!
 
I guess we have to put up with the "artist as personality" stuff as long as some artists are self-promoters, huh? (And we can spend forever discussing whether artists MUST BE self-promoters in order to make a mark during their lifetimes.)

But - now we are -what? two generations? - away from Hemingway as personality... does his writing hold up?

Grant his importance to American letters while he was alive (and writing).

When you read him today does his work make you catch your breath?


I read the Nick Adams stories and I catch my breath.
 

Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
I've read a lot of Hemingway's novels and I have enjoyed the story lines but... I don't know. I just feel like I should be more enthused than I am after I finish each one. Read the back of the book and they DEFINITELY sound like the kind of book I'd love. They have all the right elements. But once I start reading I often find a lot of the characters one dimensional and the dialog trite. Especially the female characters.

I still have a few of his books on my "to read" shelf and I will give them a go. Maybe my opinion will change. He was a master of economic writing, I'll give him that.
 
Top Bottom