Daniel’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2009)

Daniel’s comments from the The Importance of Reading Ernest group.

Thanks!

Based on my understanding of Hemingway (which is limited) I tend to believe in the symbolic murder of Catherine.

Hemingway was young and idealistic. He saw the war from a male-ego viewpoint; as a right of male passage more than a humanistic fight for a cause. Agnes was older than him, and winning her ‘true love,’ as evident from her letters, validated and enforced his ego. When she became practical about her relationship with him she rejected him by means of that letter. I think that Hemingway was not only heartbroken but also emotionally injured, and Catherine’s death is a reflection of that emotional truth as well as a form of emotional revenge.

Among the reasons why I think that this is true, is that all of Hemingway’s books tie back to certain events in his life. But the events are only a means for Hemingway to reach and capture the emotional feelings associated with them. To him, the emotions that he felt at: his loss of Agnes, the emptiness of his expatriate associations, the carnage of the Spanish Civil War, the hopelessness of a lone and aged Cuban fisherman, and the loss of his youthful abilities, are possibly the truest things in Hemingway’s life. Hemingway could easily dismiss and forget the physical pain of an event, but the emotional memory lived on. For that reason, the emotional memory of an event probably seemed to be the truest part and is probably what Hemingway used to write his one true sentence again and again.

10/17/1918 - Letter from Agnes Von Kurowsky to Hemingway: "Kid dear, I wish I could think up some new and original titles for you and surprise you with, but I always seem to come back to my first attempts. Of course, you are 'why girls leave home', 'the light of my existence', 'my dearest and best', 'my hero', and many more that I will not fill up the page with...I love you still - ever- Agnes.

3/7/1919 - Letter from Agnes Von Kurowsky to Hemingway: "I somehow feel that someday I'll have reason to be proud of you but, dear boy, I can't wait for that day and it's wrong to hurry a career."

I'm always willing to discuss Hemingway.

Here are my thoughts…

Hemingway's literary style is unique for his time. His style has been described as sparse, but actually, he accomplishes the opposite with his writing. He used only the words necessary to outline his scenes, and then allows his readers to draw upon their own imagery, based upon their own experiences, to fill in the details. In this way, sparse becomes more vibrant in the minds of his readers than any extensive description made of words could ever hope to achieve.

Another aspect of his writing that I enjoy is that Hemingway strives for truth. He used is own experiences in life and adapted those experiences to his stories. For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms convey 'popular' truths about war and the nature of human conflict, and were therefore successful. However, even his unsuccessful books, such as Across the River and into the Trees, convey truth; it's just that the truth in these books was probably a bit too personal to Hemingway to be well received by the greater public. The need for truth may also explain why Hemingway was not a prolific writer. Writing fiction without truth was something that Hemingway did not enjoy doing, and thus, had no desire to do often.

3.5 Stars may be about right for the overall story. I found that portions of the book are bit trying, especially in a modern-day context. There are also times when he seems to be writing with an eye towards commercialism. However, I still had to award a few bonus points:

First up is his sparse style. The unique way that Hemingway writes that allows the reader to fill in the scene with their own imagery based on their own experiences. 0.5 Stars.

Second, there are two specific scenes in the book that I thought were vividly brilliant; the story of Pilar’s village during the initial stages of the civil war and El Sordo’s final battle at the top of that hill. 0.5 Stars.

Lastly, I’m intrigued at the actual origins of this story. A common maxim in writing is “write what you know” and Hemingway did just that. He was there in Spain during the civil war and the feeling that this was a story that he had to tell seems to seep through the actual words on the page. Combine this with the suicide of Hemingway’s father and his personal willfulness to constantly exhibit “grace under pressure” and I arrived at another 0.5 Stars.

Yes, I am a bit fanatical.

I have both of these on my Hemingway to-do list. Thank you for the positive endorsements! They serve to validate an addiction.

I watched the movie version of The Killers on AMC and thought it was a good balance between Hemingway’s story and an expanded format that was actually entertaining. The AMC announcer said that Hemingway thought that this movie was the best movie version of his works and that he actually showed the movie to his guests. However, he also said that Hemingway fell asleep after the first reel because that was the only part of the movie that was based on his original story. I thought that this might make for a good story-of-the-month and the movie comparison could be something for others to look into.

I agree...even before the final merger, the frequency of the flashbacks increases as Harry’s condition worsens. For me, this overlying structure served to emphasize the hopeless and imminent conclusion to the story.

I read this story again in July of this year. This last time through, the flashbacks acquired a more humanistic meaning. They seemed to represent that twilight period that exists between consciousnesses and blackout. In essence, they played into Harry’s ever worsening condition that ultimately led to his death.