Bright Young Things discussion

Use this thread for any comments or questions with this month's group read, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

Enjoy!

I'm not currently reading this book since I read it rather recently, but I'd like to participate in this discussion as best I can

I'm not sure if I will read it or not since it is only about a year ago (maybe not even that long) since I read it. But I do have it out for easy reference for discussion.

Maybe I'll break down and re=read it. It just seems a little soon.

I read this about a month ago? now. I loved it. Hemingway's style seemed so effortless, and I'm sure it was very difficult to sound so simple. The descriptions of the people and places were just lovely. I want to go to Paris in the '20s...!

I'm not a Hemmingway Fan actually, although perhaps that's unfair as I've only read one book - The Sun Also Rises - but it can sometimes happen that one book is enough put you off a writer. I found it quite depressing. I'm afraid I may be 'once bitten twice shy'!

I've found a few interesting reading questions on Bookrags: http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-a-...

I'd be very interested to lear what Hemingway has to say about Friendship. Also - one of the questions refers to writing as a 'masculine art' - is that a fair comment in relation to this work?

I read this awhile ago so I can't remember if he ever mentioned writing being a masculine art.I find it hard to believe, though, considering that an influence of his, and one who helped him out in his writing career, was the contemporary Gertrude Stein.

He definitely championed masculinity and physical strength in his novels, but I think that that is different then what we are talking about here.

I think he wrestled with words. Remember, he was always striving for the "one true sentence". So, in that respect it could considered masculine.

And it is not as though Gertrude Stein was a dainty thing.

Jan C wrote: "And it is not as though Gertrude Stein was a dain..."

This is true. However, I think it's more the subject matter he was relating in his novels, and not the writing of the novels themselves. He writes a novel about a man and his physically grueling conflict with a fish. He writes about a man witnessing the bloody bull fights. A man in the heat of WW1.

Unless I am mistaken (please tell me if I am!!) he never mentions anything about the art of writing being a masculine one. I personally don't believe he felt that, considering all of the famous female authors who came before his time, or during it.

But did he respect them? Either as writers or as human beings? From what I've read, the answer would be no. He liked them for what he could use them for, how they could be of use to him. Men, too, for that matter.

I think that the majority of truly successful artists were somewhat egotistical, somewhat contemptuous in order to maintain the surplus of confidence one needs to break the mold. Hemingway, I'm sure, is no exception.

And although Hemingway exhibited some aspects of sexism in his lifestyle, I don't believe he considered them inferior beasts without any trace of artistic talent. Mainly, he felt them incapable of performing some of the more physically demanding challenges, like Bull Fighting, Boxing, and War. Writing, on the other hand, has nothing to do with strength or muscles, so I can't imagine him calling it a "masculine art."

Non-fiction?

But Hemingway's is a lovely, luminous book whatever its classification.


Shelley
Rain: A Dust Bowl Story
http://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.com

Max F. wrote: "I think that the majority of truly successful artists were somewhat egotistical, somewhat contemptuous in order to maintain the surplus of confidence one needs to break the mold. Hemingway, I'm sur..."

I would tend to agree with this. From what I've read of Hemingway - he had a GIANT ego, was a womanizer and a violent homophobe, and a big drinker. But nothing can take away from the fact that he wrote some great books. I thoroughly recommend A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, To Have and Have Not, and The Old Man and the Sea.

I thought I'd ressurect this thread too...maybe I'll re-assess my original choice to bypass this one!

I really enjoyed this book.it was the first and only book by Hemingway that I have read so far..it brought to life many of the other authors I love, and showed sides of them I never knew....

I've ordered this one...

Ally wrote: "I've ordered this one..."

You will love it especially if you enjoy works by Ford Madox Ford, Fitzgerald, Stein and others from that time period....sheds great light on their lives....

yes - I think I may have written Hemingway off too soon. One last chance!

I am wading through his Green Hills of Africa.

Good in some spots, so-so in others.

I'm now a good few chapters into A Moveable Feast. I'm enjoying getting another 'view' of the story I just read about Hemingway's forst wife Hadley (The Paris Wife).

I'm still not enjoying Hemingway's way of writing. I think Jan mentioned in another thread that Hemingway has an a way of writing that is quite particular to the way those from 'Chicago' speak. I wonder if that its what is jaring with me? - I find his short sentences stilted and again, although I can certainly see some warm memories surfacing they are relayed in a melancholy way and it is...depressing. This doesn't overshadow the fact that I'm enjoying Hemingway more this time and it's more interesting now that I have a slightly wider view. There are some wonderful historical details here, such as how the old Parisien men used to fish in the Seine.

I think he is using longer sentences and paragraphs in Green Hills of Africa, which may be why I'm having some trouble with it.

I love this book. Hemingway can transition from remembering the way Kansas City prostitutes would swallow semen as a tonic against consumption, to running into James Joyce while walking along the river and joining him for a drink in some Left Bank boite. Who else can do that?

I totally agree...when you've finished read The Paris Wife just to compare and to get her perspective, or her author's perspective anyway...

I noticed the nomination in the non-fiction reads for this one so thought I'd bring the thread back to the top of the list...feel free to continue the discussion here (...although don't let it stop you voting for a re-read!)...

Last summer, another group read A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition followed by The Paris Wife. I made it through Feast but wrote that, for me, Hemingway is like that friend you run into that you haven't seen for years and you both wonder why you've lost touch. So you start hanging out together only to find out why you stopped hanging out in the first place.

Portia wrote: "Hemingway is like that friend you run into that you haven't seen for years and you both wonder why you've lost touch. So you start hanging out together only to find out why you stopped hanging out in the first place."

Ha. Good one Portia. I have only read For Whom the Bell Tolls, and thought it was very good, so for me, so far, he's still an old friend that I happy to hang out with again. For now anyway.