Working your way through a classic piece of literature can be extremely difficult. Sometimes the language is from a different period of time, not lending itself to an easy understanding. Sometimes, the themes are inspired by an unfamiliar feeling to you, like a war or revolution that happened before your life. The only way to develop the part of your brain that can digest a classic piece of literature, is to read more classic pieces of literature.
I'd like to consider myself more well-read than the average guy. I've chewed through a lot of the classics, Homer, Stoker, Dumas, Melville, by certainly not as many as I would like to. Even so, when I started this book, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway - The Finca Vigia Edition, the first few stories were difficult for me to comprehend, with a few exceptions. The first story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" spoke to me, so I didn't have a problem with that one. That aside, though, it was a different depth of constant reading than I was used to.
By the time I made it to the end, which happened pretty quickly, "Hemingway's Boat" had me all inspired, I found myself floating from the beginning of the stories to the end quickly and effortlessly.
Anyway, I got a lot out of these particular stories. Hemingway's themes and motifs have been sources of debate, praise and ridicule ever since they were first written. His style, too, uniquely his own at the time, inspired many many other authors after him, none of whom have ever been able, despite trying tirelessly, to replicate it.
He is sparse with adjectives. He uses nouns and connective words like "and" in lieu of further description. He sort of gives you the canvas and the brush and tells your imagination what to paint instead of painting it for you. In this way, he makes you a part of the world he creates. He also puts himself, in some version or another, into every story, so that you can recognize the real, human, mortal experiences his characters are going through.
Some of the stereotypes about Hemingway's writing that some of his non-readers hold, such as his fascination with death, violence, sex, and hunting/fishing, are certainly based on truth. The Hemingway stories contain tragedies almost always, but keep them in such a rational, masculine place, that you appreciate their inclusion each time. I, personally, having never particularly enjoyed tragedy in my media, have developed a new appreciation for it as a literary tool.
One of the most respected traits I found about the man in his writing, is his fearlessness in his topics and themes. The man, of course a masculine role model, and avid sportsman, was held in the highest regards as a hunter of the African plains and a fisher of the Caribbean seas. But, he like all other men in the world, whether they are secure enough to admit it or not, wrestled with harsh, horrible ideas, like mortality, unfair sexual stereotypes and even gender's sex roles.
Hemingway knew decades before his suicide that it would be he who ended his own life. He mentioned it several times. This was because the man was unafraid to look death in the face and make his own opinions about it. Hemingway wrote about sex and adultery with frankness and rawness. It wasn't always romantic in his stories, sometimes it was ugly and advantageous. He also touched on the topic of homosexuality and gender-switching. Some critics believe that Hemingway found a femininity in himself for which he was overcompensating by acting out in all of his masculine ways, his shooting, and boxing and drunken brawling. I disagree. Hemingway made peace with it in his writing, I believe. His poor son struggled with it much more than he did, unfortunately.
Every man who lends himself to thoughts of depth finds these struggles. Death and sex and tragedy and violence and adultery are horrid things sometimes, and sometimes they are beautiful. Hemingway found both in his stories.
On the whole, I believe that I have improved my own appreciation for literature, and for entire themes of entertainment. I have had to face scary ideas about death and gender and come out feeling more secure and fearless on the other side, which, I think, may have been Hemingway's intention. It is that fearlessness, that courage under fire, that made Hemingway such a masculine role model, and something we can borrow from him by enjoying his writing. His commitment was absolute. His adventures were legendary. His stores are timeless.
I highly recommend Hemingway's Complete short stories.
No comments:
Post a Comment