Week 3: February 13-19

This week as I was reading I had a change of heart about my feelings on Hemingway's writing style. At first I thought it was simple and consequently boring. This week I read over some parts a little more slowly and I discovered that I appreciate it's simplicity. His writing is so honest. There are many writers who use flowery language and I have become accustomed to it, but I have come to believe it is just fake. I've come to realize that I prefer Hemingway's honest writing.

I re-read the Field's essay on Hemingway this week. I must have skipped over this quote the first time I read it:

"Ernest cared far less than I about aesthetics. What he cared about was the action and the emotional body of the traveler. He was a born traveler as he was a born novelist."

-Janet Flanner

This is basically what I said in one of my previous blog posts about Hemingway. Hemingway doesn't poetically describe the beauty of everything he sees in Paris. Rather, he speaks of things from a traveler's perspective. When he refers to a building or landmark, he adds where it is in relation to some other landmark he previously mentioned. It kind of allows you to map out the 1920's in Paris in your head. He also gives the reader a real sense of the culture in expatriate Paris by writing of his experiences and his opinions of people and places as he is writing about this or that particular day/experience. The way people act tell a lot about the culture and socially accepted things.

Hemingway also introduces other writers he is associated with in Paris. He pretty much gives the juicy details that people would probably never know about these writers. Hemingway makes it seem like Ford Madox Ford is losing it. Ford tells something to Hemingway and Hemingway said yes, you told me. Ford asks are you sure, that he had never told that to anyone in his life. Ford also orders a drink and when the waiter brings it he says he didn't order that particular drink when, in fact, he had. He also mistakes a man for Hilaire Belloc. He also meets with lots of other writers and speaks with them and tells us what he thinks of them.

One thing that the c-span video brought up was that Hemingway was very depressed during most of his years in Paris. In his writing, you can tell a little bit, particularly in the conversation with Ford. As soon as Ford sees him he tells him he looks "glum" and Hemingway denies it, implying that he doesn't want to come to terms with it and he will continue to ignore his depression. He also doesn't have a lot of self-confidence. He tells Mr. Lavigne that he writes like a pig. When talking to Ernest Walsh, he asks him if he is marked for death. When Walsh replies no, he says "give me time." Clearly, he doesn't believe he will live long.

Hemingway loses Mrs. Stein's friendship essentially because he can't accept her being a lesbian. He overhears her and her live-in girlfriend having sexual relations while waiting for her and flees. He says they are still friends, but it is not truly the same. We can see that Hemingway is an innocent and traditional young man because he is seemingly horrified by what he heard.