I just started Hemmingway's "Farewell to arms"

[OffWithTheirHeads]

Somehow, in the last 57 years, I just never got around to Hemmingway. He's not exactly John Stienbeck is he?

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. And I never got around to Steinbeck...

I recommend the Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway...

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. Saw the movie.

I dunno, I guess I just expected more from someone on such a high pedestal. The only reason I started it was because in was in my library and I was too lazy today to go down to the used book store and sniff around. My wife likes to buy collections of old, hard cover classics so... Maybe I'll try War and Peace cause I am not the type to just finish a book just because I started it. If it sucks, it sucks. I don't care who wrote it. I'm only into it about 80 pages so I'll give it a few more sittings but so far, I'm not impressed.

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. Its subtle..

I didn't think much of the old man and the sea until I saw it as a metaphor for the struggle of the artist, hooking into this big concept/emotion (fish) intuitively only to have it "turn into a skeleton" when you try to "bring it to shore" as a novel painting or composition. I just liked the way he used the boring to illustrate the profound in that book. I don't know if he does the same with that book though.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Interesting. I took the The Old Man and the Sea to be...

a study of the concept of courage and man's ability to rise to the occasion. There were a series of challenges some thrust upon him by the moment, some by fate, and some of his own choosing, but they were the sort of challenges we all face at some time. In the end, true courage is simply living through the day expecting tomorrow. This was the book that first made me look at Hemingway as something more than a bullfighting drunk.

Of course, the metaphor of the artist fits in there, too-- both interpretations are valid, and complement each other. There may yet be more.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

5. Steinbeck is a truly great writer!

He can be awfully depressing though. "Grapes" had a profound effect on me.

[Arctic Dave]

2. Drink, fight, drink , fight, drink some more,

fight some more. Seriously though, Hemmingway is in a class all his own I enjoyed all the books I've read of his.

[defendandprotect]

3. I've never read the book . . . but I think it's a meaningful story . . .

and right now it swings me to the Move ON ad with the mother holding the baby ---
a silly, ridiculous add --- except while I never watch ads it stopped me immediately ---
and as silly as it is, as dumb as it is, as badly done as it it --- it still is meaningful.

We all stumble sometimes like the ad in trying to say something very important.
War and warprofiteering vs caring for our children --- keeping them war free.

I loved the old movies of "A Farewell to Arms" --- have you ever seen the one with
Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper --- the other is Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones.

Both great -- for different reasons.

BUT -- love the anti-war message --

Lots of bull-fighting stuff I didn't like about Hemingway -- but this story I loved.

He was also married at one time to a very wonderful writer --- she is

Martha Ellis Gellhorn, a war correspondent --- and she has written some major

meaningful stuff on war --- been a while since I've read it --- but, as I recall it.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. No, he's not-- he's better in some ways...

and not so good in others. Keep reading and forget all the bullshit about his life. The public Hemingway was so grotesque that it overshadowed what were some of the most tersely exquisite and tender words ever written.

There were places in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" where I just had to put the book down and sit there for a while. Absorbing it.

He had an incredible way of condensing a paragraph into a sentence. Sometimes a whole chapter into that one sentence. He would lay out a picture and finish it with a few words.

A love. A death. Every love and death throughout history was in that one sentence, and you had to sit back to absorb it all.

Too bad Hemingway the man was a shit, and Hemingway the writer has never managed to overcome that.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. Hey, he couldn't have been that bad, he loved Mohito's

Me too! O.K. I will give him more time.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

10. I think I understand what your trying to say but

I actually have to work for a living and don't have a lot of time to figure out metaphors. If you have something to say, say it. Don't make me guess. I just don't have the time to guess the hidden meaning in your work.

[Orrex]

11. Hemingway's novels are quite good; his short stories are excellent

Before you start reading him, make sure that you ignore all of the caricatured bullshit you've heard about him, most notably the annual "write like Hemingway" contest that bystanders love to use as a bludgeon for attacking Hemingway.

Excellent stuff. I've read and reread his short stories I don't know how many times.

[MonkeyFunk]

12. Try his short stories

They're among the best around.

[Orrex]

13. You're always trying to be just like me

Not that I can blame you, of course...

[pitohui]

14. i actually prefer hemingway

wonderful prose style in my view

i envy you with this book ahead of you