Hemingway

New thing of today, started reading Ernest Hemingway. 

Last night it's drinking, today it's Hemingway - what a combo! I was browsing the aisles at the library when I saw a section of Hemingway novels. Read the cover of "The Garden of Eden" and it looked interesting, but I didn't have the time or the patience to start a new novel. So there was a book of his short stories nearby and I picked it up.

I turned to a random page and started reading the beginning of "Old Man at the Bridge". I was captivated and decided to sit down with it. I really liked that story because it was a great telling of a significant yet insignificant moment in time. I like how Hemingway seems to see beyond and wants to show it. Loved this first story so started flipping around to find another one.

I didn't have a lot of time at the library so I wanted a story I could finish quickly and put the book back in the stack before I left. I like stories that have endings. We have too many stories that don't end. I find sometimes it's just a cheap way to make more money like TV shows or a very popular series of novels. At times the story and heart itself is lost because extending it is more important than the development, evolution and telling of the tale or characters. Plus I don't have a lot of free time these days and I like stories that end. I loved the TV series "Avatar, the last Airbender", and I'm very happy that they ended it and concluded the series, versus trying to make it live on past its prime. 

So I flipped around and started reading through a few beginnings. I got through a few pages of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" but it wasn't getting interesting. Then I checked and apparently the preface was written by Hemingway himself, so I decided to read through it. It was short and sweet and oh so good. I'll quote an excerpt below.

"In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused."

So I flipped around again and started "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". I only got about halfway through before it was time to go. I debated on putting it back on the library shelf, or checking it out. Decided to check it out and finish the story another time. I have yet to, but am looking forward to it. 

I may seriously consider short stories as a way to read, versus trying to commit to novels. I get bored easily and find that if I'm not captivated in the first page, then it's tough reading the rest of the way. Even if I love a beginning, if it gets to slow in the middle I tend to put it down and not pick it back up. So I have many unfinished books. 

Short stories may be a better alternative, with very little invested and not far to go until the end. Plus the author is forced to complete their story in fewer pages, and it may prove for better writing, less fluff and a more unique storytelling. I had an english teacher who told us once "It's much easier to write a lot. It's very difficult to say what you need to and say it in one page". Our assignments were usually one paragraph or one page long, and we had to come up with something brilliant in that small frame. It was more difficult and I learned so much more and loved the challenge.

I also love fairy tales, Aesop's fables and children's books. Maybe I naturally like short stories and never realized it. Anyway this was the first delve into short stories and especially Hemingway. I'm going to allow myself to skip the boring bits and just read what I enjoy. Usually I feel obligated to read everything and be thorough. After all - this is a classic author I know nothing about and I should read his stuff. Putting the "should" in something takes away from it somehow. We keep forcing ourselves to conform and do things we "should", when natural love and passion come from mindlessly meandering into something and consuming it all on our own. I read somewhere that forcing people to do things, takes away from the discovery of falling in love with it and making it a true passion. 

Well, reading is a nice change from TV. I forget all the time how much it takes you away to a different place and gets your brain thinking and feeling. I've cried, laughed and been completely engrossed in books. I would like to get back into it - time permitting, or making it a priority.

So far, loving the Hemingway I love. I'll pick and choose for now. I like how harsh and truthful he is. I like how he uses very large sentences like I do. Plus he's very romantic, not about women it seems, but about life and writing and stories. Yeay for discovering a classic :)