Filed under: Uncategorized
Hemingway always gets me down.
Yesterday I flew from Casper, Wyoming -layover in Denver- to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I read “To Have and Have Not” by Hemingway, which is a subtle commentary on love, and an not so subtle commentary on Capitalism, the American Dream, and the choices a man makes and how those choices define one’s life.
Hem has a knack for writing true and honest characters. His heroes are flawed, the way people are flawed, the way I am flawed. Often, reading a Hemingway novel is like looking into a mirror– the way literature should be.
It is so easy for me to go about life not really thinking of the consequences of my actions. I’ve spent a lot of time (maybe all of it) just trudging on and on to the next thing to the next girl to the next place to the next event to the next something. It is easy to just keep moving without really analysing the universe I’m creating around me.
That’s why art is important. Too often in pop media we are presented with characters who embody a certain ideal. Flat good guys and perfect bad guys and usually you can tell who is who within the first few minutes. But hey, it is entertainment, it is escapism, and it is good for you, to an extent.
Art exists to hold up a mirror. Art exists to expose the self. So Hemingway bums me out because his work is often an meditation on the human condition, which is after all, my condition.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
RAISED WITH WOLVES 