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Doug posted an update 5 years, 10 months ago
Conveying a lot in a few words…
I’m looking back over Hemingway’s short stories. More than anyone else I’ve read, he was such a master at using sparse language to create vivid pictures. I think my favorite story by him is “Big Two-Hearted River” parts 1 and 2. Like, watching trout:
>Nick looked down into the clear, brown water, colored from the pebbly bottom, and watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins. As he watched them they changed their positions by quick angles, only to hold steady in the fast water again. Nick watched them a long time.<
And I'm thinking, this can only come from someone who was there doing this. I read about him writing down a detail about something he'd seen "in case I ever want to use it in a story." I should do that too!
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I keep meaning to read more Hemmingway. He has a deceptive way of conveying worlds of meaning in just a few words. And a lot of it seems to be subconsciously understood by the reader until they stop and think about it. I’m not sure he’d ever make my ‘favourite author’ list but he’s definotely a master of thr craft.
And a great supporter of adjectives and adverbs!
I’ve only ever read one book by Hemingway, and I don’t know why that is because that one book is a cracker – ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’ I know of no other book that conveys so much in such a simple tale, told in such simple language. It won him the Nobel Prize, and quite right too.
It’s been on my tbr for years, Richard. I must bump it up the pile!
I read that, too, and came away dazzled. Strangely, that was the only one of his novels I read. I’ve read most of his short stories, and have them on my Kindle.
My copy of ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ is an old book club edition that used to belong to my parents and is nearly as old as I am. The story is brought to even more vivid life by drawings by two artists specially commissioned for that edition – a note at the front explains that they were supposed to be alternatives but were so good the publishers decided to use both lots. The book is a treasured possession.
I’ve a ‘picked up because I haven’t read and ought’ ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, but didn’t get very far. Think I need to have another go … sometime.
Despite being a big fan of stripped back writing, I’m not a Hemmingway fan (although I’ve only read one :Farewell to Arms). But this extract is really fabulous. Perhaps I should try some of his short stories.
@katemachon you could do worse than start with ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ which is a full novel but at 27,000 words, definitely more novella length as things are reckoned these days – and a short(ish) one at that.
Thanks, Ath. I’ll give it a try.
I once tried reading _The Sun Also Rises,_ but couldn’t keep my attention on it. It just seemed like people endlessly talking…his short stories, though, are so engaging.
I haven’t read ‘The Sun Also Rises’ so maybe I’m talking out of my backside, but I can’t help thinking that dialogue can reveal a lot. I mean, Shakespeare didn’t do too badly out of it…
LOL dialogue certainly worked for Master Tolkien in Lord of the Rings, too. It was many years ago, maybe it’s time I gave Hemingway’s novel another chance. Maybe listening on audio?
Hi all,
Since I listen to a lot of audiobooks, I thought, why not give _The Sun Also Rises_ another chance, this time on audio? So I tried it last week.
Well I finished it this time, all right. And it left me dazzled. Stunned, even–he truly was a master. I like to think I’ve matured as a reader and a writer since years ago, and maybe I have a better understanding of the “Lost Generation.” But the imagery, the emotions he conveys using only sparse words! And the bullfighting scenes were so vivid and detailed that I was there. I read afterwards that Hemingway really fell in love with bullfighting, and there was even an amateur day when people could come down from the stands and try it themselves. There’s a photograph of him facing down the bull!
As to my own writing progress, I broke out on that novel, covering about a dozen pages that I feel good about. And last night I completed scribbling the first draft of the newest short story. Thanks for your support on that.
OK, gotta run,
~Doug