hemingway

the steps, or the finish line?

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ 6 Comments

I saw an interesting article in the New York Times called, "To Use and Use Not." It's about a new edition of Hemingways A Farewell to Arms. In addition to some other material, it will include the fifty-seven different endings Hemingway wrote before he got to the one he wanted.

The actual ending ("It was like saying goodbye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.") is famous. Probably not as famous as the beginning of Moby Dick or the ending of The Great Gatsby, but still quite well known.

I can't think, however, that reading all the failed attempts is really going to be that informative, except perhaps to give more evidence that writing can be difficult but worth the effort. Watching deleted scened on DVDs can be fun (and sometimes you can second-guess the decisions that went into the final cut), but if you're really studying film you'd be better off watching the actual film a few more times. That's where the most important lessons are.

(Also, typing the last two sentences up there, specifically "I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain," reminded me that when I write a sentence that has "aaaaaa and bbbbbbb and cccccc" rather than "aaaaaa, bbbbbbb and cccccc" (or, of course, "aaaaaa, bbbbbbb, and cccccc")...

Where was I?

Oh, yes, when I do the "and and and" thing, which I do despite the occasional disapproving email, I got it from Hemingway. Oh, well. That was one lesson I learned, and I didn't have to read fifty-seven other versions of the ending to learn it.


Speaking of Hemingway, he used to dislike semicolons, and for years I avoided them as well, though I've now become more flexible in that area. I do use them sparingly, however.

I just read an article about them at the New York Times blog called Drafts, which also posted the articles about commas that I linked to here. I'm definitely going to follow that blog from now on, in addition to "After Deadline," which I've read for years.

Also, in terms of Vonnegut's put down of semicolons, comparing them to transvestite hermaphrodites, I do have to wonder what he had against transvestite hermaphrodites. What had they ever done to him, to be compared to semicolons?

papa was weird sometimes, too

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ Leave a comment

I had a further thought on my last post, which is that Hemingway illustrated both sides of my point.

On the positive side (and this may have been an influence on me – I read a lot of Hemingway when someone told me, "Hey, I'll bet you read Hemingway, you write like him," before I had ever read anything of his) there are the Nick Adams stories. They were written throughout his life, twenty-four stories (eight unpublished at his death), covering many different points in the character's life. Most of the stories are good, and some are great, and each of course stands on its own. But, collected in one volume (as they are now), in the proper order (of the character's life, not the order of writing or publication), they gain a lot. An argument could be made that, as one narrative, they are a better story than some of his novels.

On the other hand, look at the protagonists of those novels. Read the books one after the other, and it's like meeting the same person over and over, with a different name and a slightly different history. Why give a character a different name when it's clearly the same person? I think you can gain a lot (as the Nick Adams example illustrates) by admitting it, make it the same person, and start to build a life, rather than a little slice of one.