Podcast links – I was on The Herd yesterday and Baseball Tonight last night. Still working on last night’s Fan 590 Toronto hit, and the Mike & Mike hit should be up later today.
It would be fairly easy to write a note about Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea
Really Short Books of Five-Word Sentences Fiction); his prose style is detached, and I can’t relate to the casual nihilism of many of his main characters. The Old Man and the Sea differs from the other Hemingway novels I’ve read in the latter respect, since it’s more of a fable than a novel, and the title character dares to hope.
The main question around the novella seems to be the symbolic value of the sea and/or the giant fish that the old man catches. These were some possibilities that occurred to me as I read the book:
* The fish represents happiness: You can catch it and hold it for a short period of time, but like all else in life and this world, it will pass. This would mean that Our Lady Peace had it slightly wrong, since happiness would indeed be a fish you can catch, but not one you can keep.
* The fish represents man: King of his little universe until some higher force (fate, God, two-headed aliens with probes … okay, the last one might be a stretch) intervenes. And subjects him to a humiliating, painful decline. This is Hemingway we’re discussing, so you can’t rule that out.
* The sea represents life or fate: Pretty obvious. Man struggling against a force beyond his control and beyond his ability to perceive it, refusing to surrender or accept inevitable defeat.
* The fish and the sea together represent the upper and lower bounds on man’s life. Man can tame or defeat some aspects of his world, but ultimately there is an upper bound on our existence.
We read A Farewell to Arms in AP Lit – I was so pissed at the ending that I threw the book across the room – but never Old Man, which seems to be unusual given how many people tell me they read it in school. Hemingway strikes me as an author best read in an academic setting because his works lend themselves so well to this kind of simple literary analysis. I don’t enjoy his prose, and his stories and characters don’t grip me the way that Fitzgerald’s or Faulkner’s do.
Next up: The second book in William Kennedy’s Albany cycle, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game
Keith- I enjoy Hemingway for the reasons that you seem to dislike him. His prose is spare, but to me that is a positive. And without ruining the ending for those who haven’t read it, I’m curious if you were pissed at the ending of A Farewell to Arms becuase of what actually transpired in the story or because of Hemingway’s delivery? For me, his understated style made that ending all the more impactful.
Enjoy your write-ups as always, though. Interested to hear the thoughts of others on this one.
Never read Hemingway, and am very partial to OLP. So I’ll lean towards their words of wisdom. It’s been my experience that true “happiness” can’t be broken down to something so simple as “reeling it in”.
I didn’t read OM&TS in school, instead I randomly picked it up and finished it a few years ago when I saw it sitting around my parents’ house.
The way I took the symbolism was more about every person’s personal and internal struggle. His battle against the fish was long, fierce, and tiring; and there was no celebratory end result for him other than knowing how hard he had worked (the sharks took care of that. It reminds me of any “good” thing we accomplish (or try and fail to accomplish) in life that goes un-noticed, whether its helping out your fellow man because its right or working hard at your job and not being rewarded. I think its applicable to basically anything you attempt to do and do well for its own sake. It doesn’t really matter whether there is a reward at the end of the struggle, because YOU know what you went through or accomplished, and at the end of the day, all you really have is YOU.
I don’t read a ton of books so I have no idea if thats what Hemmingway intended, but that is how the book affected me, so I just thought I’d share.
Keith- this is great. Pirates players are again upset with the teams trades.
Apparently Jack Wilson felt Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett were helping the team win now.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4299138
Ooops, I forgot the point of my post. You’re hit with Mike & Mike is on the page I linked.
I agree with you as far as the ending to A Farewell to Arms. What did you think of The Sun Also Rises? I thought that was a much better story and had an ending that was much more fitting.
Keith,
Dave Cameron is saying that the Milledge/Morgan trade was a huge win for the Nationals. He also asserted that Nyjer Morgan is more valuable than Adam Dunn. I agree that Morgan is undervalued, but it’s still not a smart move for the Nationals.
It seems to me he is exaggerating Morgan’s defensive value and undervaluing OBP for both Dunn and Morgan. Regardless, it doesn’t seem to make much sense for an awful team to trade two high upside players in order to get a 29yr old +2 win player and a below average relief pitcher.
I like Hemingway but mostly because I think he’s like a drunk old man on the corner spinning yarns to anyone who will listen – except he’s sort of rambles about booze, buulfights and women, and often hopeless and sometimes surley. Like a more approachable Bukowski. With that being said, you nailed Old Man as the easiest piece of his literature to pin meaning to, whatever meaning one wants.
Before giving up Hemingway and his naked prose style, you should consider his short stories. They are brisk, comical and rather interesting. I think they are his best work…but then again, I liked Farewell to Arms, so take it for what it is worth.
I read only one Hemingway novel, To Have and Have Not, and did not love it, but I do recommend his short stories. Some of them are great.
When I was 18 I thought Hemingway was the best there ever was. I still love him, but now that I’m a little older Fitzgerald is the one that sends me into rapture.
What did Joel Pineiro change to have so much success this year? His GB rate has gone through the roof…did he steal Derek Lowes mojo? Did he add a new pitch? Any idea if this change is sustainable? Thanks
Dan: Looks like Pineiro added a 2 seam.
http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfx.aspx?playerid=1094&position=P
Dave- Thanks..thats exactly what I was looking for..totally blanked on fangraphs…apparently that 2 seamer is much improved as he has doubled its horizontal movement.