BONUS NUMBER 80: A GREAT AMERICAN WRITER...IF YOU CAN STAND HIM
(Did You Sleep With the Models?)
Unlike many who discuss Ernest Hemingway’s life and works, Charles Harmon Cagle, writing in Mandate, remained factual and neutral. He wisely avoided labeling Hemingway a closet homosexual because in this case the evidence, if it even qualifies as such, leads only to ambiguity. Besides, it’s not very important. The more important question is, How does the writing stand up?
Is Hemingway the great writer that he is reputed to be? The answer, of course, depends on the taste and opinion of the reader. Gore Vidal, for instance, considered him a minor one. In my own case, I appreciate Hemingway’s work — especially some of his short stories — without any pleasure in the reading. As for the novels, I’ve read The Sun Also Rises. That was enough.
I believe Hemingway’s reputation has suffered from the movies made from his books. Having seen only two or three of the many, I wasn’t tempted to proceed.
The Hemingway myth, which he himself fueled and which perhaps helped to destroy him, has obscured the writing — possibly forever. Too many readers, whether pro Hemingway or otherwise, try to mine his fiction for a payload of autobiography. Always a mistake, even if it’s there. As Hemingway’s sometime friend, Gertrude Stein, so wisely said, “The artist’s autobiography is his work.”
She didn’t say his autobiography is in his work, no no. Her statement might have been clearer if she had said, “The artist’s work is his autobiography.” She meant that the work — whether a novel, a poem, a painting — is what counts, not the life of the one who created it. The pulse continues to beat in the work long after the creator is dead.