Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Thoughts on Footnote 2, Translator's Note and Forward (page vi) Part 1
In Footnote 2, F.X. Caldeira describes Ernest Hemingway, though originally an admirer, as one of "Straka's harshest critics." In 1935, Hemingway was reputed to have given a interview to Le Monde stating his high regard for Straka.
This is unusual as most of, if not all, the historical characters mentioned in the footnotes are purely fictional. And according wikipedia.org, Le Monde, a Paris evening newspaper, has only been in publication since December 19, 1944. (Here is 19 again, and a very important number in S.)
During World War I, Hemingway was in Italy as a volunteer ambulance driver. Notably (as it perhaps relates to S.), he helped recover the remains of workers killed in a munitions factory explosion. The experience was also documented in his book Death in the Afternoon. According to Luca Gandolfi for an article he wrote in The Hemingway Review, the June 7, 1918 explosion occurred at the Sutter and Thevenot munitions plant in Bollate, Italy.
In 1934, Hemingway was traveling extensively in his boat Pilar and in 1935 he traveled to Bimini. It was around this time that he wrote the short story that would later become the seed for his novel, To Have and Have Not. In 1935, Hemingway's Green Hills Of Africa was published.
But why Hemingway? Hemingway was one of the Lost Generation, namely those who came of age during World War I and the 1920's. Notable Lost Generation writers were Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and John Dos Passos. (and another Lost reference?)
Sorry for such a short post, but I promise to pick the thread back up in Part 2.
(edited 7/31/14 for grammar and tags added)
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A very interesting question! Also interesting to note that both Jen and Eric went to see To Have and Have Not at the Varsity (though separately). There is also the allusion that Straka can take on a Hemingway-esque style if he wants to (p.117). So why Hemingway. Well, his connection Havana. His reputation into getting in scuffles with other noted writers like Wallace Stevens (remember Jen and her paper?). If there was a writer who loomed as large as the story he told, it's Hemingway. The war of words between Faulkner and Hemingway the stuff of literary legend. Perhaps there is something in that feud that would co-relate to the animosity between Hemingway and Straka?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I was unaware of Faulkner's feud with Hemingway (I'll have to check it out), but in a Q&A session in 1947 he still considered Hemingway as one of the most important contemporary writers. Perhaps you remember, but was there a discussion in the book about the film differing from the novel To Have and Have Not? Because the book was most definitely not a romance. That may be significant. (or not!) :)
ReplyDeleteoops, nevermind. The Q&A is what started the feud.
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd point you to some links. It appears that Hemingway was a bit rough on Eliot. They never met. I'm not sure if he ever wanted to meet Eliot and Eliot refused. There is nothing to suggest this. Hemingway did meet Ezra Pound. Pound directed him to Eliot's poetry. There is an article that does suggest that while Hemingway was rough on Eliot, at the same time, he was a disciple of sort. Unfortunately, this article is not available online so I can't determine the strength of this argument. http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2012/09/26/of-love-songs-baseball-and-sausage-grinders-celebrating-t-s-eliot-and-ernest-hemingway/ and http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/65aug/6508manning2.htm and https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/hemingway_review/v032/32.1.flora.html
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links. Almost makes you wonder if Eliot had privately snubbed or insulted Papa H. Interesting, in the google preview of the book Hemingway's Laboratory, it's indicated that it may have been sibling rivalry for Papa Pound's attention at least on Hemingway's part. :D
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=q6TSzulCevkC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=eliot+on+hemingway&source=bl&ots=8EWVKx38V4&sig=MC7KqtE0avJEESjWK1Et7XFaaZI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OPXJUviWA-ei2wWcw4HQBg&ved=0CHYQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=eliot%20on%20hemingway&f=false