The Sun Also Rises and Men Without Women discussed in sparse detail

Wanted to get a semi decent dinner, but forgot the Metro was closed today, so once again it's McDonald's breakfast for dinner.

Isn't it funny how you ALWAYS remember what a bad idea the mcgriddle is once you're halfway through eating it? Fascinating.

I keep running out of time in the day to come over and write here, so I'm writing a bit before bed again. I don't have work this evening, so I anticipate sleeping in until 5 or 6.

Just before leaving work I finished the collection "Men Without Women", so there's that plus "The Sun Also Rises" that I've got under my Hemingway belt so far.

The terse style that is his trademark makes brilliant sense when you recall his roots in the newspaper biz. You know Hemingway was a foreign correspondant for the Toronto Star? That's pretty cool. I think he was writing for them from France and Chicago. Not at the same time.

One problem I had was that Hemingway is very much a joint production- it's not action then subtext, it's all subtext. Amazingly, he jabs you with short facts, but the result is a poetry that can easily be interpreted (or misinterpreted) however you like- I forgot to say what the problem was. It's that when it's late at night and you're trying to stay awake, reading a page that describes very little doesn't help me. I have one job, stay awake!, and this guy is sabotaging me!

Hemingway is a born screen writer- true, the action is too light to please Robert McKee, but the dialogue really is incredibly strong. Only occasionally will "... he said." pop up, for the most part you jump in from the last pronoun and keep track in your own head who's talking. This helps the dialogue flow and feel (and sound) very naturalistic. The epic downside is when the character isn't so vocally defined, and maybe the line was a little confusing as to who started talking. There are definitely times I had to reread a passage an extra time or three to make sure I knew who was talking...

This man LOVES bull fighting. I enjoy his passion for it, but I could use a glossary for some of the terms. Or maybe a Harry Potter style explanation of the rules of bull fighting. You grow up, watch Adam West bull fight, watch Bugs Bunny bull fight, and you think it's just one guy with a cape and a bull, but it turns out I don't know anything, and there're at least four guys operating in a bull fight, with the uh matador(?) being like the lead singer of the group.

Jake Barnes is the protagonist for "The Sun Also Rises"- very easy to forget the protagonists names, most everything is written in first person. But at least this guy has the same last name as the current Captain America, so there's a mnemonic for you.

Oh man, yeah, I did want to copy this out. The last bit from the book:

"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."

Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.

"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

THE END

There's a lot compressed in there; a tantalizing touch of intimacy, theirs being a world of direction from a world on its guard, the regret regarding Jake's war injury caused impotence (and by extension, regret about the war in general, and how their lives may have been otherwise) and there's a pretty blatant gender role reversal with this dialogue as well.

Getting tired, losing steam... here's a rundown of what I think the short stories in "Men Without Women" are about (and forgive me if I'm off base... but like I said, nothing is explicitly stated here):

The Undefeated- a disgraced, aging bull fighter has one last shot in the ring against a bull that seems impervious to his sword. He's hospitalized, but he got the bull. Pretty straightforward.

In Another Country- a rehabilitation clinic tries to support a hopeless patient, when what's really getting him down is the death of his wife <- that was all in the last paragraph, most of it is a wounded american hanging out with other wounded soldiers- but he's an outcast because he got his medals simply for being an american, whereas the others were heroes. Interestingly, while the american is disliked by the others in private, in public they stick together because EVERYONE ELSE in the community dislikes the soldiers.

Hills Like White Elephants- a couple is travelling to a mental health clinic to treat the woman, and the whole thing is very rough on the man. This is actually the story where I was really going "whaaaat?". I'm pretty pleased with my interpretation of the thing, so no one tell me if I'm wrong. Oh, but if I'm right, tell me you'd never have figured it out in a million years. That'd be pretty sweet.

The Killers- a Nick Adams story (that's supposed to be the big author insertion character, right?) about a couple of assasins looking for a dude at a restaurant. I was supposed to have read this one years ago, but I didn't. It was probably in a course kit I didn't buy. A fun read though.

Che Ti Dice La Patria?- This one was awesome, two guys travel through, uh, Italy I guess (my geography skills...) and let some dude ride on their roof for a bit, get propositioned at a restaurant, go to ANOTEHR restaurant where there's no bathroom so the waiter takes the guy across the street to use one, and a police bicycle guy tickets them on a bogus charge and extorts some money out of them, and this is the last line of the story:

"The whole trip had taken only ten days. Naturally, in such a short trip, we had no opportunity to see how things were with the country or the people."

That's really funny. Not sure whether the narrator is being ironic or whether he genuinely thinks he missed out and it's just the author who's being ironic. Not sure, but that line made the story.

Fifty Grand- this is an awesome boxing story with a little bit of betting intrigue thrown in. Man, boxing is awesome in fiction. It would be in real life too, if not for the violence. And brain damage.

It also had, like, a reverse training montage- drinking to sleep, half hearted training... probably my favourite story in the bunch.

A Simple Enquiry- a major tries to figure out whether his orderly is gay. In the end he decides 'not gay'. Or is he? This was definitely left open for the sequel.

Ten Indians- a young Nick Adams comes home from a fourth of july celebration (I think that was it), gets his heart broken, realizes that life goes on:

"In the morning there was a big wind blowing and the waves were running high up on the beach and he was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken."

A Canary For One- the main character, "American Lady", spends part of a train ride with a married couple from the states saying how only American men make fit husbands, and that's why she prevented her daughter from marrying this great guy from uh, Sweden maybe I forget. The last line tells us that this couple is actually getting divorced.

So American men don't necessarily make for a happy marriage, and she should have let her daughter be happy, instead of stealing her away, and now bringing her a canary for a present. I imagine the title is a play on "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", at least that's what it reminds me of.

An Alpine Idyll- not sure what this was trying to get across... two guys are on a skiing vacation in spring, and they're told the tale of a peasant guy who used his wife's dead body as a lantern holder over the winter, because he couldn't take her for a funeral until the snow was gone. Could be the ending, when juxtaposed with the tourists complaining that a priest won't return their greeting, is supposed to illustrate how refinement and courseness are relative. Maybe, I don't know, I didn't really like this one.

A Pursuit Race- a guy gets hooked on drugs and loves his bed sheet. Which is fine, but his boss was in the room, so he got fired. I'm shortening this for the sake of going to bed sooner, but this was actually a pretty funny story.

Today is Friday- a short play about the Roman soldiers getting a drink after crucifying Jesus. Particularly interesting in that I happened to read this Good Friday story on Good Friday. Surprisingly reserved, it's actually not too far away from being something a church would actually perform.

Banal Story- seems to be written as a sort of advertisement for a paper, while also serving as a bookend to the first story, officially telling us of that bull fighters death.

Now I Lay Me- hmm, what is this one about... it's a little odd to describe. Nick Adams is in the war-esque, and he's afraid to sleep in the dark, so he spends his nights thinking about fishing spots, or praying for everyone he knows, especially his friend who wants him to get married, 'cause that'd solve Nick's worries. Nick, at the time of the telling of this tale, still wasn't married.

And those are all the stories! So THAT'S what happens to Men Without Women.

Well, that took way too long, good night, nurse!