hemingway

It seems that I've been waxing poetic lately about Hemingway. For some reason he's come up in quite a few recent conversations, and that may be because I recently finished a collection of short stories by him (The Snows of Kilamanjaro is great, especially the title story and the last one).

I just read a short piece of fiction currently up online from a previous issue of a magazine, and I have to say that I'm less than impressed. It's instantly apparent what the subject is, and to be honest, the religious ponderings were a little over the top. I know I'm not some award-winning short story writer, but this piece just kind of...well, I was turned off by it. The piece was about a young, unmarried Christian couple who were supposed to get an abortion, only the girl didn't want to go through with it. There wasn't any dialogue in the story, and it was all laid out in thoughts, which could work but I don't think it did here.

Now I'm also trying to remember, but I don't think he actually mentioned what the "appointment" was, but again, it was pretty clear.

Ok. The reason I'm bringing up Hemingway. I still remember in high school, I think senior AP English, reading Hills like White Elephants by Hemingway. It was about the same thing, but it was never said. It was only alluded to in the most subtle way, and it worked remarkably. It's been years since I read it, but I still have the English book from class and have it with me, and I think later this week I might have to pull it out and reread it. Since it's been some time, I can't quite remember all the techniques that he used.

It's interesting to see a similar idea (a touchy subject) described without really mentioning it, and of course the types of characters and very different settings and see how they play off. I'm going to have to say that Hemingway came out on top. If I can remember that story five, six years later and can remember more than just the unique title, then you know he did something right.

But then again, it is Hemingway.