Back to Hemingway, Part II

22 January 2018: A pretty good day all around (featuring amazing "you don't need a coat" weather) and one of the highlights was definitely the first day of discussing The Sun Also Rises with my ENGL 360 students. (I posted about preparing for this class last week.) They love it (so far) and had some really great responses. They are drawn to Brett, even as she troubles then. They are already debating (sometimes with themselves) the big issues. They sighed or just nodded their heads in agreement as I shared my love for a certain passage. The class was a delight. On to Day Two!

Back to Hemingway...

(A rare day with two posts...)

Every time I teach ENGL 360 and go back to The Sun Also Rises, I am charmed, captivated, frustrated, and energized anew by what Hemingway is up to. This early exchange between Brett and Jake kills me:

"It's funny, I said. "It's very funny. And it's a lot of fun, to, to be in love."

"Do you think so?" her eyes looked flat again.

"I don't mean fun that way. In a way it's an enjoyable feeling."

"No," she said. "I think it's hell on earth."

"It's good to see each other."

"No. I don't think it is."

"Don't you want to?"

"I have to."

They are both right, aren't they? And that's why it's fun and hell on earth.

Sunday evening ruminations...

"It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing." Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

I am working on an article that is, in part, about noir/hard-boiled fiction. These lines keep running through my head. They are some of my favorite from the book because they tell you so much about Jake Barnes and because they are, frankly, true. (They are also part of the header to the critical article I am taking notes on right now.) My usual Sunday evening moodiness is adding to their resonance, I suppose.

Anyway, back to work I go.

Good new for the Hemingway cats...

Read all about it here.