By this logic, anything you read contains not only the physical interactions of the characters but also what you create from it in the form of ideas.
--Chelsea
Monday, September 6, 2010
Another Prompt One Response
I found it more difficult to connect pieces of The Sun Also Rises to the latter portion of Michael Bell's article, perhaps because this is only a first reading of each text. The point that held most resonance for me was when Bell wrote about great works of modern literature using "...realist representation, indeed they often use it consummately, yet with an X ray awareness of its constructed, or purely human, character." (p.12) We haven't covered yet precisely what "tip of the iceberg" means as a writing style, but the skeleton of a concept the phrase creates in my mind fits Hemingway's style perfectly. He writes solely what happens, what is thought. He doesn't try to go above the characters' heads and introduce ideas using outside means. Any idea you take from Hemingway comes from your own inference as to why his character feels this way or does that, but he is knowingly setting up ideas for you to grasp. At the very least he spins specific scenarios such that the cliff is created for you to jump off of in taking greater thematic ideas from his work. He thoroughly seems to believe that no idea can exist outside "...a scale of human reference," as Bell puts it. (p.12)
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I have to say that I agree (not only because the syllabus obviously indicates that Chelsea is correct :P). The amount of information that Hemingway gives the reader up front is very little. It's realistic in a way that people don't go around arbitrarily defining their every action and move. People don't believe they have to necessarily explain their past and actions, even to themselves. Hemingway gets at the heart of human dialogue and thought. He offers very little specific details, not wasting the time or words or energy trying to give the readers all sorts of background information. He leaves it to the readers to figure out for themselves: Brett's social "situation," Jake's impotency, Robert's "cheating." The depth is all there, these characters feel real and act real, but there is just very little on the surface. I believe it is all part of Hemingway's minimalism (as well as a modernist technique).
ReplyDeleteI found not only the minimal explanations in the first half of the text difficult, but easier in understanding the idea of modernist thought of “tip of the iceberg.” Again, as Chelsea says, we haven't yet covered it, but I can only suspect it is that readers should never take what is shown for granted and at face value. Subtext is key, and what lays beneath the surface is much larger and has a greater impact on what is being revealed if understood.
ReplyDeleteReaders can see the use of linguistics in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises for the language does more than just give simple facts, the language and dialogue between characters acts as bait for readers to seek more information and more answers. “Different world conceptions are held together in a mutually defining, mutually testing, relation,” and from that relation to one another, information can be withheld and must be sought to understand (Bell, 12). The relationship between Jake and his social circle is complicated, and readers only get a taste of what the truth might be. There are several instances where there are hints of Jake's “war injury” that was as if he gave more than his life, his manhood, his pride. However, readers can only make assumptions from what the text states.
“I laid them out, side by side, all their heads pointing the same way, and looked at them. They were beautifully colored and firm and hard from the cold water....I...shucked out their insides, gills and all, and tossed them over across the river” (Hemingway, 124). This moment depicts the modernist idea of the use of subtext to reveal truth, and how linguistic use is important for the expansion of knowledge. The trout that were caught and gutted are symbolic of the main characters, caught in the social norms and expectations of society and lacking any true emotional connection to one another or other individuals. The trout are beautiful, yet hard, and are shaped by the conditions in which they are placed just as Brett, Jake and the other characters are. Each are merely living, instinctual beings that are relentlessly trying to pursue their endeavors in a stream of rules, expectations and requirements.