Fiesta, or The Sun also Rises
Thoughts on Fiesta, by Hemingway
I read this book as a suggestion by a book club held in a coffee shop near me. I'm not sure I would've picked up Hemingway again otherwise. I've read Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Moveable Feast, and Across the River into the Trees. I enjoyed them all, but none enough to make me consider reading more. But my experience with Fiesta was greatly enhanced by the need to really think about it. (I had to say something!) So here are some notes and random thoughts I had.
Omission and Subjectivity
This was the first time I've read Hemingway and actually appreciated his writing. Not that I didn't enjoy it before, but I hadn't actually noticed it at all. It was there. It said something. But it did not 'speak'. Often the narrative was confusing, the pacing all over the place, and overall it was just uninteresting (not boring, uninteresting). Having taken the time with Fiesta, I finally understood. That's the point! Hemingway purposefully works in the shadows. His writing remains superficial, it tells only what it happens, almost with no subjectivity. He is known for his distrust of adjectives, his descriptions are straight to the point, his dialogues are brutally superficial and fastpaced. But it is precisely in his leaving things unsaid that Hemingway crafts subjectivity. Subjectivity lives in the cracks between objectivity. Hemingway's magic is that he does not project his own subjectivity. He overrides our own. He leaves the gaps open, and our minds naturally fill them with our own projections.
This may happen subconsciously, as we try to grasp what is happening and piece together the seemingly errant narrative. For example, the whole plot is 'centered' around Jake's impotency, but this is never outright said. It is always implied. Yet our minds also detect the possibility of hidden symbolism. And that's where we work harder. We notice patterns in the narrative, we notice themes (this whole post is about me noticing themes!). Naturally, we try to find how to unlock the meaning of these patterns. (Not by chance is this a roman à clef). Suddenly, we are working overtime on understanding this book. We begin to form a connection with it. Hemingway wrote it, but I strove to understand it. I did as much as he did! This is not Hemingway's book, it's ours. And that's how he gets you. This is why I come out of his books feeling that I rationally and objectively did not enjoy them. I didn't like the characters, there was no point, it feels erratic. But I always look back fondly. I actually did enjoy them. I felt that I made a connection with the book, it was a wholesome experience.
This is by design. Hemingway knows what he's doing. This is his 'Theory of Omission'. Of course, there's nothing new under the sun, and this was already a known mechanism in Antiquity. I might write about Omission in Greek Tragedy and compare it to Hemingway's. But Hemingway excels at this, because he literally omits things. He has admitted to deleting the most important/direct parts of his books, purposefully hiding the key to understanding objectively. In fact, Fiesta's first 30 pages were deleted without remorse. This is where he creates the gaps for our subjectivity. He has the story plotted out in his mind, but he hides it. He wants us to guess what's missing, but he won't tell us if we're right. Realizing this, I now come to appreciate his writing much more. It's a gold mine for interpretation, which is always fun, even if potentially masturbatory.
Real Life Inspiration. Marriage = Impotency?
This book retraces Hemingway's trip in 1924/5 to Pamplona to watch the bullfights. Much of what happens in the book happened in real life. The most important event, I think, is when Hemingway ended up in a jealously-fueled fistfight with Harold Loeb over Duff. Hemingway being Jake, Loeb Cohn, and Duff Brett in the novel. In the novel, Jake is impotent and that's why he can't consummate his love for Brett. In real life, Hemingway not only was married, but his wife was present! Did he feel emasculated because he couldn't pursue his romantic interest due to his wife being there? Makes you think...
Lesser topics
Hemingway mentions that Jake is Catholic a few times. But I can't grasp what he wants to say with that. Jake is often the 'voice of reason' and the only grounded character (at least that's our perception of it; he is the narrator after all). Perhaps his faith makes him impermeable to the vices of the age? Or is Hemingway just alluding to his own conversion to Catholicism during the years of his trip? I don't know. I'd like to read more about this.
The fishing chapter is fantastic. I love contrasts between city and nature. In Heminway, this seems to be an American Novelistic trope ('Sacred Land'), and his focus is much on the Manliness of being in nature. It is a place where men can be men, without women. I will hold off on saying too much about this; I think I could write something specifically about this topic later.
This book is about the Lost Generation of the 1920's. Americans came in masse to France because of the favorable exchange rate. It was brought up that this is much the same dynamic happening now, 100 years later, in Lisbon. Except I don't really see many artistic types. But on the 1920's generation, they really were lost. 90% of Fiesta is people drinking. Is Hemingway trying to depict them as decadent? Or as people enjoying life? It feels inauthentic, when contrasted with the carefree happiness of the Spaniards. They also spend their time drinking, but they seem happy, while the expatriates feel miserable.
On authenticity, I found it interesting when Cohn, who has been in a stable relationship for years, into a better position in society (rich and famous), he is influenced by a romantic novel into wanting to 'enjoy his life'. He promptly leaves his longtime girlfriend and starts gallivanting around. He seems to be forcing it, like all the characters are. They are ungrounded. They come to Paris to live an artistic life, but they hate Paris. The whole cast is constantly on the move. They go to Viena, Budapest, Madrid, San Sebastian, Pamplona etc. There's nothing keeping them anywhere. Even Jake, who appears to be the only one working, is seemingly always on vacation; always complaining of the writing that he must do, but at every turn choosing not to do it; and instead going out.
Anyway, these were the things I found most interesting. A lot of it was 'fished out' of conversation with others about their own thoughts. I look forward to reading more of Heminway's books with this newfound appreciation for his writing. I was recommended his Nick Adams stories, so maybe those are next.