My Thoughts in E(a)rnest
Deep Dive: Disrupt
Recently, I watched the first episode and a half of the PBS docuseries “Hemingway.” I knew about the legendary author beforehand, but only bits and pieces, seeing as the only work of his I’ve read thus far is The Old Man and the Sea. I enjoyed that book thoroughly, but never thought to check out any of Hemingway’s other works. But based on what I learned from the bits of the docuseries I watched, the man behind the myth is a lot different than he seems.
It’s no secret that Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous American authors of all time. Hemingway wrote a slew of masterpieces over the course of his career, all tied together by one common theme: death. I had picked up on that motif during my reading of The Old Man and the Sea, but I didn’t realize how common of a theme it was in Hemingway’s writings before watching the documentary. The second episode explored Hemingway’s adult life, and expounded on the idea of death as he saw it.
Hemingway had a fascination for hunting, fishing, and bullfighting. From boyhood well into adulthood, hunting was a passion of his; as the documentary put it, he wished to be like his childhood hero, Theodore Roosevelt. Fishing is just the hunting of the sea, and the kind Hemingway participated in fit the bill especially. Fishing for tuna/marlin is commonly referred to as man versus sea, and a fight to the death at that. And obviously, bullfighting is an incredibly dangerous activity to even the most skilled matadors. Though Hemingway himself was never a bullfighter, he had an almost reverent appreciation for the craft.
So, evidently Hemingway had plenty of experience with death. He was also a war veteran, and even after being in a war he still chose to visit Spain in the midst of a civil war there in order to investigate. What surprised me more than his connection to death was the idea of the man and the myth that surrounded Hemingway.
As I mentioned before, Hemingway was and remains incredibly famous in the realm of writing, and for good reason. But what I never knew was how Hemingway’s outward appearance and the myths about him clashed and almost melded with his true self. He himself would spread rumors of things he didn’t do, embellishing himself as more “manly” than he believed he was. And yet, after a certain point I think he began to believe himself. Hemingway eventually bought into his own woven tales, and that idea is incredibly interesting to me. I haven’t yet finished the docuseries, but I am very excited to continue delving into the life and mind of a truly fascinating author.
Update: I went back and finished watching up to the second episode of the documentary, and I think I can better inform my thoughts here now because of it. So, the second half of episode 2 dealt with more of Hemingway’s experiences with war, and with his love life. Unfortunately, it did stop right before his entry into World War II, but there were still some interesting facts to be had.
First of these would have to be the fact that Hemingway had at least four wives over the course of his adulthood. This episode covered two of them; Pauline Pfeiffer, and Martha Gellhorn. Of the two, his marriage with Gellhorn was more interesting. Ms. Gellhorn was a famous journalist who covered war, and she was a strong-willed woman who could match wits with her husband. They were only married for four years, divorcing because of Hemingway’s increasingly abusive ways. Despite this, the time they shared seemed to be genuine, enough so that Hemingway would be convinced by her to report on World War II.
Speaking of, there’s one last interesting bit of info that I garnered from finishing episode 2. When Gellhorn was assigned to cover the war, she asked her husband for a press pass to ride the plane he was taking to Europe. Hemingway refused, claiming that no women were allowed on the plane. And this was a bald-faced lie: Hemingway knew that a few British actresses were going to be on the plane with him, and refused his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s pleas anyways.
Given this new information, my perception of Hemingway has changed; not only was he a legendary writer revered by many, but a troubled individual with an odd love life and seemingly isolationist habits. He was an alcoholic and a bit of a womanizer, and still managed to write a great many novels still admired today. I believe that it’s because of these flaws that Hemingway was able to succeed in his work; his imperfections gave him a fuller worldview, and helped him understand how to write for an audience of people, not consumers.
Source: PBS’s “Hemingway” docuseries