Re: the Jerry & Ernie show
Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Wed, 17 Feb 1999 11:41:22 -0500
On Wed, Feb 17, 1999 at 07:47:20AM -0700, WILL HOCHMAN wrote:
> "How is your novel coming? I hope you're working hard on it. Dont sell
> it to the movies. You're a rich guy. As Chairman of your many fan clubs,
> I know I speak for all the members when I say Down with Gary Cooper.
> You're working on a new novel, aren't you? "
He also hoped that in a hospital, he'd meet his own Catherine Barkley!
> I've always guessed that like most writers, Mr. Salinger thought of
> Mr. Hemingway as a kind of "father" of american fiction--as a father of a
> style that may make stories work better with fewer modifiers and
> stronger verbs...I will probably teach "Indian Camp" in my classes as a
> way to show how fiction happens with what isn't written on the page...
> something of what Tim is getting at in his post I think...
Absolutely. "The Battler" is another extraordinary example of a story
that happens almost totally beneath the surface of the narrative.
Nearly all the Nick Adams stories carry very well -- hmmm, an
interesting consideration when you think of how EH wrote an ongoing
series of stories about a character who grows from childhood to
fatherhood, written over the course of many years. Scribner's did the
world a service, for once, by collecting them as "The Nick Adams
Stories," which show us certain characters grow as the writer grows in
experience and skill.
I certainly think Salinger looked to Hemingway's short fiction as a
model. Compare "Pretty Mouth" and EH's "Hills Like White Elephants,"
where so much turmoil is beneath the dialogue.
It just occurred to me that my very first post to this list (tremblingly
submitted!) was a comparison between "Big Two-Hearted River" and the
Sgt. X of "Esme," and their shatteredness. Here we are back to very
rich and fertile soil.
Genuinely, if you're a young reader and you loved Catcher and you're
looking for something else that has a character with whom you might
empathize (in a way you may not yet empathize with Franny & Zooey,
depending on your age and your perspective), have a look at Hemingway's
Nick Adams stories, available at better book stores and libraries all
over. Especially "Indian Camp," "The Battler," "The Doctor and the
Doctor's Wife," and the extravagantly beautiful "Big Two-Hearted
River."
The early stories show Nick as a young boy, growing through adolescence
and into a confused adulthood. They end with him a father himself,
reflecting on his own father -- "Fathers and Sons" is a story that
always knots my stomach. (And while I was a son, I am not a father --
so even I, child-resistant, empathize.)
Anyhow, Will, good choice, "Indian Camp"! Plenty of concrete details,
and an ironic ending so genuine, it's hard to believe it when you read
it, if you know about Hemingway's life and death.
--tim