Hemingway & Stein

                Hemingway’s story seemed to focus a lot on Gertrude Stein as a character, but the piece was also a commentary on his own writing style. It appeared that Stein had an influence on him, although he probably did not want to admit it sometimes. The two shared a common passion in writing, but their styles and opinions on writing differed greatly.

                Hemingway’s approach made sense to me: continue an idea until it was done, but still leave another idea for the next day. That way you would know where you left off precisely, and would be able to pick back up from the same point. In contrast, if you get everything down all at once, it might be difficult to come back the next day with new ideas to put down on paper. Hemingway thought it best to always leave something to write for the next day so that there was always work to be done.

                As evidenced by Hemingway’s story involving Gertrude Stein, the two of them were very passionate about the arts and writing. Although in Hemingway’s writing, Stein seemed a bit selfish and old-fashioned; she did not care for other writers who did not already praise her, save a few. And she was stuck in one way of writing and had trouble accepting new styles that she did not understand.

Despite how well Stein and Hemingway seem to have gotten along, the content of Hemingway’s story made me dislike Stein as a person. She even boasted about how one day she would be published in the Atlantic Monthly, followed by saying Hemingway was “not a good enough writer to be published there or The Saturday Evening Post” which seemed very disrespectful for someone he was so friendly with (p 14). Her ignorance also shows when she states “The main thing is that the act male homosexuals commit is ugly and repugnant and afterwards they are disgusted with themselves…. In women it is the opposite. They do nothing that they are disgusted by and nothing that is repulsive and afterwards they are happy and they can lead happy lives together.” (p18). Here she generalizes all male homosexuals as disgusting people who cannot live with themselves, and claims female homosexuals are extremely happy people who do no wrong. Although it is not explicitly stated in the story, I assume Stein is homosexual and that is why she has this twisted and ignorant view. On a similar note, it was odd that she didn’t like reading what dead men wrote. When Hemingway brought it up, she thought it was a complete waste of time and effort despite the enjoyment that he got from reading their stories.

Stein’s writings themselves were lost on me. I’m hoping I’ll understand a little better when we discuss it in class; having a fresh perspective usually helps me understand. A couple things that I did notice is that they are all about seemingly random inanimate objects. She also uses repetition in each piece. (i.e. “what is a spectacle, a spectacle is…” or “the one, one is…” or “and them to see to see to it…”).