u/Upstairs-Hearing-489

i had a dream that i was accidentally in the middle of a music video/promo shoot that one of my ex-friends was starring in, and i was mainly just trying to leave because she clearly didn't want to talk to me and i felt awkward because the last time she saw me i was a girl and now i'm a man (transgender as it were). unfortunately i was in this big crowd of film crew and audience members and kept accidentally getting in front of the camera, so i sort of just had to stay and watch for a bit.

before she got into the music video part, there was a little promotional section that seemed like it would maybe be turned into a tiktok or something like that, and it was her going to this buffet table under a canopy and getting a big plate of white rice and then ladling on some kind of really grim looking meat chili (no veggies or beans) with canned corn mixed into it. i could tell that it was barely even lukewarm.

she smiled at the camera and said that she made it herself, and said very proudly and confidently that she had stolen all the ingredients to make it. the cameraman stopped her and said that her audience might not like that, so she did another take where she said the meal had been funded by her "grassroots donors." i had this really agonizing feeling like she was debasing herself in some horrible way and tried to leave as fast as possible.

I'm about halfway through The Sun Also Rises and I have a few thoughts...

So look I know many people love Hemingway, and many people love the way he writes. The explanation I've seen for why he writes the way he does is that he's employing his "iceberg principle," as in, explaining just enough of a scene to pique the reader's imagination, but not being overindulgent in his description. The idea is that by using simple, suggestive, and economical prose, his writing gives a strong impression of the scene while simultaneously enticing the reader to fill in blanks in exposition.

I would argue - isn't this how pretty much every author writes? I understand that his style in many ways was a reaction to the flowery prose of his contemporaries, but even amongst those, none are pedantically describing every single detail of every single character and scene. The novel as a medium is dependent on the reader "filling in blanks."

This brings me to my next point which is that HE'S NOT ACTUALLY GIVING AN IMPRESSIONISTIC VIEW of the world of his novel, he's just name dropping really specific places and situations and declining to provide any context, even though the majority of readers (even at the time of his writing) would not share those experiences.

It would be one thing if the prose was pared down but still descriptive, like: "we walked down the dark lane to the main avenue, where there were buses and cars, and there were still lights on in the bars and nightclubs."

SOME of his prose is like this and that's fine, I have no problem with it, but a hell of a lot of it is just him name-dropping streets and restaurants in Paris, or using French words without translating, as a way of "describing the city". Most people, even at the time of writing, would not have intimate knowledge of Paris geography and all of those super expensive restaurants and bars, so it just comes off snide and elitist.

Also, I'm not sure if his prose is "economical" (or "athletic" - per a NY Times pull quote on my copy of the book lol). He overexplains the most inane shit but just uses short sentences so it seems "economical." Like we don't need to know the color of the paper used for the newspapers you're reading, or the contents of letters you've received from people that don't even feature in the story?? A lot of times it reads like a high schooler trying to hit the word count on an essay lol. Also the use of the n-word is far from economical 😐

Ok final point - Jake I'm sorry you're impotent but tbh you can just go down on her and it's problem solved