The Garden of Eden was intended by Ernest Hemingway to be a major work. He began writing it in 1946. He never finished. The one-third of the book published by Scribners gives indications that Hemingway was trying to reinvent himself as a writer, to move beyond his spare, minimalist style, to take emotions by the horns rather than, as Virginia Wolff said, to let that bull pass with a pat on the flanks. Hemingway had wanted to experiment in Eden. He had become fascinated with Proust and there is in Scribners Eden experimentation on the themes of sexual identity, androgyny, sexual transference, themes Proust more directly took by the horns. There were hints of these themes in Hemingway's other writing but they were never developed at length and would have clashed jarringly with Hemingway's macho public persona. The 200,000 words that Tom Jenks cut to 70,000 are Hemingway's rambling, shambling effort at reinventing himself and his writing. He was the most influential, and the most popular, American author of the 20th century. He told Americans how they had changed in the century, told them before they knew it. The themes he was exploring in The Garden of Eden are important themes in how America changed after his death. I wish we could see what he thought and all that he wrote about these themes.
When an unfamiliar idea is put in one's head about a familiar subject one goes back and retraces in a shameless grab at retroactive knowledge: "Yeah! There was that strange scene in, what was that book?" "Daughter," Hemingway called several lovers daughter. I remembered that from "The Strange Country," the title referred to the vagina. There was that short story where he ran off with his sister and the thought was put in MY head that they had committed incest. I also remembered some photographs. Hadley looked a little butch, didn't she? Short hair. Hemingway had movie star good looks; Hadley wasn't movie star good-looking. I remembered that. Hemingway was not bi-sexual as far as I know but in photographs I had remembered of Hadley there was what could be one of the themes above, androgyny.
But there was something else. I remembered thinking that some photographs of Hemingway seemed to me odd. He looked effeminate. That was the feeling but I could not call up a specific photo, as I could one or two examples of his writing. I have two biographies of Hemingway at home that I haven't read this millennium. I pulled them down off the shelves (after looking for them for 15 minutes (I'm disorderly.)) and went to the photographs. There was one!
Have I ever mentioned that I have this theory about guys who hold their hands over their crotches...Yes, I have. This is actually NOT the photograph I saw in Kenneth Lynn's biography but I cannot find that one online (which exasperates me). This one relates to the theory even better.
This photograph was taken in Key West, Florida in 1928. Hemingway was already a famous, well-respected author. Those are his parents. His mother is to his near left. Look at Hemingway's body language: he's leaning away from his father, his hands are folded embarrassingly over his pee-pee, his left foot is up on the car coquettishly. It's a pose, it's a girlish pose! Look at the distance between himself and his father. His mother is right beside him, his dad is off away. In Professor Lynn's book the photograph, taken just moments before or after, Hemingway has both feet on the ground but is looking full-faced at the camera with a sheepish, toothless smile. Despite his status, Hemingway still looks like the wayward child, rather than the celebrated author his parents have come to celebrate. And he looks effeminate.
Will continue this in succeeding posts; have run out of space on this goddamned iPhone.
When an unfamiliar idea is put in one's head about a familiar subject one goes back and retraces in a shameless grab at retroactive knowledge: "Yeah! There was that strange scene in, what was that book?" "Daughter," Hemingway called several lovers daughter. I remembered that from "The Strange Country," the title referred to the vagina. There was that short story where he ran off with his sister and the thought was put in MY head that they had committed incest. I also remembered some photographs. Hadley looked a little butch, didn't she? Short hair. Hemingway had movie star good looks; Hadley wasn't movie star good-looking. I remembered that. Hemingway was not bi-sexual as far as I know but in photographs I had remembered of Hadley there was what could be one of the themes above, androgyny.
But there was something else. I remembered thinking that some photographs of Hemingway seemed to me odd. He looked effeminate. That was the feeling but I could not call up a specific photo, as I could one or two examples of his writing. I have two biographies of Hemingway at home that I haven't read this millennium. I pulled them down off the shelves (after looking for them for 15 minutes (I'm disorderly.)) and went to the photographs. There was one!
Have I ever mentioned that I have this theory about guys who hold their hands over their crotches...Yes, I have. This is actually NOT the photograph I saw in Kenneth Lynn's biography but I cannot find that one online (which exasperates me). This one relates to the theory even better.
This photograph was taken in Key West, Florida in 1928. Hemingway was already a famous, well-respected author. Those are his parents. His mother is to his near left. Look at Hemingway's body language: he's leaning away from his father, his hands are folded embarrassingly over his pee-pee, his left foot is up on the car coquettishly. It's a pose, it's a girlish pose! Look at the distance between himself and his father. His mother is right beside him, his dad is off away. In Professor Lynn's book the photograph, taken just moments before or after, Hemingway has both feet on the ground but is looking full-faced at the camera with a sheepish, toothless smile. Despite his status, Hemingway still looks like the wayward child, rather than the celebrated author his parents have come to celebrate. And he looks effeminate.
Will continue this in succeeding posts; have run out of space on this goddamned iPhone.
