Ernest Hemingway: Beneath the Waves

 

“Oh, Jack.” Brett said, “we could have had such a good time together.”

“Yes,” I said. “Isn't it pretty to think so.”

-          Last lines of ‘The Sun Also Rises’

“All stories, if continued far enough, end in death.”

-          Hemingway

Everyone could write like Hemingway. It was simple because his style was simple. But when they tried, there was no magic. Scribes manqué. They had never faced the Big Fear and that was the key.

Hemingway said he followed the iceberg theory whereby most of a story’s meaning is hidden beneath the surface. How he did this has never been determined.

In many of his most compelling tales, if you’re quiet enough, you can hear a mind that’s running off balance, a scattered electricity somewhere, stressed metal that crackles and sparks. There’s a nameless dimension that might flash out of dark corners, unexpected, a tension where there should be peace.

With Ernest Hemingway, cold shadows of Death can suddenly cross the sun of the most benign scene. But you only realize it years later. Things are best when they are clean and well-lighted. Keep away from the shadows. Always. And remember, without death, life would be intolerable.

All the books, the hunting, the accidents, the wives, the drinking, the guns—all of it seemed to mean nothing. He just wanted to stop the pain.

So, he did. A man of action determined to annihilate action. It all makes sense when you realize that you never, ever want to see beneath the waves.

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