A Child of the Lab

Forty years ago, when I first became serious about a writing career, I envisioned being a writer of short stories like Hemingway (In Our Time), F. Scott Fitzgerald or Jack London. Yes, they all wrote novels but I found that writing stories and articles while working full time was within my grasp and a novel was simply to massive of a project in those circumstances.

For the first four years after our return from a year in Mexico Susie and I painted apartments. There were two things I especially liked about it. First, wherever we went looked nicer after we'd been there than before we arrived. Second, there is a mindlessness about painting white on white so it was an opportunity to let my imagination run free. As a result my mind conceived of countless concepts for stories, some which became outlines and others which were completed. (Years later I assembled many of these into books like this short volume, Unremembered Histories.)  

The story below was conceived sometime during the 1980's I believe. Or rather, the concept for this story was birthed and a few notes jotted down. Over the years since that time I've thought about fleshing it out and turning it into something I could share. 

This past week I decided to do something different. I fed my story concept to ChatGPT to see what an AI would generate. Here's what we came up with as a story beginning. For a much longer story it has real possibilities. What do you think?

A Child of the Lab

In the dry heat of the Negev desert, deep within the secure walls of a state-of-the-art laboratory, Dr. Yitzhak Baram and Dr. Leah Mendel spent their days peering into the mysteries of the human genome. Theirs was no ordinary research—after years of studying ancient texts, theological debates, and genetic data, they began to suspect a tantalizing possibility. Buried within the intricate code of human DNA, they believed they had found a signature, a remnant of a primordial flaw, a genetic marker shared by every living human being. They called it "Eve's Mark."

For months, the pair wrestled with the implications of their discovery. Could this genetic trait be a trace of what religious traditions called Original Sin, a fundamental imperfection passed down through generations since humanity's mythical fall from grace? If so, could they remove it? And if they did, would the result be a human being untainted by the imperfections that had shaped human history?

Leah's voice trembled as she proposed the unthinkable: "We could create a new embryo... without Eve's Mark. A human being, like Adam and Eve, before the fall. Imagine the purity, the potential for good."

Yitzhak's skepticism melted away over nights of whispered conversations, and they resolved to do what no one else had ever dared—build a genome devoid of this flaw. In the dimly lit lab, they synthesized the embryo, painstakingly editing the genetic code until "Eve's Mark" was no longer present. Nine months later, the child was born in secret, far from any official record. They named her Miriam, for she was to them a new beginning.

As the months passed, Miriam grew with a vitality that stunned her caretakers. The scientists documented everything—her rapid development, her serene temperament, her uncanny way of absorbing the world around her. She did not cry like other infants; instead, she observed, her eyes, an almost startling shade of blue, scanning her surroundings with preternatural awareness. They began to believe they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Yet, beneath their excitement, fear gnawed at them—would others, especially those who might see this as heretical or dangerous, accept what they had done?

Their fears were well-founded.

One summer evening, as the sun dipped behind the hills, a missile struck the lab. It came without warning, an attack from across the border, shattering the building with a force that set the desert ablaze. Yitzhak and Leah died in the chaos, caught beneath the collapsing walls. But as the fire spread, a nurse named Ayla, who had cared for Miriam like a mother, cradled the child to her chest and ran through the smoke and flames, her only thought to save this miraculous little being.

She stumbled through the desert night, following the faintest paths through the dark, driven by some instinct stronger than fear. In her arms, Miriam remained silent, her wide eyes fixed on the stars as if understanding their brightness. The next morning, Ayla reached the outskirts of a small village, exhausted but alive, the child untouched by the horrors that had unfolded behind them.

* * * 

A Postmodern Prophet: Hemingway's Insights Applied to the Gaza Conflict

I was re-introduced to Hemingway in the late '70s through his first collection of short stories titled In Our Time. I was stunned by the power of Hemingway's prose. Though I'd never worn glasses, the stories there were like being a grandma who gets hit in the face with a fist, glasses flying across the room from the impact. I read the book continuously two-and-a-half times through. The description of the doctor in one scene of The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife is so loaded with tension, yet achieved with sleight of hand, never once saying the guy was mad or outraged, or any such thing... it is nothing short of miraculous how he accomplishes so much with such simple prose.

I'd read Old Man and the Sea in high school, but it wasn't till years later that I came to appreciate Hemingway as a writer. The first Hemingway novel that followed my return to classic literature during this period in my life was For Whom the Bell Tolls with its setting being the Spanish Civil War. The hero's quest turns out to be a futile mission. The characters are vividly drawn, and tragic. Can one man make a difference? Robert Jordan believes he can.

The Spanish Civil War was a major turning point in the rise of fascism in Europe. It was notable for its pillaging of a section of European real estate in order to try out new war technologies. Franco fascists were not armed with Mussolini's planes for nothing. Hitler and friends watched with avid interest as the peoples were subjugated. Technology, not ideology, proved the winning variable in this situation.

In the novel, idealism and realism collide. Pablo, the local leader of a small guerilla band of anti-fascists, represents one shade of realism. Pilar, his wife, epitomizes another. Robert Jordan, the American teacher who has joined the war effort, is the idealist.

What really happened in Spain has still not fully been understood. The events of that time were significant, though soon lost in the shadows and mists of the world war that followed. Orwell lost his faith in communist socialism as a result of things he saw. Others were appalled by fascism's jackboot horrors. Picasso was inspired by the destruction of a town called Guernica to paint his famous statement decrying the brutality of this kind of "total war," which the U.S. continued to carry out in Viet Nam, and which we see daily now in the current tragedy called Gaza.

What follows here is an excerpt from one of Michael Mazza's reviews at amazon.com. I find reading reviews to be a mentally stimulating exercise. Movie reviews at imdb.com and the Amazon reviews are frequently cogent, insightful offerings from people who are thinking at least a little beneath the surface of things. For intellectually stimulating debate read the comments at the end of articles at a site called Unherd. 

"Hemingway offers a grim and graphic look at the brutality of 20th century warfare. War is not glamorized or sanitized, and atrocities are described in unflinching detail. The characters explore the ethics of killing in war. As the story progresses, Hemingway skillfully peels back the layers of Jordan and other characters to reveal their psychological wounds. But the book is not all about pain and violence. In the midst of war Hemingway finds the joy and beauty that keep his characters going. He also incorporates storytelling as a powerful motif in the book; his characters share stories with each other, recall missing untold stories, or resist a story too hard to bear."

In short, Hemingway laces the personal stories into the larger story, thereby making the whole more intimate and memorable. 

Storytelling has connections with so many facets of society today. Genealogists are no longer satisfied with identifying the roots of their family tree. They dig for stories about their ancestors. In marketing, ad agencies push companies to not simply promote the brand, but to showcase your "brand story." In selling, you're missiong the boat if you don't use storytelling to make the sale. In politics, "feel good" sound bytes are used to make candidates appear more human and caring. 

In Gaza, efforts are being made to get the stories out that will energize the world to take action. Israel uses stories from the horror of October 7--and resurrected Holocaust narratives--to justify the brutality of its response.

When the tragedy of this current war in the Middle East is over, I'm certain there will be new stories told for years to come.

10 Thought-Provoking Quotes by Famous 20th Century Authors, Courtesy ChatGPT and Google Bard

Illustration by the author, with AI assistance.

I asked ChaptGPT for a list of the top 20 authors of the 20th century. I then asked Google Bard for five quotes for each author. I selected one for each from the five offered. The original list from ChatGPT included some disclaimers, noting that making lists like this is highly subjective. "This list represents a diverse range of authors from different regions and literary traditions, each contributing in unique ways to 20th-century literature."

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."
--James Joyce

"Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
--Franz Kafka

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."
--Virginia Woolf

"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
--Albert Camus

"If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."
--George Orwell

"What matters in life is not what happens to you, but what you remember and how you remember it."
--Gabriel García Márquez

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places."
--Ernest Hemingway

"In a universe of silent stars, human speech is a pitifully tiny and inadequate noise."
--William Faulkner

"If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
--Toni Morrison

* * * * *

Cultural Literacy and Its Importance in Society, Plus John Donne's Meditation #17

Cultural literacy is the ability to understand and participate in a particular culture. It includes knowledge of the arts, literature, history, and customs of that culture. Cultural literacy is important for communication and understanding between people from different cultures.

The term "cultural literacy" was coined by American educator E. D. Hirsch in his 1987 book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Hirsch argued that cultural literacy is essential for civic participation and for understanding the world around us. He identified a list of several thousand terms and concepts that he believed all Americans should know.

The reason this topic is important because as our culture becomes more splintered, our various past experiences overlap less and less. As a result, when someone refers to Job's tears, it has no meaning to those who hear or read it if they are unfamiliar with the book of Job in the Old Testament.

Having an understanding of history, literature, philosophy and the arts enables us to communicate without having to explain what the Alamo was, who Romeo and Juliet were as star-crossed lovers, or how Puerto Rico became part of the U.S. but is not a state.

In 2008 I wrote the following, which references this loss of a cohesive understanding of who we are and the breakdown of our sense of community.

23 July 2008

As the world's knowledge exponentially compounds, we find ourselves increasingly removed from the knowledge that has gone before us. When we encounter a passage from literature today, few there are who recall its source, who can identify its root.

At various points in history many great libraries were burned. Today, such book burning is no longer necessary. Whether history, theology, philosophy, literature, biography, science or travel, the classics are all but forgotten. (People with dyslexia get a pass from my rant here.) 

In a nation where reading is mandatory, it is literally amazing how few there are that read today. Maybe it's our educational system that presents classic lit in a manner that turns young people away from the rich bounty contained in books. Or maybe it's due to the easy seduction of so many other distractions. 

I'd mentioned Hemingway a few weeks back. Here is the source for the title of his Spanish Civil War classic For Whom the Bell Tolls, beginning with another oft quoted phrase worth taking to heart.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Here is the context for this passage, a worthy meditation.

Meditation #17
By John Donne

From Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623), XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris (Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.)

Perchance, he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

Read the complete essay here

Test Your Wits: A Literary Trivia Contest

How well do you know your literary trivia?

It's intriguing how popular the game Trivial Pursuit became. Here's a bit of trivia you may not have known: the game has sold over 100 million units in 26 countries and 17 languages. What year was it created? I would never have guessed. Answer: 1981. It seems like it has been around forever.

I've always enjoyed creating games. Trivia is indeed fun to play with. During Duluth's Dylan Fest I've usually been the one to create the Dylan Trivia Contest each year. So while cleaning my garage a couple weeks ago I assembled this trivial excursion.

HERE ARE THE RULES
1. Take a piece of paper and number it from 1 to 15. 

2. Here's the challenge. For each name in the list below, name the book this character appeared in and the author who wrote it. (A few are plays, but I read them in book form.) 

3. To the right of the title and author, write the name of the actor who played this character in a movie version of the book or play.

Do not scroll below the photos until you fill out your answers.

CALCULATING YOUR SCORE
A) Score one point for each correct Book Title. (In one instance the movie has a different title but is based on the book.)
B) Score one point for each book author that you name correctly.
C) Score one point for identifying the actor who played that character in the movie version of the book.
D) If you correctly identify all fifteen book titles WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE CLUES give yourself a bonus of 5 points. The same goes for identifying all fifteen authors and the fifteen actors. TOTAL POSSIBLE SCORE is 60. 

EdNote: The Clues are below the two photos at the end of this list. For the Extra Points, don't look till you have given up.

* * * * * 

1. Atticus Finch

2. Rhett Butler

3. Stella Kowalski

4. Kurtz

5. Ishmael

6. Alden Pyle

7. Harry Lime

8. Ann Sullivan

9. Robert Jordan

10. Daisy

11. Winston

12. Billy Pilgrim

13. Henry Wilcox

14. Tom Hagen

15. R.P. McMurphy

EdNote: Some of these titles are red herrings.

CHOOSE TITLES FROM THIS LIST
Moby Dick, For Whom The Bell Tolls, 1984, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather, The Quiet American, The Last Tycoon, Chinatown, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Great Gatsby, Gone with the Wind, Howard's End, Heart of Darkness, The Miracle Worker, To Kill A Mockingbird, Bugsy, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Third Man

EdNote: Some of these actors are also misleading.

CHOOSE ACTORS FROM THIS LIST
Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Kim Hunter, Vivien Leigh,  Richard Basehart, Mia Farrow, Michael Sachs, Brendan Fraser, John Hurt, Louise Fletcher, Holly Hunter, Faye Dunaway, Orson Welles, Gary Cooper

ANSWERS ARE BENEATH THE PHOTO BELOW

"We're just waitin' here for ya to finish. Take your time. We'll wait."

ANSWERS
1. To Kill A Mockingbird--Harper Lee/Gregory Peck
2. Gone with the Wind--Margaret Mitchell/Clark Gable
3. A Streetcar Named Desire--Tennessee Williams/Kim Hunter
4. Heart of Darkness--Joseph Conrad/Marlon Brando (Apocalypse Now)
5. Moby Dick--Herman Melville/Richard Basehart,
6. The Quiet American--Graham Greene/Brendan Fraser
7. The Third Man--Graham Greene/Orson Welles
8. The Miracle Worker--William Gibson/Ann Bancroft
9. For Whom The Bell Tolls--Ernest Hemingway/Gary Cooper
10. The Great Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald/Mia Farrow 
11. 1984--George Orwell/John Hurt
12. Slaughterhouse-Five--Kurt Vonnegut/Michael Sachs
13. Howard's End--E.M. Forster/Anthony Hopkins
14. The Godfather--Mario Puzo/Robert Duvall
15. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest--Ken Kesey/Jack Nicholson

Please leave your score in the comments, either anonymously or publicly. Was this too easy? Too hard? Or just right?

Photos on this page courtesy Gary Firstenberg

Long Sentences Are Just Fine (If You Can Pull Them Off)

Illustration by the author.

When I first became deliberate about becoming a writer I read every book on writing that I could find in the library and bought the ones I thought best so I could study them. More than one of these books wrote about sentence length. Most urged writers to use short sentences. Most also suggested that writing is more interesting when we vary sentence length. One of these authors, if I recall correctly, stated that we shouldn't write sentences longer than 17 words. 

Like many young writers I took these instructions to heart. Hemingway famously wrote short, punchy sentences, right? Wasn't Raymond Carver a "short sentences" kind of guy?

So I was mildly amused the other night as I read an article by Tennessee Williams about how his life had been changed through the sudden fame garnered by his play The Glass Menagerie. The article first appeared in The New York Times. It drew me in immediately, despite the absence of short sentences. In fact, I really wasn't paying attention at all to sentence length because the storytelling was so engaging.

Now check out this sentence.  

No, my experience was not exceptional, but neither was it quite ordinary, and if you are willing to accept the somewhat eclectic proposition that I had not been writing with such an experience in mind--and many people are not willing to believe that a playwright is interested in anything but popular success--there may be some point in comparing the two estates.    

63 words. A paragraph with only one period. But what struck me was the 68-word follow-up paragraph, another single sentence. 

The sort of life that I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before, but it was a good life because it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created.   

The only reason I noticed these two sentences is because I'd listened to a series of lectures on writing longer sentences. The written language is an art form and once you know the rules, it's OK to make your own rules. 

No, that's not the whole of it. I noticed these sentences because I could relate to what he was saying. 

As for Hemingway, he also knew how to vary sentence length. Check out this 125-word sentence that I bookmarked the last time I read For Whom the Bell Tolls. The sentence appears at an intense moment in the story. As you read it, there is a feeling of breathlessness as the motorcycle ascends and the sentence ascends with it. 

And as the motorcycle passed the high gray trucks full of troops, gray trucks with high square cabs and square ugly radiators, steadily mounting the road in the dust and the flicking lights of the pursuing staff car, the red star of the army showing in the light when it passed over the tail gates, showing when the light came onto the sides of the dusty truck bodies, as they passed, climbing steadily now, the air colder and the road starting to turn in bends and switchbacks now, the trucks laboring and grinding, some steaming in the light flashes, the motorcycle laboring now too, and Andrés clinging tight to the front seat as they climbed, Andrés thought this ride on a motorcycle was mucho, mucho. 

For the record, Faulkner has a couple sentences that are more than a thousand words each. 

Are you a writer? Do you restrict yourself with rules about sentence length? What other rules do you bind yourself with? It's never too late to learn a few new tricks. 

Now All We Need Is A Title: Famous Books and How They Got Their Names

"A good title should be like a good metaphor; it should intrigue without being too baffling or too obvious." 
--Walker Percy

When I saw this book on the shelf at the library I said to myself, "I gotta have it." The actual title is Now all we need is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way.

The author, Andre Bernard, shares stories about many of the famous books we've all either read or heard of. It is structured in alphabetical order by author, beginning with James Agee (Now Let Us Praise Famous Men) to Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities).

Interspersed throughout the book are sidebars with lists like, Titles We're Glad Got Changed (eg. The Mute was changed to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter), and books with numbers in the title, or books with colors in their title, and books with families in the title, etc. 

If you're a reader of classic literature, you will almost certainly find this book a fun little diversion. Many powerful books had titles taken from famous poems. Dee Brown took the title of his Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee from the last line of a poem by Steven Vincent Benet. Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is lifted from a poem by John Donne. And the title of O Henry's book of short stories Of Cabbages and Kings was lifted from some verse spoken by the walrus in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. (Learn more about the life of William Sydney Porter, a.k.a. O Henry.)

It's fascinating to read the variety of titles that got rejected by editors or sometimes the authors as their masterpiece stories headed toward publication. F. Scott Fitzgerald originally liked the title Trimalchio in West Egg as his title for what would ultimately become The Great Gatsby. Gold-hatted Gatsby and The High-bouncing Lover were other titles Maxwell Perkins, his publisher, rejected.  In reading this brief anecdote about Fitzgerald's most famous novel (but least profitable during his lifetime) I realized for the first time that all those suds-filled wild parties at Gatsby's place took place during prohibition. Hence, the Fitzgerald observation, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." In other words, they don't live by the rules like the rest of us are required to.

Did you know that Joseph Heller's Catch-22 was originally going to be Catch-18? Simon & Schuster was notified by Doubleday that Leon Uris had a novel coming out called Mira 18. Since Uris was already a big name and Heller a newby, S&S caved and suggested Heller pick a different number. 

The Bible has been a source of titles for numerous famous books. William Faulkner extracted the title Absalom, Absalom from the Old Testament story of King David's son in II Samuel. Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land was taken from Exodus 2:21-22. It's the story of a human being who returns to earth after being raised by aliens.

Orwell's 1984, begun during WW2 and completed during the dawning of the Cold War, was originally titled The Last Man in Europe. The year selected was determined by reversing the numerals 48, the year this dark vision of the future was completed.

At this point I think you get the picture. 

EdNote: If you're an author, maybe you can pocket a few of these anecdotes to use in the talk you're planning for your next book signing.

* * * 

The Joy of Naming

The Name Game (Includes titles for a number of paintings in my 2009 at The Venue @ Mohaupt Block.)

The Big Read Does Gatsby

H.L. Mencken's 1925 Review of The Great Gatsby

The Old Man and the Sea: Anthony Quinn Version of the Film Is Worthwhile

"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."

--Ernest Hemingway

I first read The Old Man and the Sea in high school English class. I recall the teacher drawing attention to the symbolism, hoping to teach that there's more to a story than simply a good read.

The original novel by Ernest Hemingway was compact, a novella rather than an epic like War and Peace or Moby Dick. Since the description of the film already gives away everything, there is no "spoiler alert" on this brief review.

The Hemingway novel won accolades for its author, Ernest Hemingway. Written in 1951 and published in 1952, it's probably one of his most famous novels and certified his selection as Nobel Laureate in 1954 "for his mastery of the art of narrative." The book also garnered for Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Seeking to capitalize on Hemingway's fame at the time, Hollywood released a film starring Spencer Tracy as Santiago in 1958. The old Cuban fisherman has been going through a slump lately. Believing his luck can change, he decides to launch out into deeper waters in search of larger game, and the hope of redemption. In typical Hemingway style, he only experiences more bad luck. Ah yes, he catches the biggest fish anyone has ever seen, but the sharks have their way with it and by the time he is home, all that's left are the bones.

In 1990, a made-for-TV version of the story was released, this time starring Anthony Quinn. Quinn is perfectly cast as Santiago, the old Cuban fisherman. 

There are actually six characters in this film. There is the old man, Santiago. And there is the youth who cares about him, brings him food, admires and looks up to him. Their touching friendship is noticed by a writer who is taking notes and finding the relationship between the boy and the old man to be curious, if not fascinating. The writer has a wife who has become bored with the mundane lives of Caribbean fisherman. The fifth character is the marlin. The sharks would be the sixth and final character in the story.

There are books and films with too many characters to give definition to. There are also films with characters introduced too quickly for the viewer to car about and embrace. This Anthony Quinn film gives us three characters you really care about: Santiago, Manolin (his devoted adolescent assistant), and the fish, which is more than a fish, much the same as Moby Dick was more than a whale.  

The writer and his wife were not in the book, nor were they in the Spencer Tracy version of the movie. Their dialogue is somewhat stilted and people who prefer the 1958 version point to their insertion into the story as a muddying of the storyline. 

The earlier version received a 7.0 rating from on Imdb.com viewers. This one has a 6.7 rating. Nevertheless, nearly everyone agrees that Anthony Quinn became a more authentic Santiago.

The old man's battle with the marlin brought back memories of deep sea fishing with my father off the coast of Miami. When Anthony Quinn first hooks the big fish, it reminded me of my father when he hooked the Grouper, which was the largest fish caught that day. (I think everyone put in $5.00 or some amount, and whoever caught the biggest fish took the prize.) My dad, who grew up in Ohio where we fished in ponds, lakes and streams, said that it felt like getting hooked on an underwater log.  Out on the ocean, our hooks were a long ways from the bottom, however.

A second scene from the film brought to mind my own battle with a Bonita. My line got all tangled so that I was unable to reel it in. We were trolling at the time. I began pulling in the fish with my hands, the line cutting my fingers. In the film, Santiago likewise has to pull in the fish with his hands, which also were bleeding. He wrapped rags around his hands like bandages, but what I remember most is the sting of the saltwater.

The cinematography is effective, especially when the Marlin breaks the surface for the first time. It really would be an awesome thing to see or, even better, to experience. 

I also have a third memory from our deep sea fishing excursion. When we disembarked on the dock, the boat alongside us had a 1,000-pound Hammerhead Shark cinched and hanging from a mast. That was one impressive fish as well.

The story ends with a thoroughly defeated hero. This blog post will end with a pair of quotes from the book.

--Every day above earth is a good day.

--Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

* * * 

Do You Read Banned Books?

When I was young Mad Magazine used to cost a quarter. My allowance was a quarter, which worked out well. I could buy a Mad magazine or save two quarters and buy Famous Monsters of Filmland, which was fifty cents. This left me with one more quarter to save for something more expensive, like a Revell model battleship or submarine. That was always around a dollar. 

Mad was famous for occasional inserts. For example, they inserted a vinyl record in the center that you could play on a record player. Side A was It's a Gas, in which the only lyrics were periodic burps. (Burps are a gas, right?) Side B was She Got A Nose Job, which I can still sing to this day. 

Another time, the magazine inserted full color book covers that could be used to wrap around trade-sized paperbacks. The book covers were intended to shock adults by appearing to be banned books or very adult content. The fake title would be large and in small type the rest of the title. One of the book covers was Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. Those three words were writ large in white block letters on a blue background. The full title might have been something like Let's go to a TROPIC isle OF no importance and get skin CANCER.

Other scandalous titles included Lady Chatterly's Lover and Fanny Hill. When I took a couple of these fake book covers and put them on my paperbacks, they achieved the intended goal of shocking an adult, specifically my mother. 

As it turns out, when I was in college eight or so years later the movie version of Tropic Of Cancer was playing at the theater. I probably would not have noticed but for the fake book cover I'd used from Mad. Out of curiosity I went to see it and left after about 20 minutes, not because it was vulgar but because it seemed pointless. (My assessment wasn't far afield. On imdb.com it has a 5.5 rating out of 10, which is pretty low.) 

* * * 

There was a time when the label Banned In Boston was a badge of notoriety. Perhaps it was Boston's Puritanical roots that resulted in the region's power to censor books, plays and movies, thereby dictating what was acceptable and unacceptable.

In addition to books like Ulysses (Joyce), Leaves of Grass (Whitman) and The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway), the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie" was censored.

While perusing the shelves at our local library this past week I discovered the 2014 edition of Banned Books, a catalog of books that have stirred the ire of people in various parts of our country over the years. It's a large book with more than 325 pages of listings, identifying books and the causes of their being barred, or recommended to be. Here are some of the more surprising entries.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury surprised me. It's about book burning. Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles was also banned by one school district because the N-word is used in one of its stories. The book was reprinted without that sentence and is OK now. 

One of my favorite Bradbury stories is The Veldt. It's a short sci-fi story that was included in his The Illustrated Man. I went through a sci-fi stage once, reading a lot of Asimov short stories as well as Bradbury. I had to scratch my head as to why The Veldt would be criticized. Fortunately, Banned Books included the reason people were upset with these various books. In this case, the parent who complained felt the story failed to show any consequences for the children's actions. That's getting pretty picky. 

Various school districts and communities took umbrage with six of Richard Brautigan's books, most of which I read in college.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was banned in the USSR because of references to occultism and spiritism. A Study in Scarlet was pulled in one county school district because it portrayed Mormonism in a bad light. The surprise for me is that Sign of the Four doesn't seem to have received any complaints even though it begins with Holmes rather enjoying the effects of shooting cocaine. 

Upton Sinclair's Oil! was banned in Boston because of its criticism of the Harding administration. Harding was no longer president and his cronies already dispersed by the time the book was published. It was also banned in Yugoslavia and burned in Nazi Germany, the latter because of its socialist views. The film There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, was loosely based on this book.

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was banned in dozens of localities for language and in some municipalities because it used the N-word. I've read this book a few times since first reading it in high school. I remember the characters and the power of the prose, not these language matters which passed faster than a speed bump.

Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was banned in Ireland.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received dozens of challenges and has been pulled from countless reading lists because it was deemed to "undermine the self-esteem" of black youth, and the N-word is used in the book a number of times. 

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird suffered the same fate, despite it being a story that shines a light on the evils of racial inequality. Some school districts rejected it because of racial slurs used in the story and does "psychological damage to the positive integration process." Ironically Harper Lee was showing the ugliness of people who demean other simply because of the color of their skin. 

Several Kurt Vonnegut books made the list including Slaughterhouse Five and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. 

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There's much more that can be said here on this topic, but it's nuanced and I don't have time to detail all the distinctions as regards this issue. I agree with those who believe there is an age appropriateness to be considered when recommending books to younger audiences. Then again, that's a much longer discussion. 

This book, Banned Books, caught my attention when I saw it, and I decided to check it out. The subtitle is Challenging Our Freedom To Read.

M Denise Costello Weighs In on the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick Documentary on Hemingway

When PBS aired the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary on Ernest Hemingway last week, the first thing I wanted to do was reach out to Denise Costello to get her reaction to the show. Costello has been a longtime Hemingway fan who's not only read more than anyone I know but also has visited most, if not all, of the places he once lived. When I reached out she agreed to share her views and insights. 

If you're a newby when it comes to Hemingway, Ms. Costello's insights can help you find an entry point. If you've read his novels and stories and want more, she can also point you toward some good books about his life and career as well.

EN: Were there any "Aha!" insights that you had that you hadn't learned about through your readings and visiting the places Ernest Hemingway lived?

M Denise Costello: Not really. I have done too much reading and following and corresponding with other aficionados and scholars to have learned something completely new. Some things I might have forgotten about and then was reminded again, but nothing I can think of was totally new to me in this documentary. These Burns/Novick documentaries are superb, but you can find out more about subjects if you just delve in and research them yourself through books and articles.

I have collected all of the volumes published thus far in the Letters project, but have not begun reading them. However, I have read many of his letters from many biographies and other books about Ernest. The book Letters from the Lost Generation by Linda Patterson Miller was the book that really sparked my interest in Hemingway’s life and works. This was after Amanda Vaill's book on the Murphys: Everybody Was So Young.  He had a large group of friends when he lived in France and they all hung out and had a great time while he was still in his 20s. Many of these friends came to visit him and Pauline in Key West when he was in his 30s. 

EN: Was Hemingway's stature enhanced or diminished as a result of this Ken Burns documentary?

MDC: His stature as a writer was probably enhanced because many people are still not familiar with his work, especially the short stories, in my opinion, and might have been enlightened as to how good some of the stories really are and how they still hold up a century later. Examples are “Indian Camp,” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” 

As a person, he was probably diminished somewhat since he treated all four wives horribly at times, as well as his sons and parents. But we were not really given the perspective from any family members other than Patrick Hemingway, his surviving son. Also, the documentary did not really delve deep into how he helped others and how good a father he could be. The surface was skimmed. A letter written in the heat of the moment does not give a full picture of a person, either. 

EN: What would you say was Hemingway's most important achievement?

MDC: I think his most important achievement was changing how writing evolved beginning with his books and stories to a more “modern” method (aka, the Iceberg Theory). The documentary brought forth how genius he was to leave the endings to many of his books as arbitrary and up to the reader to supply what they think happened at the end.

EN: How would you rank his books? What do you feel are his "Top 5”?

MDC: All the collections of short stories I would rank first, then:

The Garden of Eden

The Sun Also Rises

A Moveable Feast

A Farewell to Arms

For Whom the Bell Tolls

EN: What would you say is the best book ABOUT Hemingway if someone were to try to get to know him?

MDC: I recommend the five volumes by Michael S. Reynolds. Those are the most complete covering different time periods of Hemingway’s life. I do not think there is just one book that one should read to learn about Hemingway. His works should be read, as well as a variety of the biographies by different biographers in different eras.

EN: Which of his wives got the best and worst deal in his four marriages? (Optional Corollary: Which do you most relate to?

MDC: I relate the most to Martha Gellhorn because I am not married and cannot relate to the “wifey” roles of Hadley, Pauline, and Mary. Gellhorn was a worker and did not want to live just to serve and take care of Ernest. She had her own dreams and goals. 

I think Mary got the worst deal because he was downright mean to her in front of others more than any of the other wives and she had to deal with the most depressed and deteriorating Ernest. She was with him longer than the others. Mary also had to  wake up to the sound of Ernest killing himself and then to have to relive and think about it for 25 more years. She dealt with all this and gave up her journalism career, too. Mary also hosted Adriana Ivancich and her mother coming to stay at the Finca for months. 

I cannot relate to Pauline at all. She connived to steal Ernest from Hadley and did not seem to have any remorse about it. And then stick to all the Catholic ideas, which was so extremely hypocritical. This after pretending to be Hadley’s friend. Pauline did have many positive traits that enhanced their lives. She also came from a rich family, which led to a car, a house in Key West, and a safari. 

Hadley and Pauline got the best of him as he was young and they had lots of friends and traveled much.

EN: Would you say the Ken Burns documentary was a fair treatment of his life?

MDC: Yes, although even at 6 hours long, so much was still left out. He had many more relationships with women that some might be surprised about. An example is his correspondence and friendship with Marlene Dietrich. He also had long-term relationships with one or maybe more Cuban women. And probably more women than we will ever know about.

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Related Links

A Visit with M. Denise Costello, Hemingway Aficionado

Hemingway, Ken Burns and the Age Old Question

Hemingway, Ken Burns and the Age Old Question

"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life."
--Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Ernest Hemingway

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Can an immense jerk be an important artist? How do we separate the artist from the art?

I have struggled with this many times over the years, most recently while reading Earle Labor's Jack London: An American Life. There are more than a few people in Hollywood whose bad behavior has tarnished their stars in my estimation. If you want to thoroughly enjoy their performances or what they've produced or directed, it's almost better not to know too much.

The same goes for rock stars. To enjoy their music it's almost best not to know too much about their personal lives. 

For this reason I was a bit surprised when I saw that Ken Burns had produced a six-hour documentary on the bigger-than-life Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway. His influence on literature was, and remains, undeniable. His reputation "off the screen" left something to be desired. Thus I was curious how Burns would present the man.

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I am more than a little familiar with Hemingway's story, having read most of his books and a few books about him. I was aware of his father's suicide, and the manner in which he burned through four wives -- Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn and Mary Welch. I was also keenly aware of his commitment to the craft of writing. And, of course, I was aware of his death by suicide at age 62 after years of struggle with personal demons.

In this last of three segments, it was painful to learn how much he verbally abused his sons and how much he hated his mother, whom he never saw yet supported till her death. 

I could relate to his struggles as a writer on at least one level. As one who has achieved monumental heights, I can imagine it to be quite the burden to feel the weight of expectation to climb yet higher. He observed that Nobel Prize winners seldom produce anything better afterwards, though I suspect he was overstating the case due to his speculative fear that he was a has-been. (I've heard that Ishiguro's latest novel, post Nobel, is quite remarkable, which goes contrary to the dictum Hem pronounced.)

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Hemingway at 50

Here are a few observations I made on the third night of the Burns documentary.

I was unaware of how many concussions Hemingway experienced. The correlation to his mood swings is logical, though his lifelong alcoholism certainly played a role. And perhaps there was an underlying root of bitterness that infected him as well. 

Not all of his books were critically acclaimed. Across the River and Into the Trees received the worst reviews possible. And though Old Man and the Sea became an immediate bestseller, critics homed in on the mannered "Hemingway style" as if it had become a parody of himself.

Hemingway's injuries through the years were common occurrences it seems -- concussions, blurred vision, throbbing headaches, battered knees. He had more than his share of physical maladies, though simultaneously his choices helped put him in harm's way on some of those occasions.

I was unaware that he covered D-Day as a journalist from a landing transport, and his soon to be wife was taking photos right on the beach.

Some reporters admired him for his bravado, other couldn't stand it. He actually got involved in the fighting in the war itself (WW2), which was against the rules of journalism.

One of his favorite homes -- if not his favorite writing place -- was in the hills overlooking Havana. Eventually, after Castro took over Cuba, Hemingway had to abandon this idyllic place. 

Chief character traits used to describe Hemingway included masculinity, stoicism, idiocy, mortality, and drinking, drinking, drinking. He could be exceedingly hurtful in his letters. When his mother died, he said he hated his mother and she hated him. He inflicted 100,000 cruelties on people who were part of his life.

I found it interesting that the documentary cited Shakespeare's King Lear at one point, when he said, "What's going on here? Aren't I king?" This was a late in life development where others had to step in to keep. him from self-destruction. 

Another pair of incidents were somewhat unusual. During a trip to Africa with his wife the plane they were on faltered and crashed. The rescue plane failed to see them initially, so Hemingway was presumed dead and media all over the world published obituaries and tributes. As luck would have it, they were rescued after all, but on the return flight were involved in a second crash. His wife broke ribs and he cracked his skull using his body and head to smash his way out of the burning plane.

While recovering from the second crash he read the obituaries and tributes to his greatness and influence as a writer. (Have you ever wondered what they will say about you and your legacy when you die?)

His last years, after leaving Cuba, were spent in Ketchum, Idaho. It was not a happy time as he struggled with concentration and internal turbulence. He'd crossed too many boundaries, and as Dylan would one day sing, "You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way."

In his last days, he would write a sentence, cross it out, try another and quit. Later he would try again, wrote a sentence and quit yet again. "Unable to write a good sentence after four hours he gave up."

For what it's worth, the number of writers influenced by his stories and novels is impossibly great. I count myself as one of these, inspired to excel as a writer by his first book of short stories, In Our Time. He was a master of the craft, and his prose struck me like a punch to the solar plexus.  That's an experience I can never deny.  

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YouTube Videos

Orson Welles on Hemingway

Ingrid Bergman on Hemingway

Andy Rooney on Hemingway

Interview with Hemingway in Havana, 1954
(EdNote: Read the comments to catch why their recitation from cue cards is so stilted.) 

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Related Links

Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

PBS's Hemingway is an immersive portrait of the author's brilliance and cruelty

Channeling Papa: Scott Stavrou's Collected Blog Posts of Ernest Hemingway

A Visit with M Denise Costello: Hemingway Aficianado from Dallas

Throwback Thursday: For Whom the Bell Tolls