# Hemingway's writing style. Am I being whooshed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902 "2012-04-25T13:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/1 "2012-04-25T13:43:03Z")
Be forewarned: possible (unintended) literary blasphemy ahead. Alright. So I’ve been a Hemingway naysayer for about five years. I don’t know or care whether he’s as sexist and homophobic as he’s generally considered to be, nor do I find his subject matter boring or objectionable. My issue? He’s regarded as being able to pack a considerable punch in few words, and his brevity is touted as crucial to his (percieved) genius. Even though once a year or so I decide to give him another chance and dust off _A Farewell to Arms_ or _The Old Man and the Sea_, I just don’t see it. I won’t deny that the works are short (they are) or complete (they are). But when my fellow writers call his style “economical” or “spare” and Wikipedia says it’s “terse”, I always seem to go in expecting minimal, hard-hitting descriptors, excruciatingly poignant word choice, and an ability to put unseen days or weeks into the subtext of one scene. I’m half-convinced that is, in fact, how other people experience Hemingway and that I’m the literary equivalent of being immune to a chemical. Inevitably what I find instead is that, while the wording he selects is indeed very straightforward, there really is no notable scarcity of adjectives. And more importantly, I never feel the emotional kick-in-the-guts I’m always bracing for. And while he certainly gets credit for the amount of time he’s able to skip while keeping the events comprehensible, I’m at a point where I suspect the only reason his writing is considered compact is how much time he skips. Nothing to do with linguistic power. Is there something I’m missing, or is that really what people mean when they cite Hemingway’s sparse prose as a defining feature of brilliance? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/2 "2012-04-25T13:46:08Z")
I also have never understood his "greatness’. I have to admit, I thought Farewell to Arms was a really good book and he has a few good short stories, but For Whom The Bell Tolls and his other novels just don’t seem all that great to me. And yes, his writing style is a big part of why those don’t work(and actually, it worked well in Arms). ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/3 "2012-04-25T13:54:04Z")
I’ve only read a couple of his short stories (ones I’m told were highly regarded - they were included in collections and what-not), but none of them did anything for me - at all. I was kind of flummoxed. But I’m trying to withhold final judgment until I read one of his novels. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/4 "2012-04-25T14:02:28Z")
> [@Imago](#): > > I won’t deny that the works are short (they are) or complete (they are). But when my fellow writers call his style “economical” or “spare” and Wikipedia says it’s “terse”, I always seem to go in expecting minimal, hard-hitting descriptors, excruciatingly poignant word choice, and an ability to put unseen days or weeks into the subtext of one scene. No, “excruciatingly poignant” is not a phrase I’d associate with Hemmingway, and neither is hard-hitting - not in the sense of a flashy word that draws attention to itself. His style is direct and understated. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/5 "2012-04-25T14:12:01Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No, “excruciatingly poignant” is not a phrase I’d associate with Hemmingway, and neither is hard-hitting - not in the sense of a flashy word that draws attention to itself. His style is direct and understated. Typically when we say something is understated, it does imply that it has considerable power (albeit hidden power). Like a scrawny guy in a suit who can bench press a truck. I always expect his style to be understated but generally don’t find that it is. You know, it just occurred to me that it’s like he thought he could get by entirely on subject matter. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t work for me- I’m a sucker for the “how it’s told” aspect. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/6 "2012-04-25T14:17:35Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I also have never understood his "greatness’. I have to admit, I thought Farewell to Arms was a really good book and he has a few good short stories, but For Whom The Bell Tolls and his other novels just don’t seem all that great to me. > > And yes, his writing style is a big part of why those don’t work(and actually, it worked well in Arms). Haven’t touched _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ in a few years. My high school English teacher (whom we all looked up to) had always been on the fence about him 'til he read that one, and it made him a (lukewarm, but nonetheless) convert. When he first explained the concept to me, I thought the subject matter alone would be enough to make it great- it’s been a long time since anyone’s written a book so centrically focused on the theme of making the most of what little time you’ve got left, which is the bit my teacher emphasized. Left me severely underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![chloes1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@chloes1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chloes1)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/7 "2012-04-25T15:44:31Z")
Can’t stand the man’s writing either. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/8 "2012-04-25T15:52:51Z")
I’m not a fan either. But maybe his style was divergent at the time and seemed new and fresh. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/9 "2012-04-25T16:00:26Z")
To the OP, part of what you are missing is the widespread adoption of Hemingway’s style. Compare him to contemporaries and those who came before. Read, to pick another American, Poe and then read Hemingway and you will notice a stark difference. Or go to England and read Dickens and then read Hemingway. Heck, get super contemporary and read Fitzgerald and then read Hemingway and there is still a difference. Another part is that the difference is less noticeable in his novels than it is in his short stories (IMO his greatness as an author is really in his short story writing). But the biggest thing is really that his style was widely adopted and has become the mainstream writing style, and while the popular style of the time seems old fashioned now Hemingway’s style no longer seems as radical as it was at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Robb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Robb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robb)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/10 "2012-04-25T16:15:13Z")
Hemingway tried to edit out of his work the parts of the story that he thought the readers already knew. It is similar to Elmore Leonard’s idea of leaving out the parts that readers skip. But, you should also consider that people sometimes run contests to write bad Hemingway. If you read some of his posthumously published work, you will see that no one does bad Hemingway like Hemingway. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/11 "2012-04-25T16:19:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No, “excruciatingly poignant” is not a phrase I’d associate with Hemmingway, and neither is hard-hitting - not in the sense of a flashy word that draws attention to itself. His style is direct and understated. Yeah, I would describe it as reportorial, as in taking a journalistic style and setting it in a literary context. Personally, I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/12 "2012-04-25T16:29:04Z")
That makes some sense, NAF. Then again, both Dickens _and_ Hemingway seem nearly ancient to me, while Poe feels like just yesterday. Maybe my sense of time is scrambled. If that’s mainstream writing style now, then it sure goes a long way to explaining why a current, bestselling, critically acclaimed novel hasn’t grabbed my interest in a while. Here I was thinking I must just be turning into one of those drooling fools who can’t stand anything popular. And come to think of it, my complaint about Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling, Dean Koontz and the recent rash of memoir-writers is that their styles are blandly functional at best. I’m pretty happy to see the number of people chiming in to say they don’t like him either. For a while I swear I thought I was the only decently literate person who didn’t “get” Hemingway. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/13 "2012-04-25T16:32:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m not a fan either. But maybe his style was divergent at the time and seemed new and fresh. That might be the case. I read his stuff in school but was not impressed. Perhaps he was revolutionary when compared to the more florid styles of writers who’ve totally passed out of favor. Myself, I like a bit of style. In fact, sometimes I like a lot of style. Lately, I’ve become enamored of Ford Madox Ford… ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/14 "2012-04-25T16:37:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, I would describe it as reportorial, as in taking a journalistic style and setting it in a literary context. Personally, I like it. Yeah, maybe that’s a lot more accurate than “terse” and “compact”. I’m not sure whether I actually think he’s bad, it could just be that I was expecting something mindblowing every time and my mind was never blown. On some level I probably assumed that when he actually _was_ a journalist all his material made people spontaneously weep/laugh/fly into a rage over everyday events, as opposed to his fictional voice feeling like it came from a reporter. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/15 "2012-04-25T19:31:33Z")
Hemingway and Picasso are similar in that both found a way to develop a style that allowed them to get the thing done in a hurry, so they could get out and get on with the _real_ part of the job, which was publicizing the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/16 "2012-04-25T19:54:02Z")
I don’t believe it is his writing style that is supposed to be so good, it’s that he is such a manly man and he can write OK too, so he has readable stories about manly stuff, much of which he really experienced in one form or another. Kind of a high-end Boy’s Life writer. I had a book of some of Hemingway’s short work, can’t remember the title. News dispatches or short non-fiction pieces from post WWI Europe or something. I really enjoyed that book until it disappeared. The rest of Hemingway I could do without. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/17 "2012-04-25T19:58:25Z")
Twenty years ago I thought I should read Hemingway and picked up _The Sun Also Rises_, but I didn’t get through the first chapter because I was so struck by his writing style that I went what the fuck and read several biographies, I was so fascinated by _how he wrote_. Then I read \*The Old Man and the Sea \*and _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ and _Farewell to Arms_, which all was very good, and later got back to The Sun Also Rises. Once again, I couldn’t read much more than the first chapter. It was something about the tension, I can’t explain it. I have never before or later quit on a great novel because it is too much, but it is something in this text that grips me and I start studying the sentences and paragraphs instead of just following along with the story. To me, it is just something about Hemingway. It is not “macho”, quite the opposite, it is suppressed _feeling_. He is simply one hell of a writer – fascinating stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/18 "2012-04-25T19:58:31Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > I don’t believe it is his writing style that is supposed to be so good, it’s that he is such a manly man and he can write OK too, so he has readable stories about manly stuff, much of which he really experienced in one form or another. Kind of a high-end Boy’s Life writer. Yeah, that’s definitely not true. I’m not the biggest Hemingway fan and scholar (as evidenced by the fact that I mispelled his name earlier) and it’s certainly true that he promoted himself successfully, but it’s the writing, not just the image. I have strong memories of reading some of his short stories in college and as we analyzed them, being impressed by the directness of his writing and by the amount of feeling that was buried undernear the plainspoken language. [**Wakinyan** just ninjaed me on this point and it’s too bad but I’m glad we agree and maybe it’s not so bad being ninjaed.] I think maybe that’s the part the OP is not getting. ---
**Author:** ![secretsmile36](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@secretsmile36](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/secretsmile36)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/19 "2012-04-25T19:59:50Z")
I still remember a quote from the old man and the sea: “He didn’t beat you. Not the fish.” I’ve never been fond of Hemingway. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902/20 "2012-04-25T20:19:15Z")
It is not surprising that those raised on nearly 100 years of tough, terse, post-Hemingway writing don’t see what’s so new. I had read _The Old Man and the Sea_ in school, but I finally picked up _The Sun Also Rises_ and liked it. Had not trouble at all getting through the first chapter. Then I really studied the style in order to write a short parody, and found it interesting. Not how I’d want to write, but a lot more to my taste than Henry James and the Russians. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemingways-writing-style-am-i-being-whooshed/619902.md?page=2)