Do you ever find yourself reading a book and suddenly thinking that it’s all very silly? I don’t mean the theme/plot in particular, but the very process of writing; creating characters, dialogues and internal thoughts. I’ve just about given up on Hemingway’s THaHN because I was hit by this exact sensation as I reached the end of a chapter. I’m over half way through but very much doubt I’ll finish. It’s an awful book in many ways, but I’m just getting a terrible sense I’m wasting my time on it, and that writing itself is silly and futile.
Yes, absolutely. For example, in the distant past, writers loved nonsensical exaggerations, such as someone drank ten bottles of wine with each meal. Occasionally I find myself reading a (contemporary) book whose author really can't write, and I think "If THAT got published, I also have every chance."
It's one of the reasons I strive for immersion, as a writer. Good storytelling, is as old as humankind, really. Arty farty, overly self-conscious 'writing' is a tad newer—where form trumps function. It can make you wonder why you're wasting your time, once you've become aware of the devices the author employs. Sooner or later, you get fed up standing back and admiring how clever the author is.
Well, I don't know what timescale you're working to with that comment, but To Have and Have Not was written in 1937, so where does that land? I suppose you'd have to give it a read, but I'm finding it irritating and unpleasant in a way I can't pin down.
Personally—and I know not everybody agrees with me—but I've never been able to stand Hemingway's style. And he was VERY conscious of style, and banged on about it a lot. I don't think he was focused as much on storytelling as he was on 'writing.' He is an author I was forced to read quite a lot back in high school, and I never totally recovered from the experience! A Farewell to Arms, The Sun also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, and several short stories, to be specific. Aaargh. None of them engaged me at all, and I was a voracious reader, even then. I didn't take to Faulkner either. (The Sound and the Fury was a dog's breakfast of POV shenanigans I never did manage to finish.) I did love John Steinbeck, though. I voluntarily read most of his novels, after being exposed to them in high school. He was a contemporary writer to Hemingway who told his stories in a straightforward way that sucked me right in. Reading Steinbeck was never a chore for me. I have read a lot of Victorian-era writers—British and American—and it seems to me that while their collective style is out of date, they seemed to be more focused on storytelling than some of the authors who came later. Victorian writers seemed to want all manner of folks to read and enjoy their stories—not just the intelligentsia. (Many famous Victorian writers serialised some of their work in ordinary newspapers and magazines, which were read by the general public.) Subject matter (even for the poets) seemed to be the thing these writers focused on. I feel they strove to engross and enthrall the reader, rather than impress them with a unique style, if that makes sense. Of course all writers have a 'style,' but I prefer when their style seems to emerge naturally from their personality, rather than something self-conscious that they 'created' deliberately. Especially if the style seems meant to impress rather than immerse the reader. This is a personal view of mine, and not meant to be either a judgement or a universal truth. I realise there are people (I have good friends like this) who enjoy an author's style rather more than the stories being told. They love words and clever word play. That's fine and fair enough. But I prefer to focus on content and forget the words. For me, words and sentences are tools to communicate ideas. I don't regard them as objects of art.
Yes. Sometimes I feel like the 'magic' just isn't there. I'm not caught up in the writer's world I'm too busy either seeing the great mechanics (all the tinkers and doo-dads) or the faulty engine. Sometimes I even find myself thinking of ways to fix the book. One teenage romance I just read had no side plot, no links, no layers, nothing to pull it together. It was a bloated short story padded out to two hundred pages. A complete mess. But then I read something like Bad Brains by Kathe Koja - finally caved and ordered the book even though shipping to Canada (International my ass) is through the roof - and the book left me shaken. I want to go back to it and take notes it was that amazing.
If you like anything else by Hemingway I'd say you're burned out and should forget about writing for a time and read something very different after that. We're all humans after all and can get stuck. Forcing it might worsen it. If not, he might not be your cup of of tea.
I forgot about writing a number of years ago. I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, but I think this thread is getting lost now. It was never meant as a critique on Hemingway - I was just using him as an example because I was reading him when the original thought occurred. Maybe I didn't explain myself very well. I was merely trying to convey the strange sensation I get sometimes when reading, that the very process of writing is silly and futile.
Ok, interesting. I certainly can identify with the sense of meaninglessness even though I never felt it exclusively for writing. When you get that feeling, what do you think about anything else? Is other media feeling meaningless? What about other activities?
Sigmund hah, hardly. What I'm getting at is that depressions usually bring about a general sense of meaninglesness so you might benefit from checking that up with your healthcare.
