Skip to main content

Farewell...


I have not, unfortunately, read widely in literature, let alone the classics. It is something I wish I did more. I read Goethe's Faust a year ago and thought that was very good, but my literary scope has been pretty much limited to the Harry Potter series over the past couple years, though I am only on Book 5. I did try to get through Love in the Time of Cholera, but I only got half way. I went on the word of a friend and picked up one of Hemingway's.

I don't know if Farewell to Arms is even considered a "classic." My American Literature class in college may have touched on him a bit, but most likely not. The book is probably too provocative for the school. If it did, I was probably not paying attention because my American Lit. professor was especially boring. Any way, I have never felt so involved in the world of fictional characters. I love Harry Potter and I feel like I get pretty involved, but I have yet to experience the powerful emotion I felt after reading the last sentence of Farewell to Arms, "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain." My immediate thought after reading the words "THE END" was, "I hate you, Hemingway. I hate you." I immediately texted my friend who recommended the book and wrote, "I hate Hemingway. I hate him. To hades with his rotten soul."

How could you not hate a man who writes this depressingly blunt portrait of reality: "Poor little kid. I wished the hell I'd been choked like that. No I didn't. Still there would not be all this dying to go through. Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you." It kind of reminded me of Donnie Darco said, something like, "in the end everyone dies alone."

Hemingway died alone. He killed himself, I think. I don't want to die alone, but I am alone. If I died today, I would die alone.

*Artwork from HERE

Popular posts from this blog

8/15/2016

  Kevin,                                                               At this time I believe it is necessary that I inform you of what is going on internally. As a high school boys soccer coach I learned that you want team captains who are fully dedicated to the team’s success. If they aren’t, the entire team struggles to reach its goals.  While I am part of the FBBC team, I believe I am lacking in this desired leadership quality myself.  After seven full months in my current position, I do not believe my passions are managing money for the church. As a result I do not have internal peace about the longevity of my current position. I believe there are better people for this role. I believe FBBC would be a stronger organization if a person more suited for this role were here. I c...

You and Whose Army?

America elects a pro-choice candidate and suddenly my fellow Christian brothers and sisters head for the hills screaming the world has come to an end. Are not abortion rates much higher in several other countries? Why aren't we just as concerned about "life" in those countries? America elects an economically progressive candidate and people are screaming "socialism" preparing for a Rapture. (An mid-1800's invention of conservative Christian theology). Doesn't America know that Democracy is one of the youngest political philosophies to be employed? Why do we think the fate of the world depends on the success of our economical and political philosophies? America is struggling economically, and Jesus is now coming back to rescue his 2000 year old church from this difficult tribulation. Doesn't America remember that its only 232 years old? Why does God's blessing equate with monetary blessing? Why do American Christians constantly tie the end of the ...

not your typical fundy bible college grad

Dan MacFadyen, pastor (?), of Amplify Church in Colorado Springs , CO is getting some attention . This is crazy. I went to college with Dan MacFadyen. We were both “preacher boys” at Pensacola Christian College, an ultra-conservative fundamentalist institution training young men and woman to hold dearly to the “faith of their fathers” (independent Baptist’s) in the face of ‘secular humanism’ and ‘liberal neo-evangelicalism’ (interpret: everyone but independent Baptists who send their homeschooled children to PCC). Both are, in the mind of the institution, equally evil. Listening to Contemporary Christian Music is the beginning stage of all that is reprehensible in God’s little community behind the 8-foot gates protecting surrounding the campus. If PCC knows about what Dan is doing, I guarantee you they are praying for his “salvation” and the people he is “leading astray.” Interestingly enough I go...