What does Ernest Hemingway mean to you?

31 comments

1. Edgar Allan Poe > Ernest Hemingway.

2. I know he was a great writer, but I can’t necessarily quote anything of his.

3. Overrated. Poe, Clemens, and Chopin are all clearly better. Cases can be made for numerous others.

4. All I know is I have a friend who has focused their academic career on studying 20th century American authors and they fucking hate that man

   I don’t know why. But they practically quiver with rage anytime he’s brought up

5. I’m personally not a Hemingway fan. I appreciate his love of cats though.

6. Shooting machine guns at sharks.

7. I know he was a popular writer but I’ve never read anything of his.

   I know he was big on machismo, which makes it very hard for me to have any interest in anything he ever touched.

8. I grew up in an area where Hemingway spent part of his life and we never read any of his books in school. My literature teachers didn’t care for them.

9. Had to read “The Sun Also Rises” in high school and did not enjoy it. Of course my personal favorite writers are not considered classic.

10. No.

    He is an important example of a slice of Americana, and typifies a certain mindset of a certain generation. I think of him like HP Lovecraft in that he was of his time, and would probably get canceled today, but is a useful reminder for where have been.

    From an entertainment POV, I find him tedious. Not a brilliant technical writer. I found Old Man and the Sea infuriatingly long for a story that had no payoff.

11. I prefer Twain or Whitman personally. But there really isn’t a single “greatest” American writer. We kind of pump out a lot of books, so it’s hard to pick a singular defining author.

12. Wila Cather, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Kurt Vonnegut, Faulkner all give Hemingway solid competition . Also we have great poets.

13. I would say Twain is first in American writers. But Earnest is certainly highly regarded.

14. Well revered by my grandparents generation. Have only ever read “The old man and the sea” of his and that was assigned reading in middle school

15. I like him

16. Nothing other than he lived on Key West and had polydactyl cats. The polydactyl descendants of those cats are still found on the island.

17. Annual beard competition and cats with extra toes.

18. When I think of Hemingway, I think of cats. He had a lot of them. The Hemingway House in the Florida Keys is still home to over 60 of them. Don’t know if he’s the greatest American writer but he’s prol the American writer who loved cats the greatest.

19. He’s not the greatest American writer but he’s a great writer for sure.

20. Give me Steinbeck over him any day. Hell, I’ll take Fitzgerald first.

21. I like Hemingway. I like the way he writes. I like the words he uses. I like the way he puts them on the page. I like to read them. I like him.

22. Read a few of his books, enjoyed them well enough. I wouldn’t necessarily say “Greatest American author.” I have found, however, that drinks and restaurants named after him tend to be fantastic.

23. There are a lot who could give him a run for his money. Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Faulkner, Hawthorne, etc…

24. God, no. Bland as hell. Steinbeck is the more well-rounded and infinitely better writer.

25. Key West and smoking cigars.

26. I remember not hating the old man and the sea when I had to read it in high school so I figured I’d give him a shot as I was looking to branch out this year. Started with For Whom the Bell Tolls, it was tolerable but that’s all I can say. Then A Farewell to Arms, flat out didn’t like it. I don’t like his writing style nor the stories.

27. To me he means polydactyl cats, daiquiris, the Spanish Civil War, and For Whom The Bell Tolls.

28. Larger than life icon. Wrote in a unique manner that influenced modern writing. Not the greatest American writer.

    Nonetheless, we are all richer because of Hemingway.

29. I feel like Twain had much more cutting commentary to make whereas Hemingway was just…machismo. Also his style is the literary equivalent of gruel imo. He studiously removed anything analogus to spice.

    It’s like if Dick and Jane had unaddressed combat ptsd.

30. Great writer who does sort of remind me of this country with the way that the surface level public image of him hides a deep richness and complexity (like his own iceberg theory). The Sun Also Rises is just timeless despite being so vivid in describing a particular setting and era. It might be about an impotent veteran but probably almost any man who’s been insecure in his masculinity can relate to it. That feeling of being a reliable, silent observer of more vital and interesting, but also terribly dysfunctional, people is captured so poignantly by that book.

    My top American writers might be Paul Bowles or John Cheever though, or honestly maybe Fitzgerald.

31. I dunno about all that but I like reading him. It’s so clear and simple and unfiltered.