Please respond to anything that interested you in the end of Death in the Afternoon. Here are some prompts to get you started thinking:
- Discuss the beginning of Chapter 16 (p. 183). What does Hemingway seem to be saying about nostalgia here? Is he poking fun, for instance, at the natural human tendency toward nostalgia? How does this paragraph fit into his treatise on bullfighting?
- Look at pp. 191-192 and discuss what Hemingway says about writing–how is inventing characters different from writing about people? Which is better? What do you think he means by this quote: “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration”?
- Discuss what Hemingway seems to say about homosexuality in the book. He tells a story about two homosexual men on pp. 180-182, for instance, and then later, on p. 205, he discusses homosexuality and El Greco. How did you react to all of this? What is Hemingway’s attitude toward homosexuality? Do you think it’s typical of his times or not?
- On p. 213, Hemingway writes that a good bullfighter “gives you the feeling of his immortality, and, as you watch it, it becomes yours.” Discuss what you think he means here.
- Talk about the way Hemingway concludes the book, perhaps beginning with the line on p. 270: “If I could have made this enough of a book, it would have had everything in it.” What comes next? What did you think of this section? What are we finally left with at the very end?
In the passage you mentioned, where Hemingway writes that a good bullfighter “gives you the feeling of his immortality, and, as you watch it, it becomes yours” (on p. 213), he is likely expressing that an audience members perspective during a bullfight can be heightened or diminished, depending on the bullfighters performance. Throughout the novel, Hemingway’s fascination with mortality, in the context of bullfighting, is perceived as inherently a confrontation with death, and lingers on the edge of living and dying. The bullfighter’s ability to face immortality with grace and skill becomes a metaphor for the broader human experience. The statement suggests that a skilled bullfighter, through his artistry and mastery in the face of mortal danger, transcends the fear of death. The bullfighter’s performance is so powerful and convincing that it evokes a sense of immortality to an audience member. This might be interpreted as the bullfighter achieving a kind of eternal existence through his art, at least in the mind of Hemingway. It’s as if the act of witnessing such bravery and skill allows the audience to share in the bullfighter’s triumph over mortality, if only for a fleeting moment.
Look at pp. 191-192 and discuss what Hemingway says about writing–how is inventing characters different from writing about people? Which is better? What do you think he means by this quote: “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration”?
Hemingway in this chapter describes a literary critic, “Mr Aldous Huxley,” who claims that an author “Mr H” (who I’m assuming is Hemingway?) tends to make bold statements in his writing, whether they be philosophical or even just “admirably expressive” in terms of language, and then quickly turns away “shame-facedly.” Hemingway points out that while once people who were uneducated attempted to appear the opposite, now educated people for some reason pretend they are not. Characters should be fully fleshed-out “people,” he claims, and while some authors (who Hemingway looks down upon) see their characters dialogue and the narrators descriptions as separate, they are not. If a character doesn’t discuss topics such as music, philosophy, politics, but a narrator cuts in with intellectual and theoretical talk of these things, its going to clearly show a reader that the author is trying to show off their knowledge. It’s a disservice to both the audience and the character in the novel. Hemingway doesn’t seem to think that there’s never a time or place for “intellectual musings,” but he definitely doesn’t believe that inserting these musings into the voice of a character is beneficial. Likewise, inserting it randomly into the narrator’s voice in the prose is going to be jarring and overdramatic if its not “absolutely necessary” to get a certain point across. This is why he calls prose the structure of a piece of writing, not the “interior design:” the characters’ words as well as the prose are the basis of the work’s meaning and value, not simply a place for an author to try and prove themself as intelligent or moral. This very much fits in with Hemingway’s “ice-berg” style of writing, which he mentions later in the chapter. He does believe, however, that authors should be all well-read and experienced as possible, and that they should draw heavily and thoughtfully from the “heritage” of “truly written” stories they’ve absorbed— he just believes that a good writer will naturally and clearly and succinctly indicate these lessons through the work without having to preach them or spell them out using a character’s voice or long complex phrases.
Having read some of Hemingway’s works as well as having studied the evolution of his writing, I definitely agree with this point of view, for the most part. His observation that the modern person tends to play down how intelligent or educated they are still seems true today, though I think there’s people on both extreme ends of the spectrum. There’s a need among artists of all kinds, not just writers, to be able to produce something that automatically and authentically gets across a point in a way that goes straight to the heart and doesn’t necessarily need pages upon pages of explanation or proving of education to relay. The rise of instagram poetry and quick shares of single quotes or lines is what comes to mind as the modern version of this— sometimes its on one end of the spectrum that Hemingway would disagree with: people trying to share lessons in these quick bites of phrases that use too many adjectives and over-hyped quotes that really aren’t necessary to understand the meaning, but makes it more shareable or likeable. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s a social media trend I love right now where people share an idea that’s actually very meaningful to them, but do so using just symbols or a simple phrase that often reads as satire because its so profound yet usually paired with a meme or random picture. It was a kind of satire that actually has looped around to being a way for people to share really universal human experiences via educated young adults pretending to be uneducated by putting their intelligent thoughts over a stupid picture. That’s all a bit of a sidetrack but I really found this part of the book to be interesting because of how relatable it is even in ways that Hemingway couldn’t have imagined at the time of writing— I think it just goes to show how universal it is.
In chapter sixteen Hemingway discusses how he goes about his writing. More specifically how the invention of his characters is different from writing about people for instance. Hemingway starts out by saying “People in a novel, not skillfully constructed characters, must be projected from the writer’s assimilated experience, from his knowledge, from his head, from his heart and from all there is of him” (300). I personally loved this line because it perfectly portrays what it is to write from truth. Often times I feel in my own writing that I am formulating so much fiction that the character may stray too far from someone of reality. That if I continue to write and “skillfully construct” this character to my liking, they will never be as I wish them to be. But here, we see Hemingway describe the importance of these non-fiction characters, these real people are a direct product from one’s perception and sense of self. This made me view people in a new way. To be able to put someone onto the page you must reflect on how you view them from all angles to ensure your reader will view them the same way. To show 100% authenticity from all aspects. I used to think that writing fictional people was better and more enjoyable because I was at liberty to create, but in a way I think writing from truth may be more effective if I draw from every aspect of myself to truly portray this living breathing person. It allows you to heighten the human qualities that all of us experience.