Hemingway and Pynchon

[Paul Mackin]

Ah so Catherine is nuts? I thought it was just my imagination (or H's
idea of female mercurialness). But while we're on "nuts," Frederic's
emoting at Catherine's death bed sounds very far gone also, and not only
with minerva. Men nowadays are supposed to try to be in touch with their
feelings, pretend to be at least, but Frederick comes to the modern ear as
almost a burlesque of male sincerity and sensitivity. I think perhaps a
1929 audience would not have had this problem. 

				P.

On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Derek C. Maus wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> > But forheavensake Catherine is frigging perfect up to and including the
> > fact she dies and leaves Frederic with a perfect love to forever
> > contemplate. 
> 
> Wellllllll...there is that little problem of her being nucking futs when
> they meet...
> 
> Also, remember "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" in which the
> male ego figures are pretty severely savaged by Margot when she
> essentially tells her husband off because he thinks he's a big man now
> that he's blasted a lion to bits with what's essentially a small
> howitzer. I know some people read that story as the "castrating
> bitch" type, but it seems to me that Hemingway is at least mocking some of
> the hyper-masculine impulse.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Derek C. Maus               |   "Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be
> dmaus at email.unc.edu         |   human beings if you didn't have some 
> UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |   pretty strong feelings about nuclear
> http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |   combat."  --Major Kong, DR. STRANGELOVE
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>