“Utterly Real – The Only Thing That Counts”

An Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s

Handling of Timein Short Fiction

Short Story America Short Story Festival 2012

Gary Lawrence

“The utterly real thing in writing is the only thing that counts.” --- Maxwell Perkins to

Ernest Hemingway, 1935

“Writing whether you want it or not is competitive... most of the time you compete

against time and dead men...” --- Ernest Hemingway to Maxwell Perkins, 20 August 1928

“…My idea of a career is never to write a phony line, never fake, never cheat, never be sucked into the y.m.c.a. movements of the moment, and to give

them as much literature in a book as any son of a bitch has ever gotten into the same number of

words.” -- Hemingway, 30 April 1934

Time In Fiction1. Explore “time” as an approach for analyzing fiction

2.Examine writing techniques used by Ernest Hemingway to manage time in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

3.Discuss why Hemingway wrote “for” time like he did

4.Think about what we as writers might do differently/better concerning “time” in our own short fiction

“All fiction has to contend with the experience of time passing.” – Joan Silber, The Art of Time in Fiction

“The Short Happy Life ofFrancis Macomber”

• First Appeared: Cosmopolitan,1936

• Collected in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938)

• 11,205 words – his longest short story?• Old Man in the Sea – novella: 26,583 words• Chapter 7, In Our Time – 135 words (his shortest?)

“In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know…I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shiny and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.” – Hemingway, preface, The First Forty-Nine Stories

The Macro View

• Title

• First Line

• Story Time versus Chronological Time

• Repetition of Key Scenes

“In a short story, you have only so much money to buy just one costume. Not the parts of many. One mistake in the shoes or tie, and you’re gone.” --- F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Notebooks

Title and First Line

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

“It was now lunch time and they were all sitting under the double green fly of the dining tent pretending that nothing had happened.”

Story Time

1 Day 2: Lunch: they “pretending that nothing had happened.”2 Day 2: Late morning: Francis' triumphant entry into camp3 Day 2: Late morning: Wilson considers "breaking it off" 4 Day 2: Lunch: Plan buffalo hunt for next day 5 Day 1: Evening: Francis hears lion and is afraid 6 Day 2: Morning: Francis hears lion w/Wilson, plans hunt 7 Day 2: Morning: Francis shoots and wounds lion 8 Day2: Morning: Wilson kills lion, Francis “bolts like a rabbit” 9 Day 3: 3:00 am: Margot sleeps with Wilson 10 Day 3: Breakfast: Francis angry with/hates Wilson 11 Day 3: Francis redeems himself in car chase, buffalo hunt 12 Day 3: Wilson reveals hero's "code:" One life to live 13 Day 3: Francis stands solid against wounded buffalo: happy 14 Day 3: Margot shoots and kills Francis 15 Day 3: Wilson berates Margot, makes arrangements for inquiry

“Start a short story already rolling downhill, as close to the bottom as you can get and still tell your story.” -- Wallace Stegner, On Teaching Creative Writing

Chronological Time1 Day 1: Evening: Francis hears lion and is afraid 2 Day 2: Morning: Francis hears lion w/Wilson, plans hunt3 Day 2: Morning: Francis shoots and wounds lion 4 Day2: Morning: Wilson kills lion, Francis “bolts like a rabbit”5 Day 2: Late morning: Francis' triumphant entry into camp6 Day 2: Late morning: Wilson considers "breaking it off" 7 Day 2: Lunch: they “pretending that nothing had happened.”8 Day 2: Lunch: Plan buffalo hunt over lunch for next day 9 Day 3: 3:00 am: Margot sleeps with Wilson 10 Day 3: Breakfast: Francis angry with/hates Wilson 11 Day 3: Francis redeems himself in car chase, buffalo hunt 12 Day 3: Wilson reveals hero's "code:" One life to live 13 Day 3: Francis stands solid against wounded buffalo: happy 14 Day 3: Margot shoots and kills Francis 15 Day 3: Wilson berates Margot, makes arrangements for inquiry

“(Hemingway’s) stories are all taking place as entirely in the present as plays we watch being acted on the stage. Pasts and futures are among the things his characters have

not.” -- Eudora Welty, On Writing

Comparison: Story vs. Chronos Time

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Day 2: Lunch: they “pretending that nothing had happened.”Day 2: Late morning: Francis' triumphant entry into campDay 2: Late morning: Wilson considers "breaking it off" Day 2: Lunch: Plan buffalo hunt over lunch for next day Day 1: Evening: Francis hears lion and is afraid Day 2: Morning: Francis hears lion w/Wilson, plans hunt Day 2: Morning: Francis shoots and wounds lion Day2: Morning: Wilson kills lion, Francis “bolts like a rabbit” Day 3: 3:00 am: Margot sleeps with Wilson Day 3: Breakfast: Francis angry with/hates Wilson Day 3: Francis redeems himself in car chase, buffalo hunt Day 3: Wilson reveals hero's "code:" One life to live Day 3: Francis stands solid against wounded buffalo: happy Day 3: Margot shoots and kills Francis Day 3: Wilson berates Margot, makes arrangements for inquiry

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StoryTime

ChronoTime

Comparison: Story Vs. Chronos Time

567812349101112131415

Day 2: Lunch: they “pretending that nothing had happened.”Day 2: Late morning: Francis' triumphant entry into campDay 2: Late morning: Wilson considers "breaking it off" Day 2: Lunch: Plan buffalo hunt over lunch for next day Day 1: Evening: Francis hears lion and is afraid Day 2: Morning: Francis hears lion w/Wilson, plans hunt Day 2: Morning: Francis shoots and wounds lion Day2: Morning: Wilson kills lion, Francis “bolts like a rabbit” Day 3: 3:00 am: Margot sleeps with Wilson Day 3: Breakfast: Francis angry with/hates Wilson Day 3: Francis redeems himself in car chase, buffalo hunt Day 3: Wilson reveals hero's "code:" One life to give Day 3: Francis stands solid against wounded buffalo: happy Day 3: Margot shoots and kills Francis Day 3: Wilson berates Margot, makes arrangements for inquiry

123456789101112131415

StoryTime

ChronoTime

“Switchback Time”

“It strikes me that switchback time (the zigzag movement back and forth between timeframes) is also a natural method of oral story-telling at its best. People are always interrupting themselves, often to excellent purpose…

Switchback time, though it makes a story more complicated, is as elemental as the process of associative thought.”

--- Joan Silber, The Art of Time in Fiction

Repetition: Lion 1Macomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach. He trotted, heavy, big-footed, swinging wounded full-bellied, through the trees toward the tall grass and cover, and the crash came again to go past him ripping the air apart. Then it crashed again and he felt the blow as it hit his lower ribs and ripped on through, blood sudden hot and frothy in his mouth, and he galloped toward the high grass where he could crouch and not be seen and make them bring the crashing thing close enough so he could make a rush and get the man that held it.

Repetition: Lion 2Macomber had not thought how the lion felt as he got out of the car. He only knew his hands were shaking and as he walked away from the car it was almost impossible for him to make his legs move. They were stiff in the thighs, but he could feel the muscles fluttering. He raised the rifle, sighted on the junction of the lion’s head and shoulders and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened though he pulled until he thought his finger would break. Then he knew he had the safety on and as he lowered the rifle to move the safety over he moved another frozen pace forward, and the lion seeing his silhouette now clear of the silhouette of the car, turned an started off at a trot, and, as Macomber fired, he heard a whunk that meant that the bullet was home; but the lion kept on going. Macomber shot again and every one saw the bullet throw a spout of dirt beyond the trotting lion. He shot again, remembering to lower his aim, and they all heard the bullet hit, and the lion went into a gallop and was in the tall grass before he had the bolt pushed forward.

Lion’sExperience

Macomber’sExperience

The Present Moment

Reader’sExperience

The Micro View• Craft• Sentences• Parts of Speech: Prepositions, Conjunctions• Order: Standard and Not• Repetition: Sounds and Words• Rhyme and Rhythm

“Prose fiction is, in essence, the realization of an elusive abstract vision in elaborate and painstaking construction, sentence by sentence, word by word.” – Joyce Carol

Oates

Lion 1 – Sentences/CommasMacomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach. He trotted, heavy, big-footed, swinging wounded full-bellied, through the trees toward the tall grass and cover, and the crash came again to go past him ripping the air apart. Then it crashed again and he felt the blow as it hit his lower ribs and ripped on through, blood sudden hot and frothy in his mouth, and he galloped toward the high grass where he could crouch and not be seen and make them bring the crashing thing close enough so he could make a rush and get the man that held it.

Lion 1 -- ConjunctionsMacomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach. He trotted, heavy, big-footed, swinging wounded full-bellied, through the trees toward the tall grass and cover, and the crash came again to go past him ripping the air apart. Then it crashed again and he felt the blow as it hit his lower ribs and ripped on through, blood sudden hot and frothy in his mouth, and he galloped toward the high grass where he could crouch and not be seen and make them bring the crashing thing close enough so he could make a rush and get the man that held it.

Lion 1 -- PronounsMacomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach. He trotted, heavy, big-footed, swinging wounded full-bellied, through the trees toward the tall grass and cover, and the crash came again to go past him ripping the air apart. Then it crashed again and he felt the blow as it hit his lower ribs and ripped on through, blood sudden hot and frothy in his mouth, and he galloped toward the high grass where he could crouch and not be seen and make them bring the crashing thing close enough so he could make a rush and get the man that held it.

Lion 1 – Word Play/OrderMacomber stepped out of the curved opening at the side of the front seat, onto the step and down onto the ground. The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some super rhino. There was no man smell carried toward him and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees as he heard a cracking crash and felt the slam of a .30-06 220-grain solid bullet that bit his flank and ripped in sudden hot scalding nausea through his stomach. He trotted, heavy, big-footed, swinging wounded full-bellied, through the trees toward the tall grass and cover, and the crash came again to go past him ripping the air apart. Then it crashed again and he felt the blow as it hit his lower ribs and ripped on through, blood sudden hot and frothy in his mouth, and he galloped toward the high grass where he could crouch and not be seen and make them bring the crashing thing close enough so he could make a rush and get the man that held it.

“A novelist is nothing but a failed short story writer. A short story writer is nothing but a failed poet.” – William Faulkner

Order/Delay/Confusion/Tension• “The lion still stood…”• “…sudden hot scalding nausea…”

Rhythm• Punctuation• Pauses, starts and stops• reading speed = time

Meter• Iambic pentameter• Prepositions, Prepositional Phrases

Repetition• Rhyme• Aliteration, assonance, sounds

Word Play/Words As Sensual• Foreign words (“silhouette”)• Onomodopeia (“whunk,” “ca-room”)

Emotional part of brain, primal level

Oral tradition

Associative Thought

Poetics

Why Go To All This Trouble?

“The important element in Hemingway’s writings derives from his constant concern to convey powerful psychological states: despair and hope, fear and courage, anger and resignation. Like Conrad, he was primarily concerned with the soul.

The story may deal with the body, that is, exciting action and vivid sensations; but the ultimate goal is the transformation of character.”

--- Charles Scribner Jr., “Ernest Hemingway: A Publisher’s Assessment”

Why Go To All This Trouble? (Part 2)

• “Compresence”

• “show vs tell” vs “show AND tell” vs “show, show, show”

• “utterly real” – the story IS reality• Hemingway’s when he wrote it• Ours when we read it/experience it

“…the intended effect…the totality, or unified, effect.” – Edgar Allen Poe, The Art of Composition (1846)

“The utterly real thing in writing is the only thing that counts.”

“Us physicists believe the separation between the past, present and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” --- Albert Einstein

Parts of Speech

Words Punctuation Pronouns Conjunctions Sentences

# % # % # % # % # words/

Lion 1 204 100 11 5 22 11 13 6 8 25.5

Lion 2 234 100 18 8 23 10 16 7 5 46.8

Total 438 100 29 7 46 11 29 7 13 33.7

FitzgeraldOne thing shared by the work of Fitzgerald and Hemingway ---althoughachieved by different methods --- is a concern with “the way it was.”Writing to [Maxwell] Perkins in 1934 about Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe andhimself, Fitzgerald observed: “What family resemblance there isbetween we three as writers is the attempt that crops up in ourfiction from time to time to recapture the exact feeling of a momentin time and space exemplified by people rather than things…”Hemingway utilized factual details much more than Fitzgerald. Thereis a reportorial quality in his work that is absent from Fitzgerald’sfiction. Hemingway’s technique --- in his early work, at least ---was to let the observed detail convey emotion with no authorialcomment. Fitzgerald was more concerned with evoking and analyzing thefeelings of an experience than with recording detail, although he usedselected detail meaningfully. Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A DangerousFriendship, by Matthew J. Brucolli)

Why Go To All This Trouble?“The important element in Hemingway’s writings derives from his constant concern to convey powerful psychological states: despair and hope, fear and courage, anger and resignation. Like Conrad, he was primarily concerned with the soul.

The story may deal with the body, that is, exciting action and vivid sensations; but the ultimate goal is the transformation of character.”

--- Charles Scribner Jr., “Ernest Hemingway: A Publisher’s Assessment”

The apparent absence of emotion in Hemingway’s early work fooled many readers into classifying him as an anti-romantic writer. But the insistence on personal standards, the self-testing against private gauges, the courage required to confront a hostile world,

and the controlled despair formulate an anti-romantic romanticism in Hemingway.“ -- Matthew Brucolli, Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship

The Micro View• Craft• Sentences• Parts of Speech: Prepositions, Conjunctions• Order: Standard and Not• Repetition: Sounds and Words• Rhyme and Rhythm

“What family resemblance there is between we three as writers is the attempt that crops up in our fiction from time to time to recapture the exact feeling of a moment in time and

space exemplified by people rather than things…” -- Fitzgerald, writing to [Maxwell] Perkins in 1934 about Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and himself