Something Rare

I tend to get my best writing accomplished in the dark, quiet hours of the morning; my new essay for Pop Matters is, I believe, a good example of Fitzgerald’s ‘dark night of the soul’ composing:

Thanks to a progressive high school curriculum in the San Francisco Bay Area of the ‘70s, not to mention the popularity of martial arts owing to the Bruce Lee “kung fu” phenomenon that spawned a widespread interest in Zen and Buddhism, I was subjected to a Comparative Religions course in my junior year that rearranged my thinking about Christianity; the mere fact that all Great Religions of the World, as I learned, share the same advertising jingle (‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’) was enough to make me suspect the viability of the Christian Bible as the ultimate authority on religious faith.

Ernest Hemingway, one of my early literary favorites, was no great cheerleader of monotheistic fairy tales either; there is precious little discussion of faith to be found in his novels and short stories, save for the mystic communion between man and nature that the macho author/adventurer explores … well, religiously.

Read Something Rare: Ernest Hemingway’s Mystic Communion at Pop Matters.

 

 

“Snows of Kilimanjaro” on TCM

This Wednesday, January 26, Turner Classic Movies will be screening the 1952 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, at 9:30 PM EST and 6:30 PM PST.

From the TCM synopsis:

In 1946, American writer Harry Street is on safari in Africa with his second wife Helen, when a scratch on his leg becomes infected and he falls seriously ill. In their camp near Mt. Kilimanjaro, Helen tends to Harry, a cynical, hard-drinking womanizer who has never hidden his contempt for her wealth and his reliance upon it.

During their often caustic conversations, Harry tells Helen about his first love: When he is a teenager, Harry falls in love with a girl named Connie, but his uncle, Bill Swift, knowing that Harry wants to become a writer, advises him to end the relationship. The wordly Bill tells Harry that a good writer must place his search for the truth ahead of anything else, despite the pain and suffering it may cause.

Back in the present, Harry insults Helen, and fed up, she goes to kill game. During her absence, Harry falls asleep and dreams of how he met Cynthia Green, the love of his life: In the 1920s, Harry is a young man living a bohemian life in Paris. One night, he meets the stunning, mysterious Cynthia in a jazz club and immediately falls in love with her. Soon, the couple are married, and despite their poverty, Harry enjoys life in their colorful neighborhood. After Harry’s first novel is published, he fulfills his lifelong dream of going on a hunting safari in Africa, and although Cynthia is squeamish about killing, she accompanies him.

The entire synopsis is here, or, better yet, watch the movie on Wednesday night if TCM is part of your cable line-up. I’ll be watching; if you’re so inclined, come back here later in the week and engage in a dialogue about the film.