The Sun Also Rises

So I meant to blog about a week ago, and then I got sick, and then I was just sort of listless. While at first this whole southern hemisphere winter thing was kind of interesting, it's rapidly losing it's charm. I keep messing up dates - I've managed to convince myself that it's December, not June - I guess my brain is just having some sort of temporal glitch?

I actually finished The Sun Also Rises last week, and I finished the Kundera book I was reading - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting- late last night (I went under the covers with a torch). Anyway, the Hemingway was a good stylistic contrast to the Woolf, and I actually enjoyed it much more than I anticipated (I’ve never read Hemingway, and I always had this distant idea that I wouldn’t like his writing style).

The thing about the novel that struck me the most was the superficial, slightly unbelievable, glamour of the characters’ conversations. As a reader, I got the same incredulous (partially envious) feeling I got watching Juno, that such quick wit was kind of impossible. I don’t know if “wit” is the right word for the dialogue of The Sun Also Rises, but their banter (especially with Brett), is too mocking, too fast, with the “Irony and Pity” Bill talks about about 2/3 through the book. It could be symptomatic of their need to distance themselves from saying anything genuine, of the estrangement of the lost generation and/or Americans in Europe (or is that too obvious?)

I think the novel offers a counter to the falseness/gaudy shine of their conversation, though, mainly in the chapter endings. Though this is not necessarily true for every chapter, I found that the ending of every chapter was very bare, very simple, almost banal. Jake will say things like, “I went upstairs to bed.” Or “It felt good to be warm and in bed” or, “A waiter came with a cloth and picked up the glasses and mopped the table.” The straightforward simplicity of the endings seems to be the novel’s way of coping with the exaggerated playfulness of the dialogue.

But now I’m wondering if the endings, because they are often about Jake going to sleep, also serve to emphasize the episodic nature of the book, and the way “the sun also rises”, la dee da da da.

Is it nastily appropriate that Robert Cohn went to Princeton?

Also, can we also start using the word “tight” for “drunk”?

How are you guys doing? I was happy to see that "Summering" has commenced, Claire, and that it is complete with photos! I'm still poking around Australia, I got to see the city a lot more this weekend It's really eclectic in style, it's the "artiest" city I've ever been in. I rode a tram, took photos of graffiti, looked at aboriginal art, went to their vietnamese district, saw the play of Amadeus, walked by the river, and oh! i almost got kicked off the train for having my feet on the chair. Three train officers came and sat down next to me and told me that it was a $168 fine for having my feet on the chair. They were being disguistingly rude and patronizing (they didn't think I could speak English). I got all insolent and "gave them attitude" (that's the only way they could manage to describe sarcasm), and they threatened to take me off the train and make me talk to the cops. I almost lost my temper at that point. The COPS? I mean, seriously. But I didn't want to pay $168, so, I sucked it up and they let me off for being a tourist. Thank you, America.

Excuse my vent... tell me how you guys are doing, I always want to know, I get a little crazy over here, hanging out with people from work 24/7. miss you guys!