"Technique" in Hemingway

Author(s): Joseph Beaver

Source: College English, Vol. 14, No. 6 (Mar., 1953), pp. 325-328
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/372008
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 AN ALMOST LOST AMERICAN CLASSIC 325

novel,
novel, are are
the uniting
the uniting
things-lovethings-love
of
particular
particular settingof
settingmay
maybe-are
be-aretreated
treatedasas
God and fellow-man-which have some eternal
eternal souls.
souls. Here
Herelies
liesmy
mymost
mostcom-
com-
pelling
pelling reason
form of expression in all high religion, reason for
foraffirming
affirmingthatthatOld-
Old-
town
town Folks
and thus may be called seminal, pointing Folks is
is needed
neededinina acontemporary
contemporary
the future. consideration
consideration of ofliterature-why
literature-why1 1have
have
To sum up: the characters of Oldtown been bold to call the novel an American
Folks, while sharply set in time and place
classic, which we cannot afford to let slip
-as all human life is set, whatever theinto obscurity.

"Technique" in Hemingway
JOSEPH BEAVER1

WITH the
the publication
publication of
of The
TheOld
OldMan
Man
might no longer
longer be
be able
able to
to go
go the
the full
full dis-
dis-
and the
the Sea,
Sea, aa story
story which
which hashaswon
woncriti-
criti-
tance, but he could
could still
still hurt
hurt you.
you. And
And to
to
cal approbation
approbation almost
almost to
to the
theextent
extentthat
that
Kate Simon, writing
writing in
in the
the New
New Republic,
Republic,
Across the River and into the Trees drew the difference
difference seemed
seemed also
also to
to be
be mainly
mainly aa
condemnation, we have been afforded an question of scopescope and
and extent:
extent: "Although
"Although
unusual opportunity to re-examine what the canvas is now now smaller
smaller and
and painted
painted in
in
it is that makes "good Hemingway." For, grayed tones, there there isis no
no less
less art.
art. The
The
whatever it is, assuredly it is present in mixture is, on
on aa minor
minor scale,
scale, as
as before
before and
and
The Old Man and the Sea, just as for the still magical."
most part it was not present in the While doubtless doubtless all
all these
these positions
positions are
are
World War II novel. tenable, I think
think nono one
one ofof them
them penetrat-
penetrat-
Among critics there was some dis-ed to the root
root of
of the
the trouble.
trouble. At
At first
first con-
con-
agreement and haziness as to just what
sideration it did
did appear
appear that
that the
the novel
novel
was the matter with Across the River.had in it nothing
nothing that
that was
was not
not in
in earlier
earlier
Some who roundly condemned it felt that
Hemingway and and everything
everything that
that was.
was.
Hemingway had simply overused ele- But I believe the
the mixture
mixture was was really
really not
not
ments which have always been his stockthe same, that
that there
there was
was something
something lack-
lack-
and trade; Alfred Kazin called the novel
ing, something
something perhaps
perhaps aa little
little difficult
difficult to
to
a "travesty" of Hemingway. Others feltisolate. Hemingway
Hemingway himself
himself apparently
apparently
(as Maxwell Geismar) that it collected
feared he might
might be
be charged
charged with
with too
too little
little
together all that was bad in his previous
action. He said
said in
in an
an interview
interview reported
reported
work. Then there were those who found in the New York Times Book Review
the novel true and satisfying Heming- (September 17, 1950): "Sure, they can
way, but a Hemingway on a lesser scale. say anything about nothing happening in
Among these, for example, was John Across the River, but all that happens is
O'Hara in the New York Times. Makingthe defense of the lower Piave, the break-
no exorbitant claims for the book itself, through in Normandy, the taking of
O'Hara said in the last paragraph of hisParis, and the destruction of the 22d Inf.
review (the only one in that chaotic, irre- Reg. in Hurtgen forest plus a man who
sponsible piece containing anything re- loves a girl and dies."
sembling evaluation) that Hemingway I submit that the missing element in
Across the River was not "action" precise-
1 State University of New York, Harpur College.

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326 COLLEGE ENGLISH

ly, but rather a treatment ofthat

tions, technique. I
big-league baseball and deep-
use the word here in the sea
layman's sense-
fishing are kindred occupations.
it seems to me that nearly One
all basic principle of correct tech-
of Heming-
way's work is concerned nique,
withfor the "tech-
example, is the performing of
nique" of performing some job in
an action properly,
measured time, slower than
correctly. The common denominator to
one is capable of performing it. This is
his best work has been, Itrue
think, his de-
in bull-fighting, hunting, bridge-
lineation of technique in blowing,
this sense. Back
and deep-sea fishing. Thus:
of the correct technique lie the practice
He rowed slowly and steadily toward where
and experience in performing the
the bird particu-
was circling. He did not hurry and he
kept his
lar job, combined sometimes lines straight
with inher- up and down. But he
crowded the current a little so that he was still
ent artistic talent, which distinguish
fishing correctly though faster than he would
Hemingway's heroes at their best (and
have fished if he was not trying to use the bird.
in this sense they are heroes, as charac-
ters in novels by most otherTechnique is something one learns
contempo-
rary writers are not). Most
fromof them
a teacher. Thehave
grounds of the boy's
no philosophy except theaffection
philosophyfor the oldofman are precisely
this: "Theand
performing something correctly old man
well. had taught the boy
They take pride in their to
mechanical
fish and the boy per-
loved him." And there
always remain further refinements of
fection; they are technicians.
Such is the old man intechnique
Hemingway's
to be acquired:
latest novel, and such is almost thedry
He let his hand en-
in the air then grasped
tire content of the story.
the line Passages se-
with it and eased himself as much as he
lected almost at random detail the tech- could and allowed himself to be pulled forward
against the wood so that the boat took the
nique of deep-sea fishing:
strain as much, or more, than he did.
Before it was really light he had his baits out I'm learning how to do it, he thought.
and was drifting with the current. One bait was
down forty fathoms. The second was at seventy- There is not enough treatment of tech-
five and the third and fourth were down in the nique in Across the River, but there was
blue water at one hundred and one hundred and some, and it was because of this that
twenty-five fathoms. Each bait hung head down readers found any merit at all in the
with the shank of the hood inside the bait fish, novel. Colonel Cantwell knows ducks and
tied and sewed solid and all the projecting part knows duck-shooting. He is a perfection-
of the hook, the curve and the point, was cov- ist in technique, and he despises those
ered with fresh sardines. Each sardine was
who have not the technique. In the short
hooked through both eyes so that they made a
opening and closing sections of this novel
half-garland on the projecting steel. There was
-many reviewers commented that these
no part of the hook that a great fish could feel
sections contained the old Hemingway-
which was not sweet smelling and good tasting.
Hemingway dealt with a thing he had
Correct technique is an obsession withdealt with, in one form or another, in al-
Hemingway; he explores the subject most every piece he had ever written. In
tirelessly and has found basic principlesThe Sun Also Rises it is, in the first part,
the technique of getting drunk, and in
which apply in all forms of directed phys-
ical activity. In this novel it is clear,the last it is the technique of correct, or
both in the old man's conversations with genuine, bull-fighting. The ability to dis-
the boy and in his semidelirious reflec- tinguish the correct from the incorrect,

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 "TECHNIQUE" IN HEMINGWAY 327

secretwheth-
the genuine from the nongenuine, order is appreciation of
er in drinking or bull-fighting, is the
technique. Thus M'Cola and P. O.
to Hemingway,
mark of the "good" character. In To in The Green
Have and Have Not it is theAfrica, as of
technique Bill Gorton and Lad
correct deep-sea fishing again,are of to skilful
Jake Barnes in The Su
boat-handling, as well as the Rises. And of
technique Robert Cohen, the o
who
love; if this novel is inferior, it isdoesn't
because know the password,
it lacks a unifying theme, not counterpart
because it in Hemingway's A
lacks technique and action. hunting
In For Whom party in the person of G
the Bell Tolls Robert Jordan The is Green Hills of Africa is a goo
an expert
technician, an artist who blowsand itbridges.
is good, our interest is su
He is irritated because the because
guerrillas Hemingway
are concentra
impressed by the blowing attention
of a train, ona the proper way of
cheaply sensational job not andrequiring
shooting. He is disgusted wi
great skill, or fastidiously selfcorrectwhenper-he fires improperly
formance (compare Romero's whole bull-fight-
body of the animal rather
ing, in The Sun Also Rises,a with that of
particular point; he is pleased an
the contemporary crowd-pleasers).
with the It joyis of living which is t
the technician who works efficiently
life to himun- when he squeezes the
properly,
der the bridge, who keeps telling having first "frozen"
himself
inside.
(like a baseball pitcher counting His feelings after gut-sho
between
pitches) not to work too fast; sable it areisrepresentative:
the
combat-technician finally But
who, lying
that damned sable bull. I should have
prone, his heart pounding against
killed the
him; but it was a running shot. To hit him
pine-needle-covered forestatfloor,
all I had to use him all as a target. Yes, you
calcu-
bastard, but what about the cow you missed
lates cooly and automatically at what
twice, prone, standing broadside? Was that a
point he will fire. The book is not about
running shot? No. If I'd gone to bed last night I
a social or political cause,would
save notinciden-
have done that. Or if I'd wiped out
tally. Only the title, with the
itsbore
implication
to get the oil out she would not have
thrown
that the Spanish war was thehigh the first time. Then I would not
world's
have pulled down and shot under her the second
concern, has social meaning; in For
shot. Every damned thing is your own fault if
Whom the Bell Tolls, as in his other nov-
you're any good. I thought I could shoot a shot-
els, Hemingway finds expression forI could
gun better than his and I had lost plenty of
professional interest in themoney
technique
backing my ofopinion but I knew, coldly
physical action. and outside myself, that I could shoot a rifle on
If we examine Hemingway's gamenonfiction
as well as any son of a bitch that ever
lived.
writing, we find him still concerned with
the same theme. Death in the Afternoon is Hemingway. There is
So through all of
an extensive eulogy of correct
always technique
the technique of combat, and it is
in bull-fighting and of those whohas
this which have
replaced, or which Hem-
had the technique. In The Green
ingway implies is, of
Hills the nobility and gran-
Africa Hemingway is the hero, andwhich
deur of man his art is supposed to re-
concern with technique is the
veal. subject.
Sometimes it is technique in the
Hemingway's characters are
more always
violent sports, frequently it is tech-
grouped in cliques, whethernique
in in
his fiction
hunting and killing animals, and
or nonfiction, and the password of
frequently it the
is the technique of war.

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328 COLLEGE ENGLISH

When
When thisthis
technique
technique
is properly handled, this
this theme,
is properly theme, and
andperhaps
handled, perhapsthe themost
most un-un-
the
theresult
result
is characters
is characters
who are genuine who are genuine
adulterated.
adulterated. Correct
Correcttechnique
technique cancancarry
carry
heroes,
heroes, and novels
and novels
which are genuinely
which one are
one genuinely
through
through adversity;
adversity;ititwill will
operate
operate un-un-
great.
great. When Whenimproperly
improperly consciously
consciouslywhen
handled, whenhandled, when
whenour ourfaculties
faculties areare
the
themixture
mixture of ingredients
of ingredients
is altered, the bruised
bruised and
and dulled.
is altered, dulled. Returning
the Returning from
from hishis
result
result is a is
bad anovel,
badand novel,
a character
and whoaheroic,
heroic,
characterunbelievable
unbelievable
who struggle
strugglewith with thethe
acts,
acts, on occasion,
on occasion, like Walter like
Mitty Walter
in
marlin,
marlin, the Mitty
the in
eighty-year-old
eighty-year-old man,
man, though
though
one
oneof ofhis daydreams.
his daydreams. This was trueThis in sleepless
sleepless
was for for
truedays,
days,inautomatically
automatically unsteps
unsteps
Across
Across the River.
the River.
Except in the Except
duck- thein
the sail,the
sail, furlsduck-
furls and
andties
tiesit,
it,shoulders
shoulders thethe
shoot
shoot scenes,
scenes,
and except and in one
except
or two in and
mast
mast one
and oritittwo
bears
bears ininagony
agonyupup thethehill
hill
to to
other
other shortshort
scenes, scenes,
we did not we have did
tech-his
his
not room
room where
havewhere he
hestands
tech- standsititagainst
against thethe
nique
nique in action
in action
in Acrossin theAcross
River. Hem- wall
wall River.
the before
before lyinglying
Hem- down
downon onthe
the bedbedtoto
ingway
ingway triedtried
to fill this
to vacuum
fill thisby hav- sleep.
vacuum by hav-
ing
ingCantwell
Cantwell speak atspeak
length of atwar tech- A tourist
length of war coupletech-
at the end of the
nique
nique to his
tolover.
his But lover.
it was But
not the novel
it was observe the
not remains
the of the marlin,
same
same thing.
thing.
It would Itnot would
take thenot placeand
takethe woman,
the mistakenly
place believing it
of
ofa bull
a bull
fight,fight,
or a Caporetto
or aretreat,
Caporetto to have been
or a shark, comments,
retreat, or "I
the
theactual
actual
blowing blowing
of a bridge. ofWhat didn't knowWhat
a bridge.
was sharks hadwassuch handsome,
lacking
lackingin Across
in Across
the River the River beautifully
was technique, formed tails."
was technique, Her com-
and
and in in
so far
soasfar
Hemingway's techniquepanion replies,
as Hemingway's "1 didn't either."
technique
has
has to to
havehave
its roots its
in roots
action, Heming-
in action,
Here againHeming-
is the division between the
way's
way's fearfear
that histhatbook his
wouldbook initiate and
be criti-
would bethe uninitiate. The task
criti-
cized
cized for for
lack oflack
actionof wasaction
right. wasexecuted
right. with proper technique, the
But
But none
noneof this
of is true
this of is
Thetrue
Old Man
ofbattle
The correctly
Old Man fought-activity which
and
and thethe
Sea. Here
Sea.is Heretechnique gives an indescribable
is istechnique
action is action inward sense of
throughout.
throughout. Indeed, Indeed,
it is Hemingway's
it issatisfaction-this,
Hemingway's to Hemingway, is the
most extensive continuous exercise of glory and dignity of man.

Our Responsibility to the English Language

W. NELSON FRANCIS1

PROFESSORS of English in American col- advertising copy, and research papers.

But there is one responsibility, more
leges can hardly be called shirkers of re-
sponsibility. We shoulder manfully the properly ours than many of these, which
burden of teaching every freshman the often seems to get overlooked. I refer to
our responsibility not as teachers of com-
elements of self-expression. We face up to
the job of giving all who come within position and literature but as teachers of
reach a smattering at least of literary the English language. Or, more specifi-
understanding. We even relieve some cally,
of our responsibility to keep our-
our colleagues of their proper responsi- selves informed about the latest findings
bilities when we undertake to unveil the of linguistic scientists concerning lan-
guage in general and the American
secret arts of writing business letters,
1 Franklin and Marshall College. branch of the English language in par-

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