Tuesday, July 19, 2011

HEMINGWAY, A CHILD NEXT TO BORGES

My old friend John and I were talking about Borges and Hemingway the other day.

John and I agreed that Hemingway seems like a Cub Scout alongside Borges. Like a child.

In an earlier post here on this blog, I made some excuses for Hemingway, a macho writer who found his calling while writing about the outdoors, hunting and fishing, and about war. 

If Hemingway hadn't gone to war, he would have been at best a minor writer, I think.

Hemingway referred to himself as "Ernie Hemorrhoid, the poor man's Pyle." How right he was. (Ernie Pyle was a famous war correspondent who is no long remembered much.)

Borges's work has more depth and is vastly richer and more complex. I can read it over and over, endlessly.

It is interesting that the more manly writer was in a way less of a man in the long run. And less of a writer.

-- Roger


© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Roger R. Angle said...

Thanks for the comment. I'll go into more detail if you want.