The Hemingway honestly confused me. I read it Sunday night I think, while my Bangkokian friend was telling me about a canoeing trip she went on for ToK (canoe, ToK, what's the relevance?) and it took me a second reading to figure out that the story wasn't set aboard a boat, and that nothing in the story even suggested boat in the first place. Hmm. I was under the impression that the operation was an abortion, from the line "But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want any one else." So John, I think that was the problem, although I have paid too little attention in Grade 8 Wellness to know what it means to "let the air in." ALso, how it was "man" versus "girl" - I took it as comment on the girl's naivete and and her [implied?] initial belief in the possibilites of the world - i.e. the white elephants. Sometimes the way she speaks is childishly stubborn ("I don't feel any way ... I just know things," and my favorite: "would you please please please please please please please stop talking?") and everything the man says sounds like he's just humoring her.

I found the setting of the story particularly interesting - perhaps because it took me so long to figure out where it was set - if the story is of a breaking of ideallistic beliefs / coming of age type the train station is that transition phase where they're waiting for something but don't know what. [when they finally realize, to quote John, 'the futility of what they are both chasing after,' where can you go from there?] "He looked up the tracks but could not see the train... He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train." - pretty lines, and I think it sort of relates to what I was saying, but actually I don't know what to make of it. So, there's my question: what does this mean?

I wanted to end the post with the question but I just want to voice out how annoying this story was when I read it. Because it's been recommended by a TASPer I don't want a pass a judgement too quickly, and don't think I understand the story enough to pass a valid judgement anyway, but it really, really annoyed me. John talked about love in the story - I've tried to find it but I found no hint of any sort of tender feeling in it one might be tempted to call love. I too was never too fond of Hemingway, although I probably haven't read enough of him to appreciate him as John does, but every now and then the prose gets too dry for my taste. Mmm, that's it. End-of-post question is at the end of the previous paragraph.

posted by Tae-Yeoun Keum   [10:23 PM]

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