Friday, May 28, 2010
4:50 AM. Yesterday Dr. Jung started to say that Hemingway’s image skewed his life — well, let me quote the statement where we left off, and Dr. Jung and Papa Hemingway, if you are both here, let’s proceed.
Dr. Jung said, “Hemingway is an example of wholeness, of gusto. The image, however, became increasingly skewed and skewed his life accordingly. And continues to do so 50 years after his death.”
Thursday, May 27, 2010
6 AM. So. Quite a different feeling, taking a day off deliberately, rather than doing it behind my own back, so to speak.
Told you. It puts you back in charge of you. Now, you must understand, this isn’t a problem I had in my life. Unlike you, I always felt in control of my life, so all I ever had to contend with were external forces. And after I got free of the Star, I never really had an outside employer who could tell me “do this, do that” — and I never had an office job, never had to count off the hours from 9 to 5 and then go home and get ready to start again the next day. My life was mine to shape, and I did plenty of active planning, to shape it, as you know from your reading. (Yes, I guess biography has its uses.) But of course that kind of freedom only meant I had to find my obstacles in a different way. We do, of course. What would life be, without obstacles?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
5 AM. All right, Papa, I am ready if you are. Michael thanks you for your reading on things. I take it you had more to say about sex, as opposed to the relations between the sexes.
Huge subject. If I were trying to write my autobiography from this perspective — which I am not — I’d have a lot I’d need to say about sex and my lifetime, for of course it was an important thing for me, but — as you might ask yourself about yourself, or ask anybody about themselves — why?
Monday, May 24, 2010
6 AM. All right, Papa, here we go again. Should I ask one of my friends’ questions, or do you have a preferred topic?
You are pretty tired to be doing this.
Yes, I know, but I don’t want to leave the momentum of it.
That’s good. The habits of work will bring you farther than any other single thing in your life. But you could give yourself a day off, if you remember what I was saying.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
6:15 AM. All right, Papa, here we go again. Before I ask the questions my friends have suggested, let me ask if you have something specific in mind for this session.
Don’t forget the thoughts that have come up as you have continued to read Death In The Afternoon.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
7:30 AM. Okay, Papa, what shall we talk about today? Started Death In The Afternoon again, as you no doubt know.
If you were to keep a list of questions you wanted to ask, you could add to the list as you read. You won’t be able to keep them all in your mind, because that isn’t how minds work.
Let’s talk about work and working and work schedules.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
7:30 AM. Still reading Death In The Afternoon. If I had my way, I’d put out an edited addition — mutilated, people would think it at first — that showcased the truly wonderful learning there is to be had in it, merely by removing what sets up the narrator as querulous distraction. As it is, it is occasionally like listening to a great violinist wisecracking as he plays, or complaining about his hotel. And it’s a shame, because it is great playing!
Papa, how did you come to learn so much about things you came to care for? In short order, as they occur to me, writing, appreciating painting, hunting, fishing, shooting (as opposed to hunting), bullfighting, military science, wines and foods, and intangible things like the interactions in nature, and the likely responses of fish.