I take note when something literary makes breaking news worldwide.
It excites me. It proves some people care about reading, they care about content, they care about wordcraft not just reading about making money or how to do this or that fast within this many days with killer this or jealously guarded that.
The fact I just swirled my hair into a bun and bobby pinned it into place. No flowing, long hair getting in the way of me typing something about intellectual stuff making news.Yes: I am getting serious about this topic.
It is in the New York Times, Time Magazine, the Huffington Post, MSN and Legal News. In the Telegraph, it is one of the top five stories read today. I sighed, though, when I saw the #3 story read was “Mark Wahlberg: 'Ted is going to offend more people than Family Guy” but I have to believe, I simply must believe this literary story will last longer than that one.
Are you ready? Ernest Hemingway wrote forty seven different endings for A Farewell to Arms and in a new edition, each ending will be shared with readers. Anyone remotely curious about the man, his life, and his writing will want to read it. For me, as a writer today, I want to compare and be curious about what made him choose this ending over number sixteen ending or number thirty two ending?
I loved reading in the article at Time Magazine about Hemingway’s response to a suggestion from F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Hemingway wrote to his lawyer in 1943 that the Great Gatsby author “suggested I change ending to his idiotic idea and I refused.”
This makes me want to sit and watch Midnight in Paris over and over again while reading each of the endings aloud with my literary and not-so-literary-yet friends. It sounds like a writing-nerd fest, doesn’t it?
I like to think of it as a Word-LOVE fest.
That we, as writers, have the power to elect as many endings as we choose, and ultimately trust our best judgment to be done and we feel we are done.
Hemingway’s grandson, Sean Hemingway, said this in the New York Times article by Julie Bosman:
“I think people who are interested in writing and trying to write themselves will find it interesting to look at a great work and have some insight to how it was done,” Seán Hemingway, a grandson of Ernest Hemingway who is also a curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said in an interview. “But he is a writer who has captured the imagination of the American public, and these editions are interesting because they really focus on his work. Ultimately that’s his lasting contribution.”
To think this book was published in 1929 and today, in 2012, people are tweeting about it. In Spanish, I read from @ActualidadRT “Los 47 'adioses' a las armas de #Hemingway #noticias http://bit.ly/N4EbIX”;
@mkanbergs This is something to get excited about...#Hemingway rerelease with alternate endings! http://nyti.ms/PfsiUw
@parisreview Austen’s ring for sale, Hemingway’s 30+ alternate endings, food for thought, IT'S PIE WEEK! http://bit.ly/MYcG1X #hemingway
@WriterLHarrison Apparently even Hemingway sometimes took 47 drafts to get it right. #rewrite #perfectendings
Usually I write about women literary figures, but more and more I am reminded I need to be balanced. I need to feature the great men who got much of their inspiration from the great women who surrounded them.
This inspires me as I hope it inspires you, too.
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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
This is my Ultimate Blog Challenge Writing for the Day. Be watching for my challenge posts which will include Writing Prompts, Writing Tips and General Life Tips and Essays. This is Blog 5/31 for July!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & this Summer will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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