tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post7680261968921111076..comments2023-06-27T16:51:05.805+02:00Comments on The Pangrammaticon: The Death of Ernest HemingwayThomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-62878885094159671222013-05-30T06:26:55.703+02:002013-05-30T06:26:55.703+02:00Well, there's reason to think that a lot of th...Well, there's reason to think that a lot of things were done <i>to</i> him that did not help. Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-50067761118711915732013-05-30T00:37:14.398+02:002013-05-30T00:37:14.398+02:00Hemingways suicide was inevitable. Everything tha...Hemingways suicide was inevitable. Everything that could have been done to,help him was done. But life stresses, mental illness and the family history of 5 suicides was too much.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-6121003844898081372013-05-11T12:59:24.173+02:002013-05-11T12:59:24.173+02:00yes, i agree that becoming a writer is another eas...yes, i agree that becoming a writer is another easy way out... :)it is quite a perfect little space to pass subjective judgments and solve the "riddles" of existence back and forth. i'd say going through with existing hour after hour is the most difficult thing to do...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-81784043848363990022013-05-11T09:00:23.774+02:002013-05-11T09:00:23.774+02:00I guess I interpreted your remark as an objective ...I guess I interpreted your remark as an objective judgment about <i>all</i> suicides, not your subjective understanding of Hemingway's in particular. I think everything depends on how the ruins looked to Hemingway himself.<br /><br />Anyway, these last few posts have been an attempt to get at the problem of existence through <a href="http://pangrammaticon.blogspot.dk/2013/04/a-cleaner-lighter-place.html" rel="nofollow">"the encounter with nothingness"</a>. Since both Hemingway and Ramana understood their project in terms of their mortality, it was necessary to write about their deaths. In Hemingway's case it means considering the possibility that Mailer suggests, namely, that (and apparent) suicide is sometimes an existential act.<br /><br />I forgot to mention in this post that only three years earlier he had suggested, though somewhat jokingly I suppose, that the best "intellectual training" for a writer would be <a href="http://pangrammaticon.blogspot.dk/2013/05/danger-difficulty-death.html" rel="nofollow">a failed suicide attempt</a>. He was trying to explain how difficult writing is. To me, it makes sense that a person whose identity is as tied to writing as Hemingway was, and who finds himself "ruined" in precisely that sense, would want to end it. Or, as I tried to suggest, perhaps Mailer is right: he was trying to survive his own suicide in order to be able to write again.<br /><br />Ramana describes his own "death experience" precisely as a kind of living through of the death of his body. I guess, what I'm really doing here is comparing literary and mystical solutions to the problem of existence. Perhaps the easy way out of the conundrum of existence is not suicide, but becoming a writer? Or becoming a guru?Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-28134686832880685912013-05-11T01:00:02.724+02:002013-05-11T01:00:02.724+02:00and what is your understanding of suicide? i'm...and what is your understanding of suicide? i'm not sure if one can find it on wikipedia, but there are SO many people just around us who are "released in ruins" and do not put a gun in their mouth on a daily basis. in any case, understanding is a subjective judgement, isn't it? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-90154809164603879892013-05-11T00:39:26.233+02:002013-05-11T00:39:26.233+02:00Frankly, I think calling suicide "the easy wa...Frankly, I think calling suicide "the easy way out" is the easy way out of understanding it. According to Wikipedia, Hemingway 'was treated with electroconvulsive therapy as many as 15 times in December 1960, then in January 1961 he was "released in ruins."'Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861197.post-76104505248791207692013-05-10T22:40:24.697+02:002013-05-10T22:40:24.697+02:00Hemingway took the easy way out. as many of us do....Hemingway took the easy way out. as many of us do. play with the trigger long enough and it will eventually go off. death and fear of death is a nice excuse. like all the other uncertainties that save us from lots of bitter commitments and realizations. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com