Philosophy Now Forum

L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

Philosophy Now wrote:L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

Hemingway was a drunk, and advocate of bullshit machismo. There's nothing majestic in killing bulls in a ring.

Philosophy Now wrote:L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

That would be another notch in philosophy's demise. If he wouldn't have blown his brains out he would have blown his reputation long before now.

Dubious wrote:

Philosophy Now wrote:L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

That would be another notch in philosophy's demise. If he wouldn't have blown his brains out he would have blown his reputation long before now.

You've got it, Dubious.

Regarding philosophy's demise though, it's philosophers and their egos, I've learned here, that put a nail in it's coffin.

Dalek Prime wrote:Hemingway was a drunk, and advocate of bullshit machismo. There's nothing majestic in killing bulls in a ring.

Agreed absolutely. He was also a famous trophy shooter of African wildlife and his attitude to women was misogyny personified. The man was an arsehole.

Dubious wrote:That would be another notch in philosophy's demise.

As if philosophy hasn't already got a bad enough name. This bad name is mostly richly deserved so the last thing we need is a deified Hemingway.

However as a wordsmith there is much to admire about Hemingway. He has an economy of language which most writers could only dream of and he can paint his virulently unattractive characters with a very sharp precision. However because he was so intelligent and gifted he has even less of an excuse for being such a villainous bastard. I've read every word he's ever written several times and if he were to walk in my door right this minute I'd kick him right in the balls.

The nays have it. Can we now bury Caesar, and nix the praise?

While Hemingway had some disagreeable - and today, politically incorrect - views and behaviors, he was a major major author with keen observations about people, a great storyteller and a philosophy of existence that brooked no mediocrity. Denigrating him does little to diminish his accomplishments, but does diminish those who would deprecate him. And BTW, what sort of person might any of us turned out had our mothers clothed us in dresses as his did. Some resentment toward the distaff might be in order.

I wasn't trying to diminish Hemingway as a writer in any way and I continue to regard him as one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. Picasso was also one of the most significant painters of the 20th century but if I needed to go out of my way to cross the road to do so I wouldn't piss on either of these blokes if they were on fire.

They'd still be better off than Isaac Newton, who I'd be rushing towards with a bucket of gasoline.

Dubious wrote:

Philosophy Now wrote:L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

That would be another notch in philosophy's demise. If he wouldn't have blown his brains out he would have blown his reputation long before now.

Funny. That's what I say about JFK...

Dalek Prime wrote:Funny. That's what I say about JFK...

It's a quirk of the modern age that if people in the public spotlight die unexpectedly at the peak of their prominence they are often sanctified and the significance of their achievements is often amplified out of all proportion. Jimi Hendrix was a talented musician and that's ALL he was. If he was still around playing gigs for the old farts like me who loved him "back when" then he would be just as pathetic a sight as most of the other broken down old hasbeens cashing in on past glories. Dying young is very good for one's image for posterity.

Obvious Leo wrote:Dying young is very good for one's image for posterity.

Unfortunately for many it's much too late for a retroactive overhaul of image. They're already on overtime and the opportunity offers itself only ONCE!

How many are alive now who wished they were dead 50 years ago?

Dubious wrote:How many are alive now who wished they were dead 50 years ago?

Probably not all that many, mate. However there can be no doubt that many of the most influential public figures of the past century remained influential for long past their natural use-by dates. I can think of a few exceptions but not many.

Dalek Prime wrote:

Dubious wrote:

Philosophy Now wrote:L.A. Rowland campaigns to instate Ernest Hemingway as a philosopher-hero.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/72/Hem ... d_the_Hero

That would be another notch in philosophy's demise. If he wouldn't have blown his brains out he would have blown his reputation long before now.

Funny. That's what I say about JFK...

Among the default humans by which I mean the baseboard average in society where cockroaches usually gather, image is everything, the very countenance of truth itself.

What is usually discovered behind these favorable distortions are the real biographies which are more akin to the picture of Dorian Gray.

Obvious Leo wrote:

Dalek Prime wrote:Funny. That's what I say about JFK...

It's a quirk of the modern age that if people in the public spotlight die unexpectedly at the peak of their prominence they are often sanctified and the significance of their achievements is often amplified out of all proportion. Jimi Hendrix was a talented musician and that's ALL he was. If he was still around playing gigs for the old farts like me who loved him "back when" then he would be just as pathetic a sight as most of the other broken down old hasbeens cashing in on past glories. Dying young is very good for one's image for posterity.

Now I remember why I like The Doors so much.

I'm a great Doors fan myself, Dalek, and Jim Morrison was my rebel hero back in the heady days of the counterculture. I still love the music but that's mostly because it's been frozen into its own place in time by Jim's death.

I prefer not to muse on the grotesque and the arresting mental image of the Doors in their dotage doing a world tour of reminiscence sends a shiver down my spine. A bunch of geriatric hippies fumbling through their way through "weird scenes inside the gold mine" is almost as obscene as all the baby boomers limping up on their walking frames to watch them.