The Sun Also Rises at 100 (Part 2)

Ernest Hemingway famously used the term "the iceberg theory" to describe his writing technique, in which only a small part of his meaning is visible, and the rest is submerged. Reading his work today, it's easy to forget how experimental his approach was at the time.

I underlined the following passage because I think it encapsulates Hemingway's mastery of understatement, as well as his flair for pointing out the absurd in subtle ways. This paragraph appears toward the end of the book after Jake witnesses a local man being gored during the running of the bulls at the festival of San Fermin. Jake later learns more details about the victim from an article in the newspaper, and tells us the following:

The bull who killed Vicente Girones was named Bocanegra, was Number 118 of the bull-breeding establishment of Sanchez Taberno, and was killed by Pedro Romero as the third bull of that same afternoon. His ear was cut by popular acclamation and given to Pedro Romero, who, in turn, gave it to Brett, who wrapped it in a handkerchief belonging to myself, and left both ear and handkerchief, along with a number of Muratti cigarette-stubs, shoved far back in the drawer of the bed-table that stood beside her bed in the Hotel Montoya, in Pamplona.

There is so much going on in this one paragraph!

The tone is journalistic, as Jake/Hemingway recounts in a matter-of-fact way the who, what, when, where, why and how of what went down just hours earlier. Two brutal killings have occurred, but Jake/Hemingway is curiously emotionless about them. We learn the name, number and affiliation of the bull, and when it is killed. In one sentence, Jake/Hemingway makes a chilling yet subtle parallel between the two deaths: one man is killed by a bull, and then another man kills the bull.

The killer of the bull then gets the grotesque reward of the animal's ear — almost a holy object — only to hand it over to a woman who is completely grossed out by it. Without having to say so, Hemingway shows us that while Brett may be infatuated with her bullfighter lover, she is incapable of true respect for his culture or artistry. She stuffs this sacred totem he gives her alongside other detritus in her nightstand. If we didn't have an inkling before, it's clear that she and Pedro are not and never will be on the same wavelength. Just like every other relationship she has ever had, Brett's relationship with Pedro Romero is doomed.

It's also telling that it's Jake, who is always cleaning up Brett's messes in a figurative sense, in this case contributes something physical — his handkerchief — that furthers her affair with the bullfighter. It's one more insult to Jake, and it's not a coincidence that Brett leaves this bit of Jake thoughtlessly behind at the hotel along with the ear of the bull. She ultimately uses Jake just as she uses everyone else.

As an aside, I was curious about Muratti cigarettes, and why Hemingway specifically called out this brand by name. This was a very popular brand of high-end cigarettes in the 1920s, sold in lovely tins with elegant designs (see example below). I can only guess that Brett liked to smoke these because they were expensive and made her feel refined, and Hemingway is going out of his way here to contrast that pretension with the raw earthiness of bullfighting and the earnestness with which Pedro Romero falls in love with her.

Hemingway has a preternatural ability to choose just the right word to evoke mood. Elsewhere in the novel, I love his description of the Notre Dame cathedral "squatting against the night sky." It's not "soaring" or "looming" as you might expect of a grand house of worship, but it's doing something more menacing. To me, this reveals quite a bit about how Hemingway viewed the role of a church in modern society and his conception of the absence of God in the modern world.

You can appreciate this book on so many levels. In this reading (my third), I also found more humor than I had remembered. There's a moment when Jake and Brett are out on the town in Paris with a count, and he asks why the two of them don't get married since they seem to get along so well. Without missing a beat, Brett replies: "We have our careers," which is quite funny coming from someone who doesn't get out of bed until noon and seems allergic to work.

Reading this book made me eager to revisit other Hemingway works and to pick up others that I have not read. I look forward to discussing them.