A Moveable Feast

A Moveable Feast

November 8, 2005

Dear Kelly,

Ernest Hemingway spent the years between 1921 and 1926 in
Paris. Living in cramped quarters and newly married to Hadley
Richardson, they warmed themselves by a small brazier and kept
things simple. This was his time of self-directed
apprenticeship in the art of writing fiction. Much later, in
Ketchum, Idaho, and in Cuba, he was to gather some unfinished
business from his Paris years into "A Moveable Feast." This
small book can be read on a medium length airline flight. It's
full of wit, personality and wisdom--of value to all creators.

"I always worked until I had something done, and I always
stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I
could be sure of going on the next day," he wrote. When
finished for the day, he would read something completely
different, or go for a walk--this in order to allow his
subconscious to continue work on the project. "I was free then
to go anywhere in Paris, to exercise, to become physically
tired. Then it is also good to make love to one you love."

On the beginning of work, he writes: "Start with a true
sentence and you can go from there." Hemingway found that
sometimes it took a little while to find that truth. When he
did, he was off and away. "The only thing that could spoil a
day was people--and if you could keep from making engagements,
each day had no limits."

Regarding style--but more to the nature of art itself--he says:
"You could omit anything--if you knew that you had omitted
it--and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make
people feel something more than they understood." Even an
important turn of a plot or a climax might be left out.
Hemingway understood that art is a co-project between an
artist's skill and the imagination of the art consumer. Absence
strengthens. Brevity heightens. To obscure is to intrigue.
Leave it out and the reader's imagination can make it stronger.

During this period Hemingway demonstrated a remarkable ability
at willful concentration. "The Sun Also Rises," his second
novel, was written in just over six weeks in La Closerie des
Lilas, a Montparnasse restaurant. A busy environment, he found,
does not necessarily mean interruption. Hemingway was not
without humour, humility and self deprecation: "Sometimes," he
said, "I have good luck and write better than I can."

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever
becomes a master." (Ernest Hemingway)

Esoterica: Hemingway is giving himself counseling in
self-understanding and personal efficiency. "I still need more
healthy rest in order to work at my best," he writes. "My
health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it
intelligently." Back down on the ground, I'm sleeping long and
walking vigorously. In my studio I've been consciously leaving
out stuff that I might normally put in--the features of a face,
a part of a landscape, some overly busy shapes--any element
that might just be telling too much. Thanks to Ernest.