58 years ago today, on July 2, 1961, Hemingway ended his life at home with a double-barreled shotgun. Shortly before committing suicide, he wrote a letter to the publisher's editor, saying that he had been wrestling with the last chapter of a book, "A Feast of Flow."
This book, which tells the story of Hemingway's life in Paris between the ages of 22 and 27, gives us a glimpse into the material and mental state of a literary master when he first began to write, which is an important way to understand Hemingway's early writing and life.
The famous quote in the book goes like this: "If you are fortunate enough to live in Paris in your youth, it will be with you wherever you go for the rest of your life, because Paris is a feast of flow." The book has long been a postcard in Paris, and every year a large number of tourists follow Hemingway's footsteps according to the location in the book, go to the bar he often visits, have a drink, and sit in the seat where he writes and think for a moment
Today, although we can't go, we used the form of "virtual interviews" to talk to Hemingway about how he wrote in Paris, how the "lost generation" was born, and how he met Pound, Fitzgerald and others. Regardless of which one is interested in Hemingway, Paris, or literature, I hope that this "virtual interview" will give everyone more understanding.
For reasons that the author considers sufficient, many places, people, perceptions, and impressions are not mentioned in this book. Some of them are secrets, some are well known, and many have written about them and will no doubt continue to do so. Readers can also think of the book as fiction if they wish. But such a fictional work always helps us understand the facts that are written.
A Feast of Flow (Author: Hemingway; Translator: Liu Zichao; Edition: CITIC Press, November 2016)
Interviewer | Beijing News (Integration and Editor: Zhang Jin)
Respondents | Hemingway
About writing
Just write a real sentence
Then write it down from there
Q: What was the overall impression of your time in Paris?
Hemingway: There was a lot of bad weather. Once autumn is over, bad weather will always come overnight. At night, we had to close the windows to keep the rain from splashing in. The leaves on the parapet square were blown to pieces by the cold wind, and the leaves were soaked in the rain, and the wind drove the rain and hit the green bus that stopped at the terminal. The hobbyist café was overcrowded, and the window panes were obscured by heat and smoke.
Q: In the first few years of writing, you and your wife were living on a tight budget, often starving, and the publication of your works was not smooth, how did you survive this situation at that time?
Hemingway: When you're no longer a journalist, you've not yet written a work that someone in the United States is willing to pay for, and you lie to your family that you're going to have lunch outside with someone else, the best place to go is the Jardin du Luxembourg. Because on the way from Observatory Square to Vožellar Street, you won't see or smell anything to eat. In the Jardin du Luxembourg, you can always walk into the Luxembourg Museum, and when you are empty and hungry, all the paintings will become clearer and more pleasing to the eye.
I know my novel is good and will eventually be published domestically. When I gave up journalism, I was convinced that these novels would be published. But every article I sent was returned. What makes me so confident is Edward O'Brien
(American writer, editor)
I included the novel "My Old Man" in the "Best Short Story of the Year" and dedicated the title of the book to me. The novel was never published in a magazine, but he made an exception and included it in the book. The interesting thing is that despite all he did, he ended up misspelling my name.
In November 1920, Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, came to Chicago as a guest and became acquainted with Hemingway. In September 1921, the two were married. For most of the time written in the book, the two lived together.
Q: You often write in a café in Piazza Saint-Michel, and how would you react if a very attractive girl walked in during the writing process?
Hemingway: Me
(Yes)
Looking at her, she interrupted my train of thought and made my heart flutter. I wanted to put her in the novel she was writing, or anywhere, but she was sitting in the place where she could see the street and the doorway of the café, obviously waiting for someone. So I had to keep writing.
I saw you, beautiful girl, no matter who you were waiting for, and whether I could see you later, I believe you belong to me at this moment. You belong to me, the whole of Paris belongs to me, and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.
Q: Writing novels sometimes goes well, and sometimes it has difficulties. What do you do when you don't know how to move forward with a novel?
Hemingway: I always write about finishing the day's quantification and knowing what to do next. This ensures that you can continue to write the next day. But sometimes, when I'm just starting to write a novel and don't know how to push it forward, I sit in front of the fire, squeeze the citrus peel, and watch the juice of the orange peel drip next to the fire, bursting into a small blue flame and making a crackling sound. I would stand in front of the window and look at the rooftops of the thousands of houses in Paris and think, "Don't worry, you've been writing before, and you can still write now." Just write a real sentence, write the most authentic sentence you know, and write it from there. ”
This is when it becomes easier to write, because there is always a real sentence that I know, have read, or have heard of. I've found that once I start writing thoughtfully, like people introduce or show things, I can cut out flashy adjectives and start with the first true, concise statement. In that top-floor room, I decided to write everything I knew into a novel. I've always wanted to do that, and for writing, that's exactly the good and rigorous exercise.
The Jardin du Luxembourg, built in 1615, is a picturesque landscape with busts and monuments with inscriptions by many thinkers and poets. It is now the seat of the Senate.
Q: During that time in Paris, which writers did you like to read? What do you think of those books?
Hemingway: From the day I discovered Sylvia Beech's library, I read all of Turgenev's works, the published English translation of Gogol, The Tolstoy of Konstanz Garnett, and the English translation of Chekhov's work. Before we came to Paris, in Toronto, I was told that Catherine Mansfield was a good short story writer, even great. But reading Chekhov's novels after reading them is like listening to the stories of a young old maid after listening to a well-articulated, insightful, and unpretentious writer who has finished telling a story.
There are some things in Dostoevsky's works that are not credible and not meant to be believed, but some of them are so real that you will be deeply touched when you read them. In his work there is the fragility and madness, the evil and the holiness, and the gambling madness that you want to understand. Compared to Tolstoy's work, Stephen Crane's Civil War novel looks like a frail boy who has never seen war with his own eyes, and only reads some war records and chronicles in his grandparents' house, as well as brady's photographs, and then produces beautiful fantasies.
In the beginning, I read only Russian writers, and later I read other writers, but for a long time I read Russian writers.
Shakespeare's Bookstore, born after world war I, mainly sold English books, and Hemingway, Fitzgerald and others in Paris at that time were the guests of the owner of the bookstore, Sylvia Biech.
About the "Lost Generation"
"Don't raise the bar with me, Hemingway,
You are all a lost generation."
Q: At that time, a group of young writers and artists gathered in Paris, including you, Fitzgerald, Picasso, etc. who often met at Miss Stein's salon at 27 Rue de la Faso, and her influence on you was inexorable, and she was also named "Hemingway's mentor" and "spokesperson of the lost generation".
Hemingway: When we first met, she was doing embroidery. She embroidered and took care of the meal while chatting with my wife. She was talking to this side and listening to that side at the same time, interrupting from time to time the conversation on the other side that she was not involved in.
After coming to our apartment, they
(Stein and her female companion)
Seems to like us more. Maybe it was because the room was so small that we sat closer. Miss Stein sat on the bed on the floor and offered to read my novel.
Q: How did she evaluate your novel and what advice did she give you?
Hemingway: She later said she liked most of it, except for the one in Northern Michigan.
"Well written," she said, "that's fine." But this stuff is inaccrochable
(French, meaning "can't hang out")
。 It's like a painter painting a painting, but it's not suitable for hanging out on an exhibition. ”
She told me she wanted to publish her work in The Atlantic. At my level, I can't publish my work in The Atlantic or the Saturday Evening Post. She said, I have the potential to become a new writer with my own unique style, but the first thing is to stop writing things that are not suitable for publication. I didn't continue to argue or argue with her, how to handle the dialogue in the novel was my own business, and it was more interesting to hear her say.
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) was an American novelist, critic, collector, and owner of the salon at 27 Garden Street. At that time, the Paris art circle had extraordinary influence, and was one of the first collectors to foster Western modernist art, and artistic youth and writers flocked to her salon.
Q: Under what circumstances did she say the famous label "Lost Generation"?
Hemingway: Miss Stein's idea of the "lost generation" came when we came back from Canada to live on Notre Dame's Pastoral Street. She was still good friends with me. There was something wrong with the igniter of the old Ford T-series car she was driving, and the young man in the repair shop had been a soldier in the last year of World War I, and the repair was not very skilled, or he just stuck to the principle of first come, first served, and did not give Miss Stein a first repair. In short, his attitude was not very serious, and under the protest of Miss Stein, the owner of the car repair shop reprimanded him fiercely. The boss said to him, "You are all a confused generation." ”
"You are a lost generation. You are all. Miss Stein said, "All of you young men who have served as soldiers in the war. You are a lost generation. ”
"Really?" I asked.
"You are," she insisted, "you lack reverence for anything, you live drunk and dream of death..."
"The young man who repaired the car was drunk?" I asked.
……
"Don't raise the bar with me, Hemingway," said Miss Stein, "that's no good." You are all of a confused generation, the owner of the car repair shop. ”
Q: Miss Stein liked you a lot, and you did a lot of things for her, such as helping her with manuscripts, but then your friendship ended inexplicably.
Hemingway: The friendship with Gertrude Stein ended strangely.
It was a bright spring day, and I walked from the Observatory Square through the Little Luxembourg Gardens. Before I could ring the bell, the maid opened the door. She asked me to come in and wait, poured me a glass of fruit brandy, handed it to me, and blinked happily. Before I could swallow, I heard someone talking to Miss Stein. I've never heard one person talk like that to another.
Then came the voice of Miss Stein, who pleaded and even begged, "Don't do this, kitten." Don't do this. Don't do this, please don't do this. I'm willing to do anything, kitten, just don't do it. Please. Please, kitten. I swallowed the wine, put the glass on the table, got up and headed for the door.
That's how our friendship ended for me. She looks like a Roman emperor, and if you like your woman to look like a Roman emperor, that's fine. In the end, everyone, perhaps not everyone, reconciled with her in order not to appear self-righteous or righteous. Me too. But I couldn't be true friends with her anymore, emotionally and intellectually.
Book stalls on the Great Augustinian Pier.
About Ezra Pound
Founded the "Talent" fund
He funded Eliot's poetry
Q: As an important poet of the 20th century, Ezra Pound enthusiastically helped many young writers, including you, and T. S. Eliot's "Wasteland" was published after he personally cut 1/3 of it.
Hemingway: Ezra Pound has always been a very good friend, and he has always been a helper to others. Of all the writers I know, Ezra is the most generous and selfless. He helped poets, painters, sculptors, and essayists he trusted. He will help anyone who is in deep trouble, whether they believe it or not. He was worried about everyone, and when we first met, his biggest concern was T. S. Elliot.
Ezra co-founded a fund called Talented With Natalie Barney, a wealthy American woman and patron of the arts. Regardless of the income, each of us donated a little money to set up a fund to free Mr. Elliot from the bank and to have money to write poetry. I think the idea sounds good. Ezra thought that when we had freed Mr. Eliot from the bank, we could settle everyone down with a single blow.
Ezra was kinder than I was, more like a Christian.
Ezra Pound (1885-1972), along with Eliot, was a leading figure in late Symbolist poetry, loved Oriental culture, translated works by Confucius and Li Bai, and made great contributions to the mutual reference between Chinese and Western cultures. Masterpiece "At the Subway Station".
Q: So what do you think of his writing?
Hemingway: His own writing, if in the right state, is perfect, and he is so frank about his mistakes, so obsessed with his own inadequacies, so kind to others, that I always regard him as some kind of saint. He can also be irritable and irritable, but many saints must be the same.
Q: You once taught Pound to box, how did Pound, who looked like a weak scholar, play?
Hemingway: Ezra hadn't been practicing for long at the time, and it was a bit embarrassing for me to have him practice in front of people I knew, so I tried to make him look good, even though it didn't work very well. He knows how to defend, but I'm still training him to punch with his left hand, always straddling his left foot forward and then his right heel. This is just basic footwork. I have not been able to teach him the left hook box, but to teach him to reduce the amplitude of the right hand punch, I can only talk about it later.
The Lilac Garden Café, opened in 1847, is located at an intersection in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
About Fitzgerald
You have absolutely no idea
How good "The Great Gatsby" is
Q: As representatives of the "Lost Generation", you and Fitzgerald have a great influence on American literature, how do you evaluate his talent?
Hemingway: His talent is as innate as the pattern of powder on the wings of a butterfly. He used to be as ignorant of this as a butterfly, not knowing when the pattern would be damaged or erased. Later he realized that his wing was injured, learned about its structure, and learned to think, but he could no longer fly. Because his love of flying has passed away, he can only recall the years of light flying in the past.
Q: It is said that a very strange thing happened when you first met, what happened?
Hemingway: I was sitting at the Dingo Bar on Drampur Avenue with some insignificant people, and he walked in, introduced himself first, and then introduced Dunk Chaplin, the famous baseball pitcher who came with him.
I've been watching Scott. His body was thin, he didn't look in very good condition, and his face was slightly puffy. He wore a well-fitting Booker brothers blazer, a white shirt with buttons on the collar and a British army tie.
"Ernest," he said, "you don't mind calling you Ernest, do you?" ”
"You ask Dunk." I say.
"Don't be silly. This is serious. Tell me, you and your wife are together before they get married
Have you slept? ”
"I don't know."
I doubt he said these things to everyone. But I don't think so, because I noticed that he was sweating all the time as he spoke.
He sat at the bar, holding a glass of champagne, and the skin on his face seemed to tighten until the original puffiness disappeared, and then it became tighter and tighter, becoming like a dead man's face. His eyes were sunken deep and he began to look lifeless, his lips were tight, and his face was like used white wax, without a trace of blood.
Fitzgerald with his wife Zelda and daughter Scott.
Q: What happened?
Hemingway: We put him in a taxi. I was worried, but Dunk said it was okay, don't worry. "He'll probably be fine when he gets home." He said. He must have been fine when he got home, because I saw him at the Lilac Garden Café a few days later.
Q: You must have talked a lot about writing. Fitzgerald became famous before you, what did he tell you about writing, publishing, and so on?
Hemingway: He told me about writers, publishers, agents, critics, and George Hoeness Loremer
(Editor, Saturday Post)
things, as well as the gossip and economic situation that a successful writer will incur.
When he talks about his writing, he always has a contemptuous tone, but without a hint of bitterness. So I knew that his new book must have been well written so that he could talk about the inadequacies of his past works without the slightest bitterness. He wanted me to see his new book, The Marvelous Gatsby, and once he got his last and only copy back from someone else, he could show it to me. Listening to him talk about this book, you have absolutely no way of knowing how good it is.
All you see is that he's very shy, which is the expression that any modest writer will show when he writes a very good work. I hope he gets back the manuscript as soon as possible so I can read it. Scott told me that he was from Maxville Borkins
(Edited by Scribner Press)
It was learned that the book didn't sell well, but it got good reviews.
Q: You don't agree very much on your views on writing, where are the specific differences?
Hemingway: He told me at the Lilac Garden Café how he wrote novels that he thought were well written, novels that were indeed good for the Saturday Evening Post. He would make some changes and then throw them in, knowing exactly where to make the work easy to sell and the type that magazines liked to publish.
I was shocked by this, and I said it was no different from prostitution. He said it was indeed prostitution, but he had no choice because he had to earn money from magazines and could only get into sample books when he had money. I said, I think no one can scribble without ruining the talent unless you write at the best level with your heart. He said that because he wrote the true story first and then did the damage and modification last, it would not hurt him.
I couldn't believe that and persuaded him not to do it again, but I needed a novel to prove my point, to show it to him, to convince him. Yet I have not yet written such a novel.
Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda
Q: You and Fitzgerald have discussed the length of a man's private part, or rather, Fitzgerald consulted you about it.
Hemingway: We were eating cherry tarts and drinking the last bottle of wine, when he finally said, "You know, I haven't slept with anyone but Zelda." ”
"No, I don't know."
Zelda said that my innate conditions can never be satisfied by a woman, which is the source of her unhappiness. She said it was a matter of size. After she said this, I felt different. I have to know if this is true or not. ”
Q: Faced with such a private question, how do you answer him and how do you reassure him?
Hemingway: "Go to the office." I said.
"Where is the office?"
"Toilet." I say.
We went back to the restaurant and sat down at the table.
"You're perfectly normal," I said, "you're fine, not at all." ”
"But why did she say that?"
"To keep you from working. This is the oldest way in the world to keep people from working. Scott, you asked me to tell you the truth, and I can tell you a bunch of them, but what I just said is absolutely true, and it's all the truth you need. You should have gone to the doctor to hear these words. ”
About leaving
Paris never ends
Q: Why did you, your wife and son leave Paris?
Hemingway: When we went from two to three, the cold and bad weather eventually took us out of Paris in the winter. It's not okay to take a baby to a café in the winter, even if the baby can watch everything that's happening around them without getting bored or crying.
Q: What is your overall assessment or feeling about that time in Paris?
Hemingway: Paris never ends. Everyone who has lived here has a different memory than others. We will always go back to the Paris we used to be, no matter who we are, no matter how Paris changes, no matter how difficult or easy it is to go back.
Finishing: Zhang Jin
Editor: Zhang Buhui Xixi
Proofreader: Zhai Yongjun