Two more gems from Papa Hemingway:
"In truly good writing no matter how many times you read it you do not know how it is done. That is because there is a mystery in all great writing and that mystery does not dis-sect out. It continues and it is always valid. Each time you re-read you see or learn something new."
- to Harvey Breit, 1952, Selected Letters, p. 770
"Then there is the other secret. There isn't any symbolysm (sic). The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know."
- to Bernard Berenson, 1952, Selected Letters, p. 780
Dangerous reading machines like Pa. Make ya scared, right?
Posted by: bhadd | May 24, 2007 at 02:10 PM