an open letter to ernest hemingway... kind of

So, here is the story:

When I was a sophomore in college, I was taking a class called Medieval British Literature. This class, to put it mildly, absolutely changed my life. Truly. I do not know how to accurately express how much taking this class moved me. How my life shifted forever. And I will always be grateful. It is one of the best classes I have ever taken, and I’d take it again in a heartbeat.

Not only was the subject matter phenomenal, everything I was interested in, and informative enough to just keep teaching me, but the professor was what dreams are made of. Dr. Merrill is one of the best people in all of academia. I strive to be as wonderful as that man. He is completely dedicated to his work, so passionate about it. It’s, at the very least, wonderfully inspiring. So, the entire experience of this class, from subject matter to instructor, was life-altering.

And that is where Ernest Hemingway comes in.

Before you get confused, let me explain. Of course, growing up as a writer and literature lover, I knew the name Ernest Hemingway. But. Full disclosure: I didn’t read any of his work and knew absolutely nothing about him until this class. And this class taught me only one thing about Hemingway. Which says a lot because Hemingway most certainly does not belong in a Medieval British Literature class. However, this is what happened.

One day, another girl in my class was asking Dr. Merrill what he thought about various classical writers. When she threw the name “Hemingway” at him, his eyes got wide and he declared authoritatively, “OVERRATED.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was enough to convince me. From that moment on, I was convinced that Hemingway was overrated. And if I ever read anything about him after that, I tended to gravitate towards criticism. I mean, how could Dr. Merrill be wrong? To this day, I still admire Dr. Merrill so much and hope to one day be as incredible as him. So, how could he possibly be wrong about this? If I am passionate about the same things as him, surely I would agree with his conclusions.

So, for the last several years, whenever possible, I have not been shy about throwing shade at Ernest Hemingway.

There are lots of different things people say about Hemingway. But the biggest piece of criticism people throw at him is that his writing style can be choppy or stilted. That’s the majority of what people say – that his writing just isn’t very entertaining.

Now, with my staunch anti-Hemingway views, I had still never read any of his work. Like. Any of it. And I also found that many of the quotes I read from him about writing were… ridiculously relatable. I have yet to read a quote about writing from Hemingway that I did not agree with wholeheartedly. And this very thing is what prompted me, last autumn, to finally test this adopted view.

So, I did a bit of research on which work to read first and purchased a used copy of “The Sun Also Rises” for $4.

I then proceeded to read it very quickly.

And here is what I have to say: it wasn’t my favorite book in the world. However, I did really, really enjoy it. I might even read it again. I liked Hemingway’s style. I liked how simple, mundane things made their way into his stories the way they exist in our lives: naturally. I read this book and realized that I did not agree with Dr. Merrill.

I’m not sitting here telling you that Hemingway is my favorite author. Because no, he isn’t. But I was pleasantly happy with being proven wrong in this instance.

And with that, I offer my apologies to Ernest Hemingway.