Ernest Hemingway - Rough Diamond

[Music] [Music] [Applause] there's an old man who fished alone cuba 1951 ernest hemingway is 52. work starts at dawn for the celebrated author hemingway has been living permanently here in cuba for 11 years he was born in illinois spent his childhood around the lakes of michigan began professional life as a cub reporter with the kansas city star and at the age of 18 set out for the war in italy since then his life has been work war bull fights hunting deep sea fishing and more wars and more work one two three four five six hemingway has lived his life like a chapter of fiction from one of his books but his latest across the river and into the trees has been severely criticized by the world's press it's been called disappointing embarrassing distressing even trivial and tired 220 pounds ugly as hell the mountains of the moon seen through a cheap telescope the old man was thin and gold deep wrinkles on the back of his neck everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea undefeated mr hemmingstine you've got it hemingway has to make sure that his next book is a winner he will call it eventually the old man and the sea he first thought of it 16 years ago and had even sketched it out for esquire magazine in 1936 through the long years of war and turmoil this tale of an old fisherman's heroic fight with a huge marlin has lingered somewhere at the back of his mind these last weeks the story has been taking shape tentatively forming into words easing into life on the printed page it was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in a gulf stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish maria black dog chicken made the boy feel sad to see the old man come in each day this skiff empty the sail was patched with flower sacks and looked like the flag of [Applause] the flag of permanent defeat his shirt had been patched so many times that it was like the sail and the patches were faded to many different shades by the sun with his eyes closed there was no life in his face the old man opened his eyes and for a moment he was coming back from a long way away was dreaming lions on the beaches in the evenings they played like young cats in the dusk [Applause] i've seen lions on the beaches in the evenings you know in africa keep the blanket around you well who gave you this martian all right i must thank him [Applause] i must have some water here for him the boy thought and soap and a good towel why am i so thoughtless i must get him another shirt and a jacket for the winter and some sort of shoes in another blanket [Applause] your stew is delicious everything about him was old except his eyes and they were cheerful and undefeated that's a million dollar contract from mgm i'm gonna miss yes who's this now how about tell me who you are and then i'll tell you who i am never heard of you yeah that's me you got it in one now well the reason for that is i'm busy one and i don't give interviews to anybody too no well tough i'll wake you in the morning you're my alarm clock age is my alarm clock why do old men wake so early is it to have one longer day sleep well man he was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of africa he only dreamed of places now and of the lines on the beach they played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy tweet jesus who the hell are you mr hemingway no i'm susan james we have an appointment uh you said nine i wrote you six months ago this ernest hemingway doesn't speak baby this one writes and how the hell am i supposed to write if i talk about myself all the time i'm sorry you said you would i said i would i said i would i feel like a goddamn whale blundering along surrounded by pilot fish grabbing every morsel i spill well i said i would and now i'm saying i won't i wrote you replied here i am keep your promise you're sitting on my chair said daddy bear can you cook no no brother well i guess i won't ask you what you can do look the kitchen's out there go and make coffee and i'll get dressed how's that round one for susan uh james susan james hmm [Applause] the old man thought i have no luck anymore but who knows maybe today every day is a new day mr hemingway coffee one generation passes away and another generation cometh but the earth abides forever new york times oh come on look look that's stupid oh no please don't do that no that's my only role and well there's other pictures on there you say you're a journalist yes and you're not are you that you phoned me this morning what do you do kim i am writing a paper uh my thesis for my master's degree on me huh on paris in the 1920s the lost generation oh not again how to hell with the lost generation all the dirty easy labels and to hell with all the phds look i'm i'm sorry about the photo it was silly of me [Applause] all generations are lost always have been always will be what we were was a small group of young men were been to war and were trying to write and we're now living in paris and i was poor and happy paris was the cultural center of europe dominated by the giants of modern literature at the center of their circle lived the colorful gertrude stein and it was to this opinionated and wealthy woman that young hemingway would show his early writings i don't like it it's good well then that's not the question at all it's like a a painting that a painter paints and he can't hang it because nobody else will buy it because they can't hang it either but it's not dirty i am trying to use the word the people would actually use you have to use them they're the only words that make the story come true there's no point it's wrong and it's silly you should only read what is truly good and what is frankly bad you are hemingway you are like all the young people who served in the war [Music] you are a lost generation [Music] oh you don't have any respect for anything you drink yourselves to death when was the last time you saw me drunk your friends are drunk lost all lost like the young man who was supposed to mend my machine he was just like you he served in the war and he did a rotten job and when i complained to the garage man you know what he said i can guess he said like all these young men who have served in the war they're all the same they are a lost generation he must have been drunk himself when he coined such a phrase don't argue with me anyway you're lost all of you a lost generation exactly as the garage man said i looked up at her and thought who's calling who lost generation i thought all generations were lost by something always have been and always will be the hell with her lost generation talk and all the dirty easy labels i had to work damn hard to survive i wasn't lost i was working well the characters you created in the sun also rises were pretty lost all the same an emasculated american journalist a crazy english lady an alcoholic okay okay but an author isn't a judge any more than a camera is a judge okay they're pretty tragic but my god the hero of the book wasn't jake or brett or any of them damn it the hero of the book was the earth the good earth the earth abideth forever that's in the bible i know come here i want to tell you something [Applause] it was a beach wood and the trees were very old their roots balked above the ground the branches were twisted we walked in the road between the thick trunks of the old beaches and the sunlight came through the leaves in light patches and the grass the trees were big and the foliage was thick but it was not gloomy this is country said bill and that's in my book young hemingway wrote the book the sun also rises in hotel bedrooms all across europe but mostly in spain and in france he had been based in paris for several years and it was here that he had really gotten down to the serious business of writing he wrote articles for the toronto star working as the paper's foreign correspondent and covering the great events of the twenties mussolini's invasion of rome the french army's occupation of the ruler and he worked as a true writer for himself and unpaid basing his work on what he knew of life write one true sentence he once said a writer's mission is to tell the truth in 1918 young hemingway left home to serve with the red cross in italy from these first experiences of war spraying one of his finest novels and countless magnificent short stories so [Music] i don't know to this day how i covered those hundred yards with my knee cap or on my ankle the field hospital they thought i'd have been shot in the chest i had so much of that guy's blood over i me flat and sweated and prayed oh jesus christ get me out of here dear jesus please get me out christ please please please if you only keep me from getting killed i'll do anything for you i believe in you and i'll tell everyone in the world that you're the only one that matters please please dear jesus [Music] if there's a thunderstorm you simply get out into the open or get under a beach street they're never struck yeah no [Applause] is it hard to die no i i think it's quite easy well i little depends [Music] [Applause] is it hard to die hard to die all the stories of nick adams tell of hemingway's own adventures either on the battlefront in italy or around the shores of lake michigan hemingway was inspired throughout his life by the outdoor boyhood years he spent hunting fishing camping or visiting the indians with his beloved father sun was coming up over the hill and the bass jumped making circles in the water trailed his hand in the water felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning [Applause] in the morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing he felt sure he would never die [Music] your father committed suicide didn't he easy daughter easy [Applause] the coward shot himself with a smitten wesson 19. there 29 he was tall and tough six feet i loved him he taught me to love the land to love the sunrise sorry the world is divided into good guys and jerks you have to live lay yourself in the line get a pen yeah [Applause] first edition for you from papa hemingway with affection look up chapter 27 around page 275. [Applause] that's what i'm trying to say [Applause] if one must die he thought and clearly one must i can die but i hated dying was nothing and he had no picture of it in his mind living was a field of grain blown in the wind and the side of a hill living was a hawk in the sky living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill in a valley and a stream with trees along it the far side of the valley and the hills beyond hey come on yeah you got wheels yeah why we're going someplace this place is like a morgue [Applause] those rum limes grapefruit mareschino crushed ice and bingo you know i can only manage to write about 600 words a day it's a tough job but i love it that's no more than 100 limes a day it's tough but it's beautiful [Applause] the world will destroy you in the end [Applause] because it destroys everyone but some people are strong like my old man and the sea my new book to the earth and my old man and the sea [Applause] it's no good i have to tell you i think it's good [Applause] it's dead simple true and the old man catches his fish at last [Music] and the fishes devoured by sharks [Applause] the old mammoths defeated [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he slept face down in the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up [Applause] the boy saw the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man's hands and he started to cry don't sit up drink [Applause] they beat me didn't beat you not the fish yeah truly [Applause] right animal man [Applause] as the boy went out of the door he was crying again the old man was sleeping the old man was dreaming about the lines [Applause] a man can be destroyed but not defeated or defeated but not destroyed no not the hero harper hemingway you got the times see no cubing pepper or gringo the new york times and the london time after long months of hard work the old man in the sea won ernest hemingway the greatest award of all the nobel prize for literature even the press so harsh the previous year praised the author's powerful mastery of the art of narrative [Applause] surprise surprise he likes me the most important writer since the death of shakespeare hey the nobel citation said ernest hemingway is one of those who honestly and undauntedly reproduces the genuine features of the hard countenance of the age [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you