Friday, March 29, 2013

Famous Ephebophile: Ernest Hemingway


Ernest Hemingway and model Jean Patchett at his ranch in Cuba | Vogue (1950)

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway and the title of a Charles Bukowski poem. Bukowski's poem is thought to be based on Hemingway's life.

In a clean, well-lighted place by Charles Bukowski
the old fart [Ernest Hemingway.he used his literary reputation
to reel them in one at a time,
each younger than the last.
he liked to meet them for luncheon and
wine
and he’d talk and listen to them
talk.
whatever wife or girlfriend he had at the moment
was made to
understand that this sort of thing made him
“young again.”
the young ladies vied to bed down with
this
literary
genius.
in between, he continued to write,
and late at night in his favorite bar
liked to talk about writing and his amorous
adventures.
actually, he was just a drunk
who liked young ladies,
writing itself,
and talking about writing.
wasn’t a bad life.

There are a number of things we can learn from this poem:

Hemingway used the Indirect Approach of seduction, which is to initiate a conversation with a young woman without letting her know your true intention. For example, Hemingway invited the young ladies to lunch to discuss literature after which they "vied to bed down" the literary genius.
 
Hemingway's wives/girlfriends approved of his affairs, because he used the excuse that young women made him feel "young again", but that's exactly what that was - a lame excuse. Hemingway, like most men, was too shy to say that he was simply attracted to (very) young women. 

Like Bukowski wrote, Hemingway simply "[...] liked young ladies,\ writing itself,\and talking about writing."

Clearly, Hemingway's nymphets were not deterred by his grey, his age or the fact that he was married, which isn't surprising after reading R. Don Steele's How to Date Young Women for Men Over 35.

 

 


No comments:

Post a Comment