Hemingway and 'spareness' of narrative
The point has come up in a couple of other threads (in feedback for submitted work) about 'spareness' of style, particularly - narrative.
It is best to use absolute spareness when writing a scene of violence, or despair, or loneliness, or disassociation. In other words - let the bare minimum of words carry the maximum power. This technique is usually (though not always) achieved by writing the scene in whatever voice/style sounds natural - then cutting it down to the bare bones. The aim here is to avoid ornamenting the factual or sensory information with any kind of spin. A key to remember in practicing this technique is that because the prose is now so 'naked' - every word is crucial.
Probably the most famous practitioner of this technique was Ernest Hemingway. Check out this passage, about the executions of some government officials by a military junta.
Quote: They shot the six cabinet ministers at half-past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital. There were pools of water in the courtyard. There were wet dead leaves on the paving of the courtyard. It rained hard. All the shutters of the hospital were nailed shut. One of the ministers was sick with typhoid. Two soldiers carried him downstairs and out into the rain. They tried to hold him up against the wall but he sat down in a puddle of water. The other five stood very quietly against the wail. Finally the officer told the soldiers it was no good trying to make him stand up. When they fired the first volley he was sitting down in the water with his head on his knees.
Traveller in the arts
Posts: 19
(1/24/02 2:05 pm) Reply
Re: Hemingway and 'spareness' of narrative
It seems this narrative style is primarily a modern construct. Perhaps it arose in backlash to the wordy and floridly detailed works of 19th century writers, such as Dickens?
Re: Hemingway and 'spareness' of narrative
Almost certainly, yes. From what I understand, the main writing style that Hemingway was 'rebelling against' was that of Henry James. One of the most important stylistic traits of the Hemingway style of writing was that the 'writer as narrator' should render themselves almost invisible. The narrator in the bulk of Hemingway's works is aligned to the 'character as narrator (via the writer). James Joyce took this core element to the extreme - though in a very different style to Hemingway. William Faulkner's territory as writer/narrator fell between the style of Hemingway and Joyce.
The overriding use of the 'omniscient' narrator (as opposed to 'third person/familiar) fell out of style in the 1920s and has never regained its former eminence. And (with the modern eye and ear tuned to the objectivity of the movie camera) perhaps never will.
Re: Hemingway and 'spareness' of narrative
I agree with all that has gone before on this thread.
A number of years ago I did a writing course. I didn't get a huge amount out of it, but one thing I did take away from the course was invaluable. Ruthless 'editing down.'
The general idea is to read through your work, identify those words and passages of which you are most proud - and delete them.
The result is invariably a much stronger narrative with the writer's ego missing. This writer's ego-thing is easily spotted by the reader who really isn't interested in how clever the author is, just how entertaining the story is.
One exception might be the short stories and novellas of Graham Greene. Few writers (in my opinion) can produce such rich, rich narrative without it seeming wordy.
But the basic rules applies to most of us. Kill your darlings.
Cheers
Peter E
Lullaby
Unregistered User
(3/27/02 12:08 pm) Reply
Pete
Pete,
Please don't quote J.D. Salinger without giving him credit ever again.
Re: Pete
It certainly wasn't my intention to claim the quote. I used italics for that reason.
I just couldn't remember who the author of the famous phrase was but assumed others would know, and it seems I was right.
Pete
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