“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”
Ernest Hemingway
“How did you go bankrupt?”
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
I’ve always appreciated the style and content of Hemingway’s efforts. I wonder what the events of the last 20 years in the oft-dubious, ol’ US of A would’ve inspired him to write. Also, my college-age daughter has a friend who “wants to be a poet and takes alot of lit”, who has neither read nor heard of Hemingway. Nor Camus. Nor Malamud. Kinda like being aspiring auto mechanic and having never heard of Ford, Audi and Fiat, don’t you think?
If by chance you have never read “To Have and Have Not” please do as it is actually three short stories about one fishing captain, and it is fantastic. Takes place in Cuba and the Keys, and is really one of Earnest Hemingway’s best works, written in the late 30s.
Give a copy to your Daughter’s friend, it will send her running to a safe spot.
Big talk from a man who went out of his way to glamorize war for millions of his readers.