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| Ernest Hemingway, 1918 Portrait by Ermeni Studios |
The story opens in a snow covered military hut. The major retires to his room while his adjutant, Tonani, continues to busy himself with paperwork. When Pinin, the major's orderly enters, the major calls for him. The 19-year-old Pinin enters the major's room and is questioned about his romantic life. After the major demonstrates that Tonani cannot hear their conversation through the wall, he continues to press the orderly with additional personal questions. The major appears to be propositioning the young man but when he is gently rebuffed, he backs off. The conversation ends with the major suggesting that Pinin could return to his platoon if he wished but if he stayed he might avoid being wounded.
This story seems a bit of a departure from Hemingway's other writings which are focused on all of the trappings of masculinity. While another of his short stories includes a gay storyline (Mother of a Queen, published in the story collection Winner Take Nothing in 1933), A Simple Inquiry's straightforward telling doesn't moralize about the characters' behaviors.
In June 1918, 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway arrived in Italy to serve as an ambulance driver at the Italian Front during World War I. The genesis for this story may have come from his observations or experiences during the war.
What is commonly termed 'situational homosexuality' presents itself throughout history in all male environments (like the military). As well, Italy has a long reputation of being more permissive around issues of male same-sex activity. In fact, it was considered a normal part of adolescent sexual education, particularly in southern Italy. In 1889 the Zanardelli Code decriminalized same-sex acts in all of unified Italy. This cemented Italy's reputation among Europe's homosexuals of tolerance and enlightenment on legislating these matters.
Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Mattachine Review (IV) ; Young (1754*)
I know I am in a minority, but I have long felt the the reputation of Hemingway's fiction is way overblown. A Simple Enquiry is neat enough in a very small-scale way, but it is no great shakes by a country mile.
ReplyDeleteThis is not 'bad' but it's not particularly good, either. Yet the old fraud (as I think of Hemingway who if he told one lie about his life told dozens and dozens and really never developed as a writer after his first book of short stories) had such a bulldozing personality that he persuaded the world that he was some kind of literary genius.
It all rather came unstuck, gradually, and he didn't publish anything of note after 1930. Even For Whom The Bell Tolls his seen by many as very curate's egg and his late success, The Old Man And The Sea, became a seller because it appeared complete (it really wasn't very long, more a long short story than a novel) in an edition of the - very middle-brow - Life Magazine which sold out its five million copies in two days.
Many critics, on the other hand, conceded that Hemingway was pretty much parodying himself in the story.
Didn’t publish anything of note after 1930? Well, except for “A Clean Well Lighted Place” (1933), which James Joyce called “one of the greatest short stories ever written.” And Joyce was not known for handing out complements. There’s also “A Way You’ll Never Be,” “A
ReplyDeleteNatural History of the Dead,” “Fathers & Sons,” “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” etc., all published post-1930. And even if one completely ignored his post-30 work, the writing he produced between 1923-1929 was more than enough to establish his permanent place in the pantheon.
And a fraud? Who cares? A fiction writer who was a fabulist?! I’m clutching my pearls! All that matters is the art, and it stands on its own.
You do know that Joyce also had and has his critics and that he is no longer touted as the writer's writer and it is remarked more than once that what he lacked as a sympathetic editor.
DeleteYou are so obviously a, it has to be said, uncritical 'Papa' fanboy, there would seem to be little point in responding. But he was at best a middling writer and all too often rather bad. Snows, Macomber, Fathers and Sons I'll conceded. But even A Clean Well-Lighted Place is in some way so-so and nothing earth-shattering except if you believe in the bollocks by Gabriel that it is some kind of 'existentialist' piece. Sorry, but we'll have to agree to disagree. I trust my own judgment and 'Papa' does not emerge well out of it.
I don't know if you are in such a minority. I find the novels to be disappointing compared to the short stories. For Whom the Bell Tolls I found unreadable. But, it seems to me just on the strength of In Our Time that Hemingway displays a remarkable literary genius. He blossomed early, but in an unforgettable manner.
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