Tuesday, March 9, 2004

Posted by Qin Chan, 3/9/04 at 9:49:39 AM.

First, I must thank Bryan for his questions and comments on my posted 'suggested' thesis on my research paper.

I have been doing some reading up on the web and comments by critics about Hemingway's writing style. And the most talked about style of writing discussed and celebrated by readers is Hemingway's ability to be brief yet not losing the flavour or details of a robust version of a sentence or paragraph. Although he has many other literal writing styles, this particular one is greatly emphasized by other great writers of his time and talked about by critics and readers. Thus, I have decided to focus on this particular attribute of his writing style and gain a better understanding of it.

Bryan mentioned about the 'when' question being less inquisitive than using a 'why'. I wanted to use the 'when as a link to the 'why' question. I do not want to write a historical review of Hemingway's life as a writer(there is an abundance of it out there), but I will use the 'when' as a back drop to answer the 'why'. Giving a brief history and account of a person would give a better understanding to the reader when i try to talk about 'why' and 'what else'. I intend to talk about his early career as a reporter at kansas star, which cultivated that particular writing style in him, and slowly develop the paper to a 'why' did he continue to use the same writing style in his short stories and novels.

I believe there is still alot of refinement and changes i have to make in my thesis before a concerte one emerges. I have an excerpt from Hemingway which touches upon his 'theory of omission' and 'iceberg principle' I will post it up tonight or tomorrow's blog. I didnt know anything about these terms before i stumbled it upon a website which posed this question under its FAQ section. I looked at it and did some googling and found more of it from Hemingway himself. You can take a look at the question on the website. It is as follows:

What is Hemingway's theory of omission or "iceberg principle?"

In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway outlined his "theory of omission" or "iceberg principle."  He states:   "If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.  The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.   The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing."

http://www.lostgeneration.com/hemfaq.htm#why

 

I had my eyes on this 'concise' yet precise kind of writing style of Hemingway. But what i didnt know or just found out that there is actually a name for this style of writing, and he has talked about it too in his interviews. Will update you as my research on him continues.

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