The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemmingway

-
This novella portrays the struggle of an old fisherman, who has had a grim luck lasting 84 days before he makes a prize catch of a giant marlin. The struggle to land the fish spans three days and two nights. I was glad that the old man survived the ordeal; otherwise, the cover picture of a dark sea broken in storm portends sadness for the reader.

But, the protagonist's living triumph does not make me a fan of the book. It did not appeal to me the way it has besotted the imagination of some of the raving reviewers. A colleague swore by its appeal on Thursday last; I couldn’t get started that evening. Friday evening set me on the course. Saturday night I laid the book to rest. Lesson learnt: To factor in my wife’s opinion about a book. I bought her this novella considering the short flights she took at reading. The book bored her to death. She must be heartbroken herself for having given up too early. She amply made up for her stasis by reading up two other classics.

Literary techniques are like surgical incisions that fasten symbolism and meaning in the body of the work. The stitches must dissolve in time without leaving a scar. The technique must subserve the narration. If the technique is laid over-bare, the outcome may appeal but only to those readers whose appreciation of literature is appreciation of technique. Hemmingway fans contend that a strong symbolism is the book’s scoring point. It depicts at once man’s struggle and oneness with nature. The story is deficient not in the idealism it trundles upon, but it is brought home not the way I expected it to.

The book is a monument of Hemmingway's admiration for a Cuban fisherman. He has made a virtue of fishing and put some kindred words into the fisherman's mouth while he addresses the fish, the bird, the sun and the sea. Old age brings in the element of sympathy and senility. The mumbo jumbo of the struggling fisherman is supposedly the glint of revelation. Maybe, imploring the heavens for assistance betokens surrender. How? Don't aske me. It is symbolic.

And, if the old man’s soliloquy is that notorious stream-of-consciousness, the stream is clearer than Joyce’. I am comfortable with omniscience working from outside. Hemmingway that way is readable. Also, his prose is vivid, fluid, and centered. It makes you frown when the sun is shining brightly on the white sand and makes your saliva taste brine when the marlin lashes up water from its scythe-like tail. Whatever unperceived claim the book has on the minds of the people, it must be the story-telling quality of its prose. Unfortunately, here, a story is being told when it does not exist.

My rating: 5/10

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fatal One-liners

-
In this age of self-help books and personality development courses, certain one-liners have played havoc in the contented lives of the masses. These one-liners are sustenance unto millions who suffer from lack of self-worth. They are charged, as it were, with divine potency, making the repetitioner of them surmount incompetency. "Believe in yourself", "You have it in you", "You can do it" and many more such tug at the human gullibility for self-belief. You will agree with me when you see girls of all sizes and shapes flocking to air hostess training institutes. Girls, regardless of their vital statistics, seek admission into these institutes on the strength of that woeful one-liner, "Believe in yourself." And, none of these girls wants to work for a domestic airline. They want to be on the aircrew of either Kingfisher or Lufthansa or some renowned international airlines. Hats off to the counsellors who convince these girls into dreaming such s
Read more

To ChatGPT, or Not to ChatGPT

-
The other day, my YouTube listing featured a video on novel-writing using ChatGPT. I did not bother to watch it. I like to keep certain aspects of my naivety intact. Now, Khan Academy plans to deploy ChatGPT-powered tutors to replace human tutors. That was another trigger to bemoan the oncoming demise of the teaching profession on social media. The profession enjoyed an imagined immunity from digitization. It was touted as the most in-person thing, after mothering and nursing, that children cannot do without. Although COVID lockdown came very close to dismantling that notion, the ineffectiveness of online instruction was evident to all participants including parents. But, online learning is not an instance of AI. AI was involved only so far as to cut out a father walking into the camera with only a towel hanging by the waist. Before children realized the usefulness of background blur feature, they had pried into the homes of their classmates sometimes allowing that voyeuristic pleasure
Read more

My Atheism

-
In my eagerness to commit to writing my conversion to atheism, I was missing the tiny wick of the lamp on the altar. The eagerness is not without a tinge of melancholy. Compared to the time I spent tending to my faith, my lapse from faith is very recent. I still hear the creak of that door shutting behind me. People ask what happened. I am at a loss to explain. Therefore, this blogpost. The idea of God always attracted me. He was a figure with whom I often conversed. While my trust in people always diminished on re-evaluation, God always grew in my re-assessment of Him. Troubles intensified my prayers, happiness made me grateful: Faith met no challenge whatsoever. I relished believing in an invisible Being. My reason became the handmaid of faith. Reason argued, “Faith cannot be rationalized; it is prior to reason. There is a reason why it is called faith, in the first place.” God had an unquestionable hold on me. Of course, if God is prayed to as a benefactor and arbiter, that belief c
Read more