Tuesday, October 18, 2005
What a Day for a Daydream!
So there Monz is, sitting in the back of the CLE lecture hall, watching a videotape presentation about guardianship and probate. What's this? He's seen this seminar before! Lunchtime comes and Monz goes, because lunch ain't included in this cheap (by CLE standards) $130 seminar. Hop into the car, search near and far (well, near), and wind up at a Subway for a footlong roast beef on honey oat bread with spicy mustard.
Those who know Monz know that no Monz Book Festival could fail to include "Ern." Indeed, as a lad, Monz would give mad props to Papa Hemingway in stuttering fashion ("Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!"). Monz appreciated the writing, the zest for life, and the mocking of enemies. For example, consider his legendary feud with Gertrude Stein. Hemingway would write obvious parodies like "All that in Paris. Ah, Paris! How far it was to Paris now. Paris in the morning. Paris in the evening. Paris at night. Paris in the morning again. Paris at noon, perhaps. Why not?" or (in "For Whom the Bell Tolls) "an onion is an onion is an onion." Hemingway wrote friend Ezra Pound that he was out to expose "all the fakes of Anderson, Gertrude, Lewis, Cather...and all the rest of the pretentious faking [sic] bastards...I don't see how Sherwood will ever be able to write again. Stuff like Gertrude isn't even worth the bother to show up. It's easier simply to quote from it." Ironically, outside of penning "a rose is a rose is a rose" and "I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich," Stein is best known by some for a response to Hemingway: waving a hankerchief in front of her dog and urging it to "Play Hemingway. Be fierce."
However, the editors' favorite description of Hemingway comes from another writer of the day, a writer near if not-overly-dear to Monz' heart: John Dos Passos. One day "Dos" was listening to Hemingway as he mocked Sherwood Anderson. Dos tried to talk him out of it. Hemingway ignored him. "He had a distracting way of suddenly beginning to hum while he was talking to you."
So there Monz is, sitting in the back of the CLE lecture hall, watching a videotape presentation about guardianship and probate. What's this? He's seen this seminar before! Lunchtime comes and Monz goes, because lunch ain't included in this cheap (by CLE standards) $130 seminar. Hop into the car, search near and far (well, near), and wind up at a Subway for a footlong roast beef on honey oat bread with spicy mustard.
Those who know Monz know that no Monz Book Festival could fail to include "Ern." Indeed, as a lad, Monz would give mad props to Papa Hemingway in stuttering fashion ("Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!Ern!"). Monz appreciated the writing, the zest for life, and the mocking of enemies. For example, consider his legendary feud with Gertrude Stein. Hemingway would write obvious parodies like "All that in Paris. Ah, Paris! How far it was to Paris now. Paris in the morning. Paris in the evening. Paris at night. Paris in the morning again. Paris at noon, perhaps. Why not?" or (in "For Whom the Bell Tolls) "an onion is an onion is an onion." Hemingway wrote friend Ezra Pound that he was out to expose "all the fakes of Anderson, Gertrude, Lewis, Cather...and all the rest of the pretentious faking [sic] bastards...I don't see how Sherwood will ever be able to write again. Stuff like Gertrude isn't even worth the bother to show up. It's easier simply to quote from it." Ironically, outside of penning "a rose is a rose is a rose" and "I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich," Stein is best known by some for a response to Hemingway: waving a hankerchief in front of her dog and urging it to "Play Hemingway. Be fierce."
However, the editors' favorite description of Hemingway comes from another writer of the day, a writer near if not-overly-dear to Monz' heart: John Dos Passos. One day "Dos" was listening to Hemingway as he mocked Sherwood Anderson. Dos tried to talk him out of it. Hemingway ignored him. "He had a distracting way of suddenly beginning to hum while he was talking to you."
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