(For Warner,
who loves Papa Hemingway)
He drank espresso and chatted with me
about his trips to Havana and some big fish he caught there. I asked him if I could pick his brain about writing. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes. Then, after a grin that spread a salt and peppered beard he said,
"Could you make me a mojito?"
I scratched my head and said, "Is that all it would take?" I never made one of those before..."Mami!"
And then, after some finagling...
"So Mr. Hemingway, what would you tell a beginning writer? What's the big, big rule?"
"There's no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."
"Oh, me. Writing sounds...."
"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."
"Oh, no. Don't know if...."
"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best, simplest way. A writer must write what he needs to say, not speak it."
"Well, Mr. Hemingway, I know you're the authority on that. But, how about those characters you create? How did...?"
"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature."
"Well, Mr. Hemingway, I'm speechless. Extraordinary this conversation. Unreal!"
"How about more cafecito then. Call your Mama."
"Mami, Mr. Hemingway wants more cafe!"
"Aqui, aqui, we'll make it. Anything Mr. Heminguay want we give. Mi casa es su casa!"
* The above was formulated after finding quotes of Ernest Hemingway about writing. What he speaks in this dialogue about writing are his exact words. Rather than to share in a list some of Hemingway's wise words about writing I've attempted to communicate them in a different way.
So, what about Hemingway's writings inspires you the most? And, if you could sit at a porch like the one above and speak to him, what would you have said? What would you have asked him about writing or about his life?
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