Ok. I am anxious to hear thoughts of those watching it.

My immediate thoughts are these.

Archival stuff is ok.

Of all the contemporary interviews I think so far Pat Hemingway has the most to offer. (Duh!).

But for most of the others, I see they have lined up the usual Marxist for comments. I cant stomach that Tobias Wolff dude. I realize it would be too much to ask to have an actual hunting and fishing writer comment on Green Hills Of Africa.

Still trying to figure out the John McCain angle??? Weird???

But I will finish the series.

I've been watching it and enjoying it.

To be honest, I knew very little about Hemingway...so it's been educational.

Ghost,

Like I said the archival narration I feel is pretty good.

With Burns, you're gonna get some leftism. I knew that going in.

Me too!

Novelist Ernest Hemingway on the Colt Woodsman:

The rifle and the pistol are still the equalizer when one man is more of a man than another, and if…he is really smart…he will get a permit to carry one and then drop around to Abercrombie and Fitch and buy himself a .22 caliber Colt automatic pistol,Woodsman model, with a five-inch barrel and a box of shells. I advise him to get lubricated hollow points to avoid jams and to ensure a nice expansion on the bullet. He might even get several boxes and practice a little…

Now standing in one corner of a boxing ring with a .22 caliber Colt automatic pistol, shooting a bullet weighing only 40 grains and with a striking energy of 51 foot pounds at 25 feet from the muzzle, I will guarantee to kill either [boxer] Gene [Tunney] or Joe Louis before they get to me from the opposite corner. This is the smallest caliber pistol cartridge made; but it is also one of the most accurate and easy to hit with, since the pistol has no recoil. I have killed many horses with it, cripples and bear baits, with a single shot, and what will kill a horse will kill a man. I have hit six dueling silhouettes in the head with it at regulation distance in five seconds. It was this type of pistol that Millen boys’ colleague, Abe Faber, did all his killings with. Yet this same pistol bullet fired at point blank range will not dent a grizzly’s skull, and to shoot a grizzly with a .22 caliber pistol would simply be one way of committing suicide.[1]

I remember the first time I read "Indian Camp".

I just got yet another demerit on the S&W forum for calling Ken Burns a commie.

I don't know how many more demerits I have before I get banned. Lol.

Fuqk anything to do with Burns...Anti gun Ahole

“Hemingway: High on the Wild” is an excellent book.

When that Wolff prick made his comment on hunting I could just see him getting slapped up side his head with a copy of Green Hills.

I knew what to expect since it was Burns and PBS. Interesting so far. Didn't understand why McCain was in it and it did irritate me enough I cursed.

Those things aside it is interesting. I like the photos of all those places and those times. I have read the Nick Adams stuff and probably like Big Two Hearted River as much as any story. Read a couple of his books and like his short sentences and the mental images. I will watch it tonight. It irritated me that they blocked out the N word in that one text photo. Hiding what was written is just stupid. He wrote that at a time when it was said a lot and by a lot of people.

I did go online and read a couple of his short stories after the program was over. Made me think about Cuba before Castro. Stumbled on some FBI letters at one site regarding Ernest and read them for a time. If nothing else this program will probably give me some things to read this year.

I taped it last night. Looking forward to enjoying it.

Has Burns led into his usual liberal whining racist BS?

My god its so horrible. The takes on his life and lifestyle from that awfully horrid bunch of nit pickers they assembled are simply wretched. Ugh. I don't think I can finish it. The best writer of the 20th century and they can find so little good about him to say.

Well when they showed the work with all the blacked out N words it was immediately followed up with commentary by some black homogay writer of whom I was unfamiliar.

Hemingway was a Commie, so why not have Commies talking about him?

Hemmingway was a rat bastard for fighting for the Commies in the Spanish Civil War.

I was impressed that the one modern writers interviewed said he learned to wing shoot reading Hemingway! That floored me!!! Wow!

Last episode tonight. I'll watch it again, but it's more or less ruining my appreciation of the man. As an English major in college, my profs adored him, which ought to come as no surprise, and he did indeed change the way novels are written forever. I see EH through his books, and what I see is a master of language. Let that be.

Apparently he was more effective with a shotgun.

For Whom the Bell Tolls. A great novel.

Ya know, I think it's easy to plunder a man after he's gone. I would like to remember him as a great writer and a "man's man". He stated unequivocally that he could never be a Commie because he loves his liberty. powdr

Is that femmy Ken Burns gay?

Winning answer:

No skilled homo filmmaker would bother to put out the boring tripe which Burns does.

Pretty much this. The WAY he writes is so simple. Very little use of any extraneous words - every word has meaning. Truly a Master of the written word.

I don't really care about his 4 wives, his mental health issues, his son being a tranny or any of that other stuff. He lived, he died, and what remains are the words he left us. And I reiterate RR's observation above...let that be.

I was surprised to hear Hem did not report things at the time and with held news because his career would be dead because of the libs in NY. He was always a liberal, commie. Hanging with Castro, etc.

Also that he lied so much to embellish his stories about himself.

Well said. Agree 100%.

This observation reminds me of an excellent writer/teacher I new up in NM - one of his instructive pieces is named "Make Every Word Tell".

Burns is a commie prick, and distorts fact and history

I watched the last one tonight. I thought it was good, the alcoholism really ravaged his brain.

I watched one segment, and was slightly surprised to rediscover why I never cared for Hem nor for most of his writing. He was a self centered narcissist and he wrote about people in his circle. Too often he wrote it in a boring, predictable style. When I read his stuff I feel like he is trying so hard to write it his way that I become conscious of the writer, which gets in the way of the story. It ain’t my thang, but I can understand why many like it. I don’t care to slog through Tolstoy either, for kind of the opposite style reason.

Enjoyed reading all these comments! Thanks!!

Much ignorance displayed by the helpless and hopeless. (Is that direct and pithy enough?)

Yes, not only one my favorite books, but one of my favorite movies as well.

Hemingway is in his books, he's all over them.
Burns does sleepy very well. The Civil War was many things to many people. Burns, apparently, found it quite boring so that's how he painted it.

Burns is liberal trash. Worse than a waste of time.

For the win...

I have found it interesting and just began reading A Farewell To Arms.

I'm looking forward to the series! Have not seen yet.

EH was more than a master of language, he was a master of effect. He chose each word with intent, and aimed each sentence with utter discipline. In any of his works, using less words or lesser words is impossible. I don't think The Old Man And The Sea will ever be equalled.

Along with all the head injuries; great egotistical, self-centered, selfish writer with a very sad & dark life with a terrible ending at age 61.

From some of the film, you'd have thought he was 85 or so.

Burns is a big time fake azzhole, IMO, who badly skews things to his own ends.

MM

I will never hear Bach again, without also thinking of EH.

And my favorite fugue. 😊

That comment about the discipline of his writing is very insightful, and many would agree with your opinion about The Old Man And The Sea. The guy pursued a quest to experience such a range of potential aspects in human life - much more broad and also detailed than most folks attempt - and those experiences seemed to be the root stimulus of his wordsmithing. Some creative people strive to live as if they are far beyond "normal" boundaries. His careless, hurtful and destructive excesses are well known - beyond what most would deem worthy or wise - and the life thread played out as many would expect. That may be why some of us are discussing him now.

Bob, your post prompts curiosity, among other things. So, upon hearing which Bach works (one would assume J.S.) and, more so, which fugue?

My Pa was my English and literature teacher, and my principal through 9th grade. He loved literature and even as a devout Christian he praised the writing style of Hemingway and I read most of his books as a young man. I gained a love for reading at a young age and am thankful for that. I have always been saddened by the lifestyles and the untimely demise of so many . I appreciated the amount of research that Burns did in some of his early stuff years ago , but these past many years his incessant need to pander to the left has me scratching my head . His work would be timeless if he would just leave out the leftist politics!

Burns is talented - also an ideologue and an opportunist. He is given opportunities to emphasize his ideology - those who buy/consume his work do this.

Yes JS. But a fan of CPE too! My fav fugue in the little fugue in G minor.

When I was 10 years old I read THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.
When I was 40 years old I read the book to my kids.

It seemed like two different books.
As a kid it was a fishing trip.
As an adult is seems to be about the old man screwing up because he focuses on the wrong things.

He just went out too far. 😉

EH was of course a very powerful personality and extremely talented and creative storyteller who was able to live a very, very interesting life he wanted. However, as influential as he was, I can't stand his creations. As noted by Okangan, his narcissism leaks through his words. I stated in a thread in the "Africa" forum, to compare Ruark and Hemingway,,,,Hemingway would spend 3 chapters describing a hardship on the way to the hunting grounds, and to Ruark the same incident would be a footnote. EH uses the situation to define the man, but Ruark uses the character of the man to define the situation.

Best writer of the 20th? nah. Choose among Steinbeck, Welles, Orwell, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Faulkner. The biggest reason EH is so regarded in this community is because he wrote about topics we like, hunting. But Hemingway was as much a 'brand' as the books he wrote.

We've only seen the first two. Don't like Ken Burns but so far seems overall pretty well done with good photography.

Interesting story about Hemingway by Billy Herman the Brooklyn Dodger third baseman during the 40s in "Baseball When The Grass Was Real", Donald Honig.

In 1942 the Dodgers had spring training in Havana, Cuba. Hemingway invited four of the players to his gun club where they had some drinks and later to his house for more drinks. He said Hemingway was a great host until late in the evening when they had all had a lot to drink. Hemingway brought out some boxing gloves and challenged Hugh Casey a Dodger pitcher "a very quiet man" to a boxing match. Hemingway put on the gloves, handed Casey a set of gloves and sucker punched Casey as he started to put the gloves on knocking him down. Casey didn't say anything, got up, finished putting the gloves on and pretty much kicked Hemingway's ass knocking him down over and over until Hemingway kicked him in the balls and they stopped the fight. As they were preparing to leave Hemingway told Casey to stay over and challenged him to a duel with guns, knives or whatever. Casey refused and they left.

The next day Hemingway's wife brought him to the Dodgers training facility and he apologized for what had happened.

Sucker punched while he was putting his gloves on? If this is true then Ernest was a real punk.

Not the only story of drink bringing out the worst in a man.

Wish I had noticed this thread a few days back so I could check our TV for when it was showing. Oh well, it's PBS, it'll be on again. Probably to raise money.