MISS CONSTRUED

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Conversations with a Hypoxic Dog began on May 1 of this year. On Thursday, November 6, a new format will be launched. Words and Language and other Nonsense will remain the focus; but a bit of History will be added.

Miss Construed

Historically, words misconstrued have created a great deal of mischief. In 1977, Jimmy Carter, then newly elected President, fell victim to inept translations. He said that he was happy to be in Poland; the translator rendered this as "... he was happy to grasp at Poland's private parts." Carter suffered several such incidents and became, literally, a Polish Joke.

Each week Miss Construed will visit CwHD with examples of and insights into word gaffs. How curious to think that an Italian astronomer's use of the 'canali' in his 1877 description of the Martian surface would lead to Orson Welles' classic 1938 radio broadcast 'The War of the Worlds'. Adapted from the novel by H.G. Wells, the broadcast caused a good deal of panic as a sizable number of citizens throughout the country thought they were listening to an actual news broadcast.

War of the Worlds Headline (linked to broadcast)

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History also has its part to play in the ongoing travelogue, "A Brief History Of The Columbia River.' Travel literature is an old and respected genre. A Greek named Pausanias who lived some 2000 years ago is often mentioned as one of the earliest travel memoirest; but examples of the genre are fairly common in both Arabic and Chinese literature.

In 1336, Petrarch's climb on Mt Ventoux in France is often noted as the first mention of traveling simply for the sake of enjoyment. Petrarch wrote that he climbed Ventoux just for the pleasure of seeing the view from its famous height. In the 17th century, Japanese poet Bashō undertook several journeys for no other purpose than to visit friends and famous sites. His The Narrow Road To The Deep North is the definitive work of poetic prose.

By the 19th century, young English travelers had created the concept of The Grand Tour. Before a career could begin, one must travel to broaden one's horizons. Often a written account followed. This literature of tourism was pioneered by Robert Louis Stevenson. His An Inland Voyage (1878) and Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) are among the first books to suggest that camping might be an acceptable recreation.

These tales of bold journeys by mere tourists help to popularize the narratives of more daunting exploration. Cook's voyages, Byrd's attempt on the South Pole, Lindbergh's flight all became required reading. Darwin's account of his voyage in the Beagle has a far greater readership than his more important On The Origin of Species. And The Journals of Lewis and Clark are widely read and studied for their first glimpse of the Pacific Northwest despite the errant spelling, capitalization, and syntax. H. W. Tilman's climbing in the Himalaya in the 1930s and his subsequent sails to high latitudes in the 1950s provided the grist for many such tales. And it was Tilman's understated style that became the model for most of the writers who followed.

Exploration, whether physical, intellectual or spiritual, seems hard-wired into the psyche of homo sapiens. A need there is to go to terra incognito and then write an account. Sailor Webb Chiles has written:

People who know of me at all probably do so as a sailor; but I have always thought of myself as an artist, and I believe that the artist's defining responsibility is to go to the edge of human experience and send back reports.¹

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1Webb Chiles, Introduction to weblog www.inthepresentsea.com

KNOW THYSELF

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This edition of CwHD continues my series of observations on writers and how character, or the lack of same, stamps its mark on their literary style. As I observed earlier, how one lives colors every aspect of what one does. The old computer science dictum still applies: garbage in equals garbage out.

KNOW THYSELF

This pre-Socratic momento mori was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Socrates later expanded the idea and his thought became: The unexamined life is not worth living ( Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν).

mosaic from Roman excavations

Hemingway's protagonist in For Whom The Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan, struggles with a more salient momento mori as he sits on a Spanish hillside, mortally wounded, waiting for the soldiers to come. He thinks suicide may be an option; but decides against this option for there was "... still something you can do yet." Written in 1939, Hemingway himself still had something he could do. By the late 50s, his options were gone; and the shotgun beckoned.

As I mentioned last week, the man's life style went counter to his writing style. How he wrote---simply, incisively, with an understated elegance---was not how he lived. His life seemed to be one futile attempt to be the characters he created in his fiction. He knew his creations; but he did not understand himself.

This conflict between creation and character and the abusive lifestyle that followed led to a breakdown of his abilities and ultimately his death. His life became complicated, his thinking muddied, and his actions predictably angry and destructive.

Heminway, Cuba

Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard's Almanack wrote: There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to know one's self. Need something to do? Have a good long look in the mirror.

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PAPA HEMINGWAY

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This edition of CwHD continues my series of observations on writers and how character, or the lack of same, stamps its mark on their literary style. As I observed earlier, how one lives colors every aspect of what one does. The old computer science dictum still applies: garbage in equals garbage out.

Ernest Hemingway went to Europe as a young man during the First World War, driving an ambulance in Italy. He had worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star, and later said that the Star's style sheet was "the best rules I ever learned in the business of writing."¹ The opening paragraph of the style sheet begins:

Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.

He finished his war in a Milan hospital, returned to Illinois, but was soon back in Paris, determined to forge a career as a writer. 40 years on, in Ketchum, Idaho, he took his own life with a shotgun blast. Hemingway was 61 years old.

Hemingway 1927

His writing style was understated, economical; and his work became a major influence on 20th century fiction. He wrote a dozen or so excellent short stories ("Big Two-Hearted River"), and what was once the definitive book on bullfighting (Death In The Afternoon). Three good novels added to his reputation; and one book, The Old Man And The Sea, is as good as a piece of writing can be. In 1954, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Curiously, the man's lifestyle went counter to his writing style. His adventurous life---shooting big game on safari in Africa, fishing the Gulf Stream for marlin, the bullfight, his escapades during WWII, his four marriages, becoming 'Papa'---was just as influential as his writing.

One of his credo's was this: Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.

Hemingway Ketchum

In For Whom The Bell Tolls, a novel set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, Hemingway's protagonist (and alter ego), Robert Jordan, lay beside a tree looking downslope waiting for the soldiers to find him. Shot in the leg, dying, he had decided to stay behind and let his band of rebels escape:

His leg was hurting very badly now ... You're not so good at this, Jordan, he said. Not so good at this. And who is so good at this? I don't know and I don't really care right now. But you are not. That's right. You're not at all. I think it would be all right to do it now? Don't you?

No, it isn't. Because there is something you can do yet ... As long as you remeber what it is you have to wait for that. Come on. Let them come. Let them come! Let them come!²

Next week I'll continue with Papa Hemingway.

1 Kansas City Star Copy Style PDF, www.kansascity.com

2Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls (Scribner's and Sons, New York, 1943). p470

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THINKING ERRORS

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At one end of a spectrum, let me posit a 16th century Japanese sword master. At the opposite end of this spectrum stands a 13 year old American male middle school student. The first fellow is trained in martial arts and steeped in Zen Buddhism. The second is an indifferent student who plans on playing in the NFL. The sword master manages his thoughts and emotions to perfection; the boy does not.

Learning how to think and behave is the single most important task that our species has before them. Our myriad thoughts and many emotions often become a thicket from which we rarely escape unscathed. Understanding a problem begins the process of solving the problem.

Despite many long lists of various errors we commit while attempting to negotiate life's little byways, all can be placed in one of five categories:

Generalizing: I'm so bad at math (so why bother with the subject)

Fantasizing: I'm going to play in the NFL (so I don't have to study)

Rationalizing: it's only a little dent (so I don't have to be concerned)

Minimizing: NBA rules, no blood, no foul (so why make a big deal out of nothing)

Maximizing: the sky is falling (so who cares)

All of the above types of thinking errors involve deceiving another person. Deception, according to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) seems to be innate. It is what all organisms do to survive. Deceiving ourselves, on the other hand, seems to be uniquely human.

Awareness helps us to steer clear of the thinking pitfalls. Not fooling ourselves is a necessary first step. Learning mathematics might be the best way to learn how to think clearly. As I have pointed out previously, 2 + 2 is always 4. Math might be as near as we can get to clarity.

One might try Zen meditation to clear one's mind, but most people are too far removed from the essence of this philosophy to make that practical. Besides, math teachers are much easier to find than Zen masters.

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STYLE, LIES, AND OTHER CONUNDRUMS

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STYLE, LIES, AND OTHER CONUNDRUMS

Two weeks ago, I began a series of observations on writers and how character, or the lack of same, stamps its mark on their work. I defined style, in this context, as the way a writer used grammar, syntax, and vocabulary to embellish or compress his work to fit a specific context, purpose, or audience.

A useful exercise is to consider style in a different context, using images of two cars and a truck. All are from 1959. Eisenhower was president. Hawaii became a state. Gigi won nine Oscars including best picture. I chose that distant year to give some separation from the reality of now, and to give your imagination more room to play.

Consider the following three images. Who are the drivers you see behind the wheel of these vehicles?

With your drivers clear in your mind's eye, use your mind's nose to smell a rat. All images lie, and moving images lie absolutely. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Not in my book. Words do not stimulate the imagination as do photographs or video. Words are just symbolic representations of actions, ideas, people, places, and things. They are one step removed from the reality they represent.

Images, on the other hand, put us in the driver's seat. Thinking errors do the rest. Questions of style can be answered superficially with general responses. Tall, short, quick, slow: descriptors of that ilk. Or, as I did with Tilman in the previous editions of CwHD, one can probe a little deeper.

Before I move on to the character of Ernest Hemingway, I want to consider those errors we commonly make when trying to think our way out of a closet.

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