Rad note » this entry originated from another page. It was moved here because the subject drifted far enough to warrant its own, separate page, which lets me focus on and reference more easily the concepts under discussion here.
At the end of this entry (that you're reading now) I have included a link that will return you to the exact place from where this entry originated. Here ya go ...
» Reading Colors Writing (Influences)
You might expect with Joseph Frank, after having spent so much time reading after Dostoevsky, that HIS OWN writing might take on the characteristics of Dostoevsky, no?
I mean, how could he not? [ not be influenced ]
I know with myself, how I catch myself adapting (subconsciously) my style to that of the author/writer who I am currently reading. So I cant imagine Joseph Frank, or anyone else, for that matter .. being any different.
And right off the bat, I noticed how Joseph Frank's writing reminds me of Dostoevsky's .. in that both men » take you quickly into the story, deeply.
Hemingway starts you off in the middle of the action, so to speak ..
.. but that does not necessarily mean that he takes you deep right away.
Joseph Frank takes you right into the meat of Dostoevsky's world.
» Time Travel Using the Imagination
I feel as tho I am somehow being transported back thru the decades and centuries .. and across continents .. to another land in another time.
With different cultures and different traditions and different moral and social norms. Very interesting.
This is all the stuff I really like .. cuz it takes you there so completely.
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Notice how Joseph Frank seems to suggest at this time travel in the byline subtitle » A Writer in His Time.
And there is also the sense that it was » the time (nineteenth century) .. that made Dostoevsky who he was. The time & the place.
But really, who does this not apply to? We are all products of our environments and of our century.
[ You and I are lead-off hitters for the Third Millenium. (So try not to fuck it up.) ]
I can feel myself reacting to the new information .. processing it, absorbing it, assimilating it. It's taking me longer than I'd anticipated .. to establish my nineteenth century bearings. But the trip thus far has been very enriching .. more so than I had expected.
» Hemingway Carries the Treasured Gift of the Russian Writers to Alpine Austria
It made me think of what Hemingway himself wrote about the nineteenth century Russian writers .. sort of like paying a tribute to them.
See if you agree that this is a Hemingway tribute (taken from Moveable Feast, the audio-book is great) »
» To have come on all this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were ..
.. was like having a GREAT TREASURE GIVEN TO YOU. You could TAKE YOUR TREASURE WITH YOU when you traveled too ..
.. and in the mountains where we lived in Switzerland and Italy, until we found Schruns in the high valley in the Vorarlberg in Austria ..
.. there were always the books, so that you lived in the new world that you had found ..
.. the snow and the forests and the glaciers and their winter problems and your high shelter in the Hotel Taube in the village in the day time ..
.. and at night you could live in the other wonderful world the Russian writers were GIVING YOU.
At first there were the Russians; then there were all the others. But for a long time there were the Russians.
Anyway, like I was saying about Joseph Frank's bio of Dostoevsky before Hemingway distracted me » I was expecting a lot from this biography. And rarely are such high expectations exceeded.
(It would be like if a new Bourne movie came out with Matt Damon .. the expectations would be so high.)
It can be difficult to live up to such lofty expectations. Not to mention dealing with the pressure caused by such impossible expectations.
» The Writer Living in Mountain Villages & Hiking the Trails Nearby
Anyway, when I saw this photos here .. the one of the Austrian village at dusk .. that I use as a representative graphic for Hemingway's passage .. where he describes what the Russian novels meant to him there ..
.. makes me think of the time I spent skiing at Grande Targhee (in Wyoming) .. with all those people. All those cool, fun people. Where it snowed every night.
Such good memories. Of being in the mountains in winter. With the icy mountain air. Where you can see your breath. At an altitude where two beers puts you on your ass.
I only spent 3 or 4 days there. Hemingway spent the whole freaking winter. I spent a week at Aspen with bro, and a week at Telluride with the Jersey girl and with pops and his new wife. (tho they didnt ski.)
I feel that it was Hemingway's time skiing in the mountains of Austria .. that helped give him what he needed, both physically and emotionally .. to become the writing stud that he is. That he became.
I am talking about the days before ski-lifts .. where you had to first haul your ass up to the top .. before you could ski down. That will get your fat ass in shape in a hurry, dawg. Your legs will be talking to you tonight.
Being physically fit and getting plenty of oxygen to your brain .. these are important things for the writer. Because the writer needs stamina in order to write. Staying power. For focus. For concentration. For imagination.
Charles Dickens is another writer who would hike (walk) up to 20 miles in a single day .. which I find hard to believe.
I dont think that Hemingway would have been the stud he is without the time he spent in the mountains .. the physically vigorous time.
Boy, I am soo getting off on a tangent here.
The end. ■
The next entry continues this theme of writers in the mountains .. see here » Professor Nietzsche Quits His Day-Job to » Hike the Swiss Alps Every Summer (March 19, 2015).
You can return to the exact spot from where this entry originated .. see » here.
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