As I prepare for my trip to Spain later this month, where I will witness my first bull fight, it only makes sense that I read and refer to this book -- considered the signature work on explaining bull fighting to non-Spanish people like me. Even if I did not care a whit about the author, I would feel compelled to read his book before attending my first bull fight. This is the book on how to become an aficionado.
If you do no not understand anything else about EH understand this -- the man loved to fish and he loved the Bull Fights.
It is true that these subjects -- fishing and bull fighting -- comprise together the biggest image of Hemingway that most people have when you hear his name. However, that is because they are two subjects that fascinated him all of his professional life.
This book is non-fiction, written in the 1930s, and he uses "The Old Lady" as someone who interrupts him often with questions that perhaps the reader is posing (and sometimes we are). I like these parts of the book. My favorite thing about it though is that we get to hear Hem in his own intimate way discussing many things: his experience in the war and the carnage he witnessed; his first bull fight and reaction; his views on writing; his views on the Fiesta at Pamplona and the huge growth in tourists to the event after the publication of "A Sun Also Rises" -- which was his first critically acclaimed success. He said Madrid, not Pamplona (with "a "drunken, dancing, bull-running public" ) was the place to see your first bull fight.
I was glad to see that July and August were his preferred months to attend the bullfights. We will be there for the Fiesta in Pamplona and will also be in Barcelona and Madrid. In the middle somehow, we are going to see the 100th Anniversary of the Tour de France as well. Although Papa alludes to this famous race in "Also Rises" when he notices the bike racers in one of the towns, the real reason I am going is because I am a real Tour fan, never missing a year, and I am a bit of a Frankofyle who has never been to France (although I did fly over it...lol). We are going to stop at the Irati River where some of the fishing and story line takes place in the "Sun Also Rises" book.
Anyway,EH goes into great detail and labors over the most minute details to the reader describing the bull fight and -- most importantly -- what constitutes a good bull fighter. He explains every detail from beginning to end of the experience. He discusses past bull fighters of fame, and a few of infamy. All are dead today, and some were killed in the ring by the bulls. He discusses this in detail too.
He does not ignore the sensibilities of Americans regarding the animals and the animal abuse that occurs in this process. He takes it head on (I did not even know there was such a movement in the 1930s) and talks about how different people from different perspectives approach their first fight. I loved this part of the book. Bull fighting seems like a barbaric vestige of a barbaric past. Every year animal rights activists protest the brutality of killing the bulls in the afternoon bull fights by staging a "Running of the Nudes" two days before the fiesta in Pamplona.
In short, and somewhat predictably, the Bullfight has everything that fascinated EH: honor, courage, bravery (of both man and bull), style and grace under pressure, and -- the big one -- death itself. The Bullfight is one long artistic display of these attributes, ending in the death of the animal and with the risk of death to the human -- a risk that is too often realized. He loved the passion that was exhibited by the good Bullfighter fighting a noble and brave bull. He loved the tragedy of the ultimate futility of both man and bull when facing these questions of courage and grace and death.
Also, surprisingly, there is a lot in this book about the influences on his life and about his view of writing that is discussed in a non-fictional setting. It is the source of the "iceberg theory" that every creative writer has been taught. It is the source of his very detailed and gory description of the death on a battlefield that he experienced as an ambulance driver in WW I. I think it is apparent that this experience left a profound impact on the man and his subsequent life, writing and career.
The last half of the book is dedicated to photographs of what a good "veronica" is and what a good "death of the bull" looks like compared to the photos of what these things look like when they are done poorly by the bull or bullfighter. There are pictures of all the famous bullfighters and one picture of a dead matador. The last section is full of bullfighting vocabulary that for the novice to learn.
Fascinating, really. When I was a state senator, I co-sponsored the animal protection bill that was perhaps the first serious attempt in our state's history. It failed before it ever got to me in the senate. Later a different version did pass and become law. I also used to enjoy hunting, before injuring my shooting shoulder, and I grew up in the southern culture of guns. So I try not to judge this culture, which to many may seem like one of terrible animal cruelty and violence. I am trying to "walk a mile in their shoes" and understand how this so fascinates the Spanish people and, especially, one of our greatest writers. I will pass judgement later, after this experiment is over.
For now, I am enjoying the act of observing without judgement, and trying to understand the Bullfight.
In "Death in the Afternoon" Ernest Hemingway accomplished this for me, at least in a sort of textbook sense. As he would say, to get the real emotion and feel of this experience I must go there in person.
I am happy and so thrilled to report to you, my blog, that today I have finally booked my tickets... my son, father and I are headed to Spain.
Look for a future blog on this coming-up.... Spain here we come!
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