User:JBawlson/sandbox: Difference between revisions

== Introduction to Influence and Philosophy ==

'''Norman Mailer once said he didn’t have the kind of talent that Ernest Hemingway had—the kind that could reach a nation'''. But his work reveals otherwise. Though Mailer often downplayed Hemingway’s influence, a deeper look shows just how profoundly Hemingway shaped Mailer’s philosophy of writing and life. Both authors didn’t just write; they wanted their words to disturb, to awaken, and to transform the reader’s understanding of life, death, and art.

For Hemingway, great writing meant telling “honestly the things I have found true” (Death in the Afternoon 2). Mailer echoed this ethos, writing “to the limit of one’s honesty” and even scraping off a little dishonesty to get to what he called a “point of purity” (“The Hazards and Sources of Writing” 399). For both authors, honesty wasn’t just a stylistic preference—it was a moral imperative.

Both authors saw literature as a weapon against cultural stagnation. Hemingway urged readers to break free from what they were taught to feel and create their own standards (Death 5, 10). Mailer put it succinctly: literature should “clarify a nation’s vision of itself” (Cannibals and Christians 98).

This is not a passive project. It’s revolutionary. Mailer’s brand of existentialism, infused with American grit and spirituality, aimed to shake readers into greater awareness. Hemingway did the same, albeit with a more stoic subtlety.

== The Disturbing as Artistic Duty ==