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The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Angst, Authorship, Critics: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Crack-Up,” Advertisements for Myself: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Angst, Authorship, Critics: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Crack-Up,” Advertisements for Myself (view source)
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archetypal nature of so many settings in Hemingway’s work.<sup>9</sup> We might think | archetypal nature of so many settings in Hemingway’s work.<sup>9</sup> We might think | ||
about the complex relationship between inner and outer landscapes, remembering Mailer’s poignant description of Hemingway, that his “inner landscape was a nightmare” {{sfn|Sipiora|2013|pp=170}}.<sup>10</sup> Maybe it was. It needs to be said, however, that whenever we encounter landscape, it is always as pictured through our senses, as refracted through our own perspective, as recreated from our own memories. | about the complex relationship between inner and outer landscapes, remembering Mailer’s poignant description of Hemingway, that his “inner landscape was a nightmare” {{sfn|Sipiora|2013|pp=170}}.<sup>10</sup> Maybe it was. It needs to be said, however, that whenever we encounter landscape, it is always as pictured through our senses, as refracted through our own perspective, as recreated from our own memories. | ||
So Kennedy writes of Harry’s | |||
So Kennedy writes of Harry’s “topographical visions” in “Snows.” These | |||
are a series of five vignettes, printed in italic type, describing places, people, | |||
events, sensory impressions, hints and allusions that represent “what might | |||
have been.”They do not yet exist as stories, as developed plots and narratives. | |||
They are merely the possibility of a story. They exist only in Harry’s fevered | |||
imagination—they are the thoughts of a dying man. Containing the raw | |||
material for a dozen stories, all remain unwritten. | |||
In other words, returning to Harding’s term, these five vignettes printed | |||
in italics are counterfactuals, one of three different sets in this story. But even | |||
the non-italic sections—the bitter arguments between Harry and Helen— | |||
also, deal with “what might have been.” Harry wonders—if I had taken better care of the initial wound, this would not have happened. But it did | |||
happen. Helen reasons—if we had never come to Africa, this death-wound | |||
would not have happened. But it did happen. Hemingway’s story is full of | |||
such counterfactuals. Indeed, it is as if Hemingway has written the whole | |||
story in the subjunctive mood, written with an excess of content, with dozens | |||
of potential stories yet to be told. As told by the normally minimalist Hemingway, this “excess of content” seems unusual—at the very least. | |||
What of the story’s end? We discover that the subjunctive mood extends to | |||
the final act—and to the two endings. In the first ending, Harry is rescu | |||
. . . | . . . | ||