Is It Hazard A Writer Makes Money?

In his book, Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway wrote of his two-month safari in 1933. I'm reading his book as research for my next book, about a white hunter facing off a mystical creature summoned by a witch doctor to bring swift justice against those who no longer respect his magic.

I've read many books on the subject, of African safaris, and like many writers and readers I have been drawn to Hemingway largely due to his popularity. He's considered the greatest American writer, some say. I cannot disagree with him being one of the greatest known writers in America, and probably the world, but to bestow him, perhaps anyone, with such a title as the greatest writer would be an injustice.

In Green Hills of Africa he writes, 'Is is only by hazard that a writer makes money although good books always make money eventually. Then our writers when they have made some money increase their standard of living and they are caught. They have to write to keep up their establishments, their wives, and so on, and they write slop. It is slop not on purpose but because it is hurried. Because they write when there is nothing to say or no water in the well. Because they are ambitious. Then, once they have betrayed themselves, they justify it and you get more slop.'

Hemingway continued the paragraph how writers who believe critics when they say they are good, must also believe them when they say they are rotten. Hemingway believed a writer could lose his confidence and ability to write well when he/she wrote for critics instead of readers, and the love of writing itself. I suppose some of what he wrote is true. However, I could not help feeling what a hypocrite he appeared to be.

I've read Hemingway's books, not all, but some. I found his short stories to be a large disappointment. The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Killers, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, all were made into enjoyable movies, and yet Hemingway wrote these as short stories. Extremely short! And highly disappointing. When I read his words above I could not help wonder, is he being a hypocrite, or talking about how he himself lost his edge? I asked myself this question because when I read his books I could not help wonder what all the brouhaha was about him.

I'm a writer, and like all writers we crave to be published. After all, the only way people can read what we write is if we get published. The more well-known we are, the more our books are read. In retail, how I earn my living, I advertise what I sell in order to make money. The more well-known we are, the more I sell my products. It's the same with being a writer. The more well-known we are     Well, I you get my message.

In a way, I feel bad for Hemingway, because many of his books, or stories, I have read of his are, as he says, slop. They are short and hurried. I felt robbed when I finished them. My time is important, too. But sitting here and writing this post I cannot help wonder if he wrote that part in his book to explain why his passion was no longer there. Maybe I am too quick to judge, and should admire him for the courage to explain himself when he had no reason to explain to anyone other than himself.

What do you think?

Keep on reading!

David Lucero, author

www.LuceroBooks.com

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