I haven't actually read any Hemmingway...now I want to. I agree that some things are really best left to the imagination - they're more potent that way. I had a high school teacher who always used to say that people swore because they were too lazy to develop a vocabulary. :)

For me, Hemingway is not rapture-inducing, but everyone should read at least one of his books. There are only about fifty to choose from. ;-)

I see nothing wrong with using an obscenity occasionally - but only if the occasion calls for it.

Like stubbing my toe in dark. I'll try to remember to say "oh, befoul!" next time I do that. :-)

Stubbing your toe in the dark certainly could be cause for using obscenities.

Or perhaps dropping a novel written by Hemmingway on your toe in the dark? Foul...

Hmm...now I rethink my previous thought. Is he more torturous or less than, say, Faulkner?

I know many of the titles of his stuff, just not what they're about - which is what enabled me to answer "A Farewell To Arms" on a Trivial Pursuit question regarding the name of a Hemingway novel about a man injured in WWI. People were not appreciative of my pun....but I'd hoped you might be.

Is he more torturous or less than, say, Faulkner?

Oh, much less. Hemingway's prose is, for the most part, sparse and powerful. If Faulkner is a scalpel, Hemingway is a double-bit ax. But both of them are better at metaphors than that.

Funny story about "A Farewell to Arms." It was only thanks to an perceptive editor that Hemingway's novel proved to be a commercial success, as that editor pointed out - and correctly, I think - that the original title, "A Farewell to Pinkies," lacked sufficient drama. The rest, as they say, is history. ;-)

I've not read much (any?) Hemingway either, mostly because I had a radical feminist English Lit professor who taught that he was evil. From the above, I would have to disagree. So much for a fair and balanced education.

That said, my favorite use of the F-bomb in broadcasting was on CNN, during the 2004 Democratic Convention, when the balloons dropped (or didn't, which resulted in the very unexpected and unintended expletive hitting the airwaves). Hilarious. And I do hope CNN was fined.

May I say that any editor who would say that "A Farewell to Pinkies" lacked drama had never shut her finger in a car door?

It should also be noted that I could be a professional klutz were there ever any call for one.

I could be a professional klutz were there ever any call for one.

Well, someone has to take Chevy Chase's place, right?

Gwynne, I haven't read everything Hemingway has written, and he was definitely a "man's man," (in the traditional sense of the term) but he also created female characters that are powerful and nuanced. But your observation about your college education does underscore the importance of what I think is the single most neglected skill in young people (and not-so-young): the desire and ability to think critically. Educators who see their duty as saturating the sponges of young minds instead of converting those minds to intelligent filtering devices do them and society a disservice. (Wow...how did I get off on that?)