It does not toll for me I'm afraid.

Created: Monday, 19 January 2015 11:55 | Written by Glen R Stansfield

In September last year I was fortunate enough to take a trip to the Florida Keys. Whilst I was there I visited the house where Ernest Hemingway lived and wrote several of his novels in the nineteen thirties.

As I wandered around the rooms I realised I knew very little about the man other than I was aware of his existence and I certainly had not read any of his novels. I did however feel a sense of history being in the same place that one of the literary greats had once lived. I could almost hear him tapping away on the keys of his typewriter. I was inspired.

Returning to Bahrain I decided to educate myself and read some Hemingway. I bought a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Now for the difficult bit, and this may be sacrilege for many, but I could not see what the fuss was about. Perhaps I had not picked the ideal Hemingway work to read, perhaps I was not in the mood. Whatever it was, I could not get into the story at all. I found the dialogue flat and unbelievable and the action almost glacial.

Worried that I was out of step with the world somehow, I had a look at some of the reviews on Goodreads. I was not alone. It would seem that there are two camps, those that love this piece and those that hate it. Even die hard Hemingway fans are divided. 

For the time being I have given up on reading the book, but I will return to it and try again, from the beginning. I will also try some of his other works.

So what does this say about me and all the other reviewers who didn't like this particular story? It says no one can please all of the people all of the time. It says just because someone is a literary god we won't necessarily like their work. Am I a literary pleb? I don't think so, after all I like much of Shakespeare's work. I just don't find For Whom the Bell Tolls to my taste.

When will we ever learn?

Created: Sunday, 11 January 2015 12:53 | Written by Glen R Stansfield

It is a while since I last made a post. I have been busy tapping away at the keys for my forthcoming book, but I felt it was time to make another blog post.

In my last post I asked if the human race deserves to survive. Recent events must  make us think more about the human condition.

Here we are on a tiny rock in the middle of the vast expanse of space with endless possibilities of exploration. The chance of meeting other sentient beings is real. It would be unthinkably arrogant to believe we are the only ones in the universe.  When we finally make contact with these beings what will we have to offer them?

We judge others on the colour of their skin. We judge on where they were born.  We judge on the way they dress. We judge on the place they live. We judge on the beliefs they have. We judge on their social position. We judge on the amount of money they have. We judge on the sports team they follow. We judge.

We kill over a drawing. We kill over money. We kill because of a different appearance. We kill because they looked at us. We kill because their beliefs are different. We kill because of a notional line dividing territory. We kill because we don’t like them. We kill.

Any extra-terrestrial race looking at us would just see an angry aggressive race that is intolerant of all those around them. Not only intolerance of our own species but others species as well. We are wiping out the wildlife and we are wiping out the planet.

We are not all this way, but I am not sure if there are enough of us who care to make a difference. We need to learn to be tolerant. We need to learn to care. We need to learn not to judge. We need to learn to live in harmony. Above all we need to learn to be human.