Hills Like White Elephants

28 Jan Hills Like White Elephants

“Hills Like White Elephants” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women.^[1] 

Hemingway wrote vibrant stories filled with interesting and well defined characters.   I actually majored in English and Engineering in college and owned a company that did photography as well as manuscripts for magazines, newspapers and books.   I’ve been thinking about how I am struggling to prepare and put these blogs together.  I suddenly realized when I write for anyone else, the words come with ease.  Yet when I try to write for myself, I am blocked and can’t seem to put the words together.   However, during college I had no trouble writing long articles.   So this morning I decided to write like I did when I owned my own company and stop the block process.  Ernest Hemingway was adept at setting the stage and so am I but the key is to tell my story in succinct and well defined sentences.   I can have hills like white elephants and great whales too!

I shall begin with the complex process of putting together a painting.  Often I start with a idea and a rudimentary sketch, however, as the paint is applied the canvas takes on a life of its own.   This never happened many years ago when I forced the painting into the box I had prepared for it.  They never rendered the emotion or the feeling I had planned and I didn’t know why.  Finally one day I saw the hills like white elephants and I let my eye see what the paint was saying.  In the next blog, I will discuss the interesting  conversations I have with paint or pastels as the breath of life fills the  canvas.

Ernest Hemingway wrote about “Hills like white elephants” and this painting reminds me of them.

^ http://foxhonorsenglish10.wikispaces.com/file/view/Hills+Like+White+Elephants+criticism2.pdf