NINE HEMINGWAY

An American Returns

F. Scott Fitzgerald is introduced as one who “understood loss better perhaps than any American writer”. Babylon Revisited acutely relates to this theme as it speaks of a man trying to reclaim what he had lost. Paris becomes the setting for this quest and its fiction resonates with many of the realities that Fitzgerald faced during the 1920s. We continue to learn about Paris through an expatriate lens and are reacquainted with that lifestyle in retrospect. Furthermore, this story might offer some insight into Fitzgerald’s psyche as a successful writer, husband and father. At the same time, the series of events, observations and characters continuously serve to convey the inescapability of the past.

EIGHT HEMINGWAY

Pound, Paris

Hemingway indulges in nostalgia in a simply manner through penning A Moveable Feast. As a work of a non-fiction literature, he wins our favor through a humble voice of a young, budding writing. We encounter literary legends in this fractional memoir such as Gertrude Stein, Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound. The first and the last act as mentors while the middle a peer and close friend. The unfortunate dissolution of his relationship with Stein accentuates the goodness of Ezra Pound whose character Hemingway leaves intact. In addition, he portrays Pound as a much more trustworthy and substantial literary judge.Furthermore, the placement of the chapters on Stein, Pound and Fitzgerald compels the reader to juxtapose the natures of the relationship of the three. 

EIGHT WALKING

Conversations in Passages

Trying to not sound like a pretentious prick, walking had always been a part of my creative process. Paris made it a mandatory activity as a mode of transport (which made it a little annoying, I like to do things on my own terms). She became my place of work two years ago. The saturated market for photographers accommodated my lenses. 

I recently read an article about the term expatriate and how it only applies to ‘whites’. Those of other ethnicities who work in a foreign country have a label that is somehow more negative in connotation— ‘immigrants’, even if they have no intention on becoming citizens. I wonder which will my hybrid status as a half Swedish half Vietnamese bestow me. Back in Sweden, I was always mistaken for a tourist. My own people spoke in English to me. Everyone speaks very good English because no one out of the Nordic lands is versed in a Scandinavian language.

SEVEN WALKING

Conversations in Passages

Trying to not sound like a pretentious prick, walking had always been a part of my creative process. Paris made it a mandatory activity as a mode of transport (which made it a little annoying, I like to do things on my own terms). She became my place of work two years ago. The saturated market for photographers accommodated my lenses. 

I recently read an article about the term expatriate and how it only applies to ‘whites’. Those of other ethnicities who work in a foreign country have a label that is somewhat more negative in connotation— ‘immigrants’, even if they have plans on returning home someday. I wonder which will my hybrid status as a half Swedish half Vietnamese bestow me. Back in Sweden, I was always mistaken for a tourist. My own people spoke in English to me. Everyone spoke very good English because no one else in the world speaks a Scandinavian language.

Due to my profession, I travel with a good weight of equipment, which also makes walking even more so a chore when I am forced to do so. It wasn’t like this in Stockholm. I cherished walking more, because the opportunity presented itself only on rare, warm occasions. 

In Paris, walks are mainly in the open, unlike Tokyo where I brisk walked  through underground passes, interlinked malls and enclosed bridges. Come to think of it, my walks in Paris constituted more like strolls in comparison.

SEVEN HEMINGWAY

Sin City

It is often easy to relate to ambiguity and misdirection as a youth abroad. While I can apprehend Miller’s feelings of Paris and his almost hedonistic philosophy when in Paris, there is a radical quality to them in which I cannot absolutely reconcile with. However, Pizer’s Sexual Geography provides grounds for the latter. 

SIX WALKING

Beauté

One cannot think about Paris without associating to art. The city is like her women — mysterious, alluring, effortless and beautiful. Her roads twist and turn like an enigma. Her sacred museums and galleries outnumber her already worshipped landmarks. While her landmarks each exhibit their distinctive features, the museums and galleries (which are often be landmarks at the same hide) shelter other aesthetic manifestations inside.

The promise of being struck with Stendhal syndrome drew many, including myself, to willingly be the next patient in the waiting room of a Parisian psychologist clinic (which is often remarkably well decorated).

I recall my pseudo-planned walk to Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain. It occurred on my exploration of the Montparnasse district and I had a craving for a contemporary interpretations of beauty. And no, I am not confused, I believe that true art, regardless of its aesthetic qualities, can allow us to experience beauty. Not beauty in the common sense, but beauty in a spiritual sense — an ineffable experience that one will contaminate with words like how good humor can be ruined with explanation.

SIX HEMINGWAY

An internal reality

Ford’s personality is embedded in the fictional reality he constructs in The Good Solder and his voice in A Paris Letter. The protagonist of Soldier, John Dowell, narrates the emotional dissolution of his marriage in an introspective manner. Dowell’s characterization evokes pity instead of sympathy for the protagonist. In relation to my personal experience, it reminds me of self-deception or self-denial in traumatic situations. In Dowell’s complaints, we detect a sense of inferiority underlying his superficially arrogant tone. Finally, with greater investigation we can observe how Ford’s Paris in Soldier connects to the one he interacted with in reality, which he presents in Letter, as Soldier brings to mind another aspect of Paris — the notorious promiscuity of Parisians.