I've mentioned that me and my nephew did some summer reading together, including The Nick Adams Stories by Hemingway. I figured short stories would be nice as opposed to something longer and heavier. Additionally, I have fond memories of reading it on a suggestion many years ago in college.
Anyhow, I guess it's my own fault for forgetting just how many times Hemingway uses -- relies on! -- the n-word.
I won't bother to quote, but there's a story called "The Battler" about an aged and senile former boxer. It's a good distillation of EH at his best and worst -- sublime pacing, subtle character details, etc. The problem is how he describes the boxer's black caretaker. If it was as simple as "he was an n-word" it wouldn't stand out too much for a story first published in the 1920s. But it's an obsession with him, describing black bodies with the ugliest of words -- "his n-word legs," "his n-word hair," "that n-word smell."
Do I regret choosing this book? A little! I think a better approach would have been just to focus on a few of the stories -- "The Killers," "Indian Camp" at the very least -- rather than have to hash out the language debate every half page.
Literature, man.
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