There is something Griceian about Hemingway. One of course can also implicate
that there is something Hemingwayian about Grice – but the implicature seems to
be more complex.
But regarding the first statement, I guess Brewster Chamberlin and Sandra
Spanier, of the Hemingway Society, _know_. One of Grice’s maxims is:
“Try to make your contribution one that is true.”
But Hemingway ain’t! Let Chamberlin and Spanier explicate it.
It’s all about this notebook which contains an untitled story (which takes up
14 pages of the whole notebook).
It is what Grice might describe as a ‘travelogue’.
Hemingway’s “travelogue, -- through Ireland and Scotland, to be more specific
-- was written as letters to his parents and what seem to be diary entries.
But, and here comes Chamberlin and Spanier: Hemingway never made this trip to
Ireland and Scotland, as a child OR as an adult. (Chamberlin and Spanier use
‘or,’ as Grice does, ‘inclusively’).
It was *then* that the full Griceian weight of the discovery hit Chamberlin and
Spanier.
“Oh my God! This is quite something! This is Hemingway’s first attempt at
fiction!”
Chamberlin recalls thinking – and alla Grice, he reports what he thought.
In one section of the notebook, Hemingway reports about a dead man who returns
once a year to rebuild Ross (Castle) (in Ireland), and host a nighttime feast.
One of Hemingway’s utterances runs:
i. When day-light comes, the castle falls in ruins, and
O’Donahue returns to his grave.
‘utters’ Hemingway in a spidery scrawl.
Spanier also reports, as Chamberlin does, what she thought:
“I thought this was really amazing. A real landmark piece of writing. It is the
first time we see Hemingway writing a sustained, imaginative narrative.”
And she could have added, “and flouting Grice” (reference: M. L. Pratt, “Grice
and fiction”)
Hemingway goes on to describe a tour of Blarney (Castle) [Ireland].
Hemingway reports a visit to a stone-house with a thatched roof. He utters:
ii. It is very dark inside.
He adds, for colour,
iii. Under the table, runs a pig, which the people call him ‘the
little fellow that pays the rent.’
It is assumed that Hemingway is writing for his own amusement – although, if
Witters is right, by ‘uttering’ his ‘utterances’ in his “Notebook,” Hemingway
_is_ publishing.
Spanier believes that Hemingway may have intended the piece for The St.
Nicholas Magazine – a magazine dedicated to St. Nicholas, as Grice would
explicate.
The St. Nicholas Magazine held a monthly literary contest.
“Maybe Hemingway was inspired to write his fictional — and rather learned and
literary — narrative by the prospect of being a published author,” Spanier
suggests – Or maybe not. (I.e. not that she does not suggest this, but … you
know what Grice means!)
Cheers,
Speranza
REFERENCES
Hemingway, E. The Notebook.
Grice, H. P. The Grice Archives. Bancroft.
Pratt, M. L. Griceian Fiction.
