Wow I've never finished a Hemingway novel because I've hated the characters but you have helped me understand why so little was said about so much!!! Thank you!!!
This is 100% one of the more challenging aspects of reading Hemingway. He's deceptively simplistic and straightforward, so it can be all too easy to read and interface with the text at face value. In doing this, most (if not all) of his characters are very unlikeable. But when you view it through the lens of the iceberg and think about what else is at play, mastery emerges. Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
This was enlightening and clearly said. As you were taking about it, I was thinking about a movie I loved as a kid and pretty much everyone loved… and that movie and its writer understood the iceberg and used the iceberg very well. And I was also thinking about a recent TV show that everyone hated and how that show and its writer didn’t understand the iceberg at all. I actually learned something interesting, and useful, and good. Now it’s for me to reflect on it.
@@theliterarynomad I don’t want to conflate the iceberg with world building (and I don’t want to suggest that I feel George Lucas is a “good” writer or film maker), but the movie is Star Wars. In the process of developing the script, he ended up with too many ideas, and had to pare back the story significantly, but the script he produced still referred to all the ideas he cut away, and he ended up creating an iceberg. The TV show was The Acolyte. (The newest Star Wars TV show.) It appears that the writer created the visible part of the iceberg without considering the part below the waterline.
@@thejontao That's very interesting about Star Wars. Though I've never seen it (I know, I know), I can definitely see how that would create an iceberg. Those little details and the pointing/alluding to things left out or unsaid are what make the world feel real and lived in, even if it's something as fantastical as Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Really good advice, thanks! I like to read stories where the author drip feeds clues (like an iceberg melting, ha) to the bigger picture, I don’t mind not knowing stuff as long as I can tell the author knows it! Keeps me intrigued, keeps me turning the page. This gives me ideas for my own story, thank you. Enjoyed the video, keep going! (just make sure to include more technical iceberg data next time, k? need to know temperature gradient and viscosity of said ice across the volume of the berg otherwise it makes no sense 😉)
Thank you so much, and good luck with your story! What's it about (if you don't mind sharing)? And I apologize, I will brush up on my iceberg data and be better next time lol
@@theliterarynomad thank you! 🙏 My story is about a corrupt tyrant who rules by means of a powerful private military. When his mother is taken terminally ill, his estranged sister travels home to reconcile, but she gets caught up in a conspiracy that will require her to choose between family and country. That’s the story at the moment, anyway. It keeps changing as I go! 😬
No, I'm afraid to say, they won't. By listenting to writing advice of any kind, even from a writer like Hemingway, you are stifling your own creativity and losing your own innate writing style and voice in the process. I may, of course, be utterly wrong. I can't write for toffee. I can't even produce a coherent sentence or make a concise point in my writing without having to learn how to do it.
One cannot bread crumb without having a fully baked loaf to begin with, otherwise you're dough (d'oh!) crumbing, or worse, gaslighting a hungry audience about the existence of food which doesn't exist.
I agree with this 100%, and love the "gaslighting a hungry audience about the existence of food which doesn't exist" line. I might have to steal that one. Thanks for the comment!
While true broadly speaking, I wholeheartedly believe there's still an audience seeking this type of literature. There may not be many of us, but we exist lol
In a straightforward sense, perhaps not, though I would argue that consciously thinking about this while writing will make your work much stronger on a sentence level.
This is probably a little off topic for your video, but.... If you want to get at the deeper meaning in Hemingway's stories, you need to have a firm grasp of modernism.
Do you have any recommendations for more academic sources focusing on modernism? I'll actually be teaching a unit on the topic with my students this year, and am always looking for new/better sources. Thanks for the comment!
I like the theory, but you need to brush up on your knowledge of icebergs! Icebergs don’t “function”, they are. You wouldn’t say a stone functions, would you? 2-5 feet is definitely not a iceberg. The smallest is about 20 feet above the water. “There could be hundreds of feet of iceberg below the surface.” No, it’s a fixed size of 90% which is underwater. So, your “5ft iceberg” is actually only going to have around 45 ft under the water. This is pretty common knowledge, and if you can’t get that right, people are not going to take your videos or advice seriously .
The point of the video/theory isn't how deep the metaphorical iceberg is... Hemingway doesn't have literal icebergs in his works, but rather minimizes surface-level info and makes the reader look beneath the water (again, there isn't any actual water here) to uncover the real meaning. That being said, those looking for experts on all things icebergs should probably find a different channel. I fear that I will only let you down.
thank you! this was very useful!!
I will give it a try!
Wow
I've never finished a Hemingway novel because I've hated the characters but you have helped me understand why so little was said about so much!!! Thank you!!!
This is 100% one of the more challenging aspects of reading Hemingway. He's deceptively simplistic and straightforward, so it can be all too easy to read and interface with the text at face value. In doing this, most (if not all) of his characters are very unlikeable. But when you view it through the lens of the iceberg and think about what else is at play, mastery emerges.
Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Essentially it sounds like show don't tell at the story level instead of line level. I can see how that would be a powerful tool. Thanks for sharing.
This is a good way of putting it. Hemingway would be proud of the simplicity.
This was enlightening and clearly said.
As you were taking about it, I was thinking about a movie I loved as a kid and pretty much everyone loved… and that movie and its writer understood the iceberg and used the iceberg very well.
And I was also thinking about a recent TV show that everyone hated and how that show and its writer didn’t understand the iceberg at all.
I actually learned something interesting, and useful, and good. Now it’s for me to reflect on it.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I appreciate it.
Out of curiosity, what were the names of the film and TV show?
Thanks again.
@@theliterarynomad I don’t want to conflate the iceberg with world building (and I don’t want to suggest that I feel George Lucas is a “good” writer or film maker), but the movie is Star Wars. In the process of developing the script, he ended up with too many ideas, and had to pare back the story significantly, but the script he produced still referred to all the ideas he cut away, and he ended up creating an iceberg.
The TV show was The Acolyte. (The newest Star Wars TV show.) It appears that the writer created the visible part of the iceberg without considering the part below the waterline.
@@thejontao That's very interesting about Star Wars. Though I've never seen it (I know, I know), I can definitely see how that would create an iceberg. Those little details and the pointing/alluding to things left out or unsaid are what make the world feel real and lived in, even if it's something as fantastical as Star Wars or Harry Potter.
Really good advice, thanks! I like to read stories where the author drip feeds clues (like an iceberg melting, ha) to the bigger picture, I don’t mind not knowing stuff as long as I can tell the author knows it! Keeps me intrigued, keeps me turning the page. This gives me ideas for my own story, thank you. Enjoyed the video, keep going!
(just make sure to include more technical iceberg data next time, k? need to know temperature gradient and viscosity of said ice across the volume of the berg otherwise it makes no sense 😉)
Thank you so much, and good luck with your story! What's it about (if you don't mind sharing)?
And I apologize, I will brush up on my iceberg data and be better next time lol
@@theliterarynomad thank you! 🙏 My story is about a corrupt tyrant who rules by means of a powerful private military. When his mother is taken terminally ill, his estranged sister travels home to reconcile, but she gets caught up in a conspiracy that will require her to choose between family and country. That’s the story at the moment, anyway. It keeps changing as I go! 😬
I am subscriber 299. Thank you for a very insightful lesson. My stories will be better as a result of your video. Thanks
Thank you so much for the kind words. I truly appreciate it.
No, I'm afraid to say, they won't. By listenting to writing advice of any kind, even from a writer like Hemingway, you are stifling your own creativity and losing your own innate writing style and voice in the process. I may, of course, be utterly wrong. I can't write for toffee. I can't even produce a coherent sentence or make a concise point in my writing without having to learn how to do it.
One cannot bread crumb without having a fully baked loaf to begin with, otherwise you're dough (d'oh!) crumbing, or worse, gaslighting a hungry audience about the existence of food which doesn't exist.
I agree with this 100%, and love the "gaslighting a hungry audience about the existence of food which doesn't exist" line. I might have to steal that one. Thanks for the comment!
it doesnt work for me coz i get overstimmed by information
I wonder how true this is for today's audience who like to complain so much about loose ends.
While true broadly speaking, I wholeheartedly believe there's still an audience seeking this type of literature. There may not be many of us, but we exist lol
not really about writing better sentences. or at least the straightforward meaning of that.
In a straightforward sense, perhaps not, though I would argue that consciously thinking about this while writing will make your work much stronger on a sentence level.
This is probably a little off topic for your video, but.... If you want to get at the deeper meaning in Hemingway's stories, you need to have a firm grasp of modernism.
Do you have any recommendations for more academic sources focusing on modernism? I'll actually be teaching a unit on the topic with my students this year, and am always looking for new/better sources.
Thanks for the comment!
I like the theory, but you need to brush up on your knowledge of icebergs! Icebergs don’t “function”, they are. You wouldn’t say a stone functions, would you? 2-5 feet is definitely not a iceberg. The smallest is about 20 feet above the water. “There could be hundreds of feet of iceberg below the surface.” No, it’s a fixed size of 90% which is underwater. So, your “5ft iceberg” is actually only going to have around 45 ft under the water. This is pretty common knowledge, and if you can’t get that right, people are not going to take your videos or advice seriously .
The point of the video/theory isn't how deep the metaphorical iceberg is...
Hemingway doesn't have literal icebergs in his works, but rather minimizes surface-level info and makes the reader look beneath the water (again, there isn't any actual water here) to uncover the real meaning.
That being said, those looking for experts on all things icebergs should probably find a different channel. I fear that I will only let you down.
I think most people here are interested in writing, not icebergs! :D
Therefore it's quite easy for people to take his videos seriously.
@@webnon I will be following with part 2 of this video, where we focus solely on the more technical aspects of icebergs.