SWIMMING SLOWLY, IN THE SEA, AT SAN SEBASTIAN: CONVALESCENCE, MEMORY, AND THE BODY IN ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S THE SUN ALSO RISES by JEREMY COLLINS (Under the direction of Dr. Carolyn Medine) ABSTRACT “Emotion,” Spinoza writes, “which is suffering, ceases to be suffering once we form a clear picture of it.” The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is the story of Jake Barnes struggle to form a clear picture of his suffering amongst the Lost Generation of post-World War One Europe. In this thesis, we will take a thorough look at Hemingway’s use of the images of football, youth, and war in relation to the characters of Robert Cohn and Jake Barnes. We will find through looking at the relationship of these characters and these images, where to locate meaning in the novel. The thesis will also use the larger body of Hemingway’s work, fiction and non-fiction, biography, and letters. Through looking closely at the novel and its greater context, we can see how Hemingway offers a protagonist who overcomes both his personal disaster and the crisis of the age: nihilism. INDEX WORDS: Hemingway, Nihilism, The Sun Also Rises, Memory, Sports, Existentialism. SWIMMING SLOWLY, IN THE SEA, AT SAN SEBASTIAN: CONVALESCENCE, MEMORY, AND THE BODY IN ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S THE SUN ALSO RISES by JEREMY COLLINS B.A., The University of Georgia, 2000 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2002 2002 Jeremy Collins All Rights Reserved SWIMMING SLOWLY, IN THE SEA, AT SAN SEBASTIAN: CONVALESCENCE, MEMORY, AND THE BODY IN ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S THE SUN ALSO RISES by Jeremy Collins Approved: Major Professor: Carolyn Medine Committee: Hubert McAlexander Carolyn Medine William Power Electronic Version Approved: Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2002 DEDICATION In front of a classroom of about twelve students, in a voice that was neither northern nasal or southern drawl, but somewhere in the middle, somewhere in between, the Virginia coast maybe, chesapeake accents, a mid-Atlantic state, Dr. Steven Harvey read from The Sun Also Rises. I took the trout ashore, washed them in the cold, smoothly heavy water above the dam, and then picked some ferns and packed them all in the bag, three trout on a layer of ferns, then another layer of ferns, then three more trout, and then covered them with ferns. They looked nice in the ferns, and now the bag was bulky, and I put it in the shade of the tree. He spoke with a soft, unhurried intensity. He spoke with reverence. When he was done, the room was slightly altered and charged. The world was somehow more real and Hemingway’s account of a fishing trip was now a part of our own experience. This is what Hemingway intended. This is how Dr. Harvey read. I left his classroom and headed for the library to find this book that sounded like poetry. In gratitude to his passion and commitment to the written word and the ordeal of the soul, this thesis is dedicated to my teacher, Dr. Steven Harvey, who is also unquestionably the most gifted banjo player/English professor at Young Harris College. He demanded, pushed, and prodded, without ever having to demand, push, or prod. Instead, he ceaselessly taught, read, smiled, and questioned. In short, he opened my life to the reflective and transforming power of literature. For this, I owe him immensely. “Teaching,” he once wrote, “is the knife.” The knife—a tool to cut through the iv unessential, a tool to puncture and open, a tool to perform surgery, a tool to carve and fashion out of a block of wood a simple, hard-won, creation. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Hubert McAlexander whose mentoring and friendship has been one of the most valuable and rewarding experiences I have had at the University. Dr. McAlexander has been a part of this project since the thesis began as a five-page paper in the spring of 1998 in his undergraduate class. His expertise in American letters and Modernism as well as his guidance and encouragement has been invaluable for this thesis and beyond. I also want to thank Dr. Theodore Lewis, a first-rate scholar in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Semitic Languages, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, who always went out of his way to take an interest in the lives of students around him outside of his own field. Dr. Lewis might have been in the process of writing an article on Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel, but was always curious to know what was happening in the world of religion and literature. Dr. Lewis has been an inspiration to many throughout the University and I count myself lucky to have been touched by his example of professionalism, scholarship, and humanity. I would also like to thank Dr. Carolyn Medine for all of her patience, grace, and insight that she has given me over the past two years. Dr. Medine’s talented and careful eye within the field of religion and literature gave much of this project form and shape. A necessary thank you is needed for Dr. William Power for his biting wit, his acumen in the world of Theology, and the patience he has shown in having to read paper after paper on Nietzsche. vi Also I would like to thank, Dr. Thomas Slater for his help in making the experience of graduate school and its day to day activities more pleasurable and adding an international flair to the experience. And a special thanks is due to Dr. Glen Wallis who, in a very brief time, provided an example of a life that is lived out of the material one studies. He encouraged us as graduate students to dig deeper, find more, and then to keep digging. I also want to thank the three class sections and students of Religion 1001 who were receptive, questioning, and insightful on the themes of Hemingway and Religion. How can I not acknowledge meinen Brudern Eric Covington and Sonam Kachru? Both of who...have paid their dues. Finally, I would like to thank my sister Laura Collins, who made my last year here, her first, an even more rewarding, and enriching experience. I wish her all the best. Numbers 6:24-26. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........ ........................................................................................vi CHAPTER 1 IMPOTENCY, NIHILISM, AND THE SEARCH FOR “HOW TO LIVE IN IT." ................. 1 SPORTS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR MEANINGS IN HEMINGWAY................ 14 2 THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE GAME, THE HORROR, THE IRONY.... ................ ..20 SPORTS.............................................................................................................. 31 IRONY ................................................................................................................. 38 3 THE QUESTION OF A FOOTBALL MEMORY: A LOOK AT ROBERT COHN AND JAKE BARNES......... .................................................................................................. 47 JAKE’S PROBLEM.............................................................................................. 55 4 THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN GAME..................................................................... 74 A BRIEF HISTORY OF FOOTBALL FROM TS ANCIENT PAST TO THE AMERICAN PRESENT....................................................................................... 78 THE DEFINITION OF EARLY AMERICAN FOOTBALL: THE ESTABLISHMENT, GOOD SOLDIERING, SOCIAL DARWINISM, MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY AND WAR AS MORAL EXERCISE ............................................................. 88 ON OTHER FIELDS ON OTHER DAYS ............................................................. 98 5 JAKE’S RESTORATION: SWIMMING, SLOWLY, IN THE SEA AT SEBASTIAN ..... 105 THE GOOD PLACE…………………………………………………………...... .....115 OTHER SHADOWS OF JAKE: A BOY FROM MONTANA, THE PATRON SAINT, AND THE WRESTLER WHO PREVAILED................................... 118 viii "DIDNT YOU SWIM?”: THE NEED FOR SWIMMING IN THE WATERS AT SAN SEBASTIAN.................................................................................. ............. 123 “IT FELT AS IF...”: THE SWIM IN THE WATERS OF SAN SEBASTIAN ...... 129 6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 141 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................145 ix CHAPTER 1 IMPOTENCY, NIHILISM, AND THE SEARCH FOR “HOW TO LIVE IN IT.” Nihilism, then, is the recognition of the long waste of strength, the agony of the ‘in vain,’ insecurity, the lack of any opportunity to recover and to regain composure—being ashamed in front of oneself, as if one had deceived oneself all too long.1 -Fredrich Nietzsche The Will to Power “Love life again,” a recent full-page magazine advertisement for sildenafil citrate encourages us. 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