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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1882 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 5, 2025

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I finished The Sun Also Rises this week. I needed to intersperse my slog through a history of the roman empire with some shorter candy. I grabbed recs from a couple people, this one from @FiveHourMarathon and Stranger in a Strange Land from someone else.

In short: I found it decent but not great, and strangely compelling in many ways. I powered through it fairly quickly, found myself looking forward to it, and felt like Hemingway did a great job of conveying an enormous amount of depth through simple language in a way that is lost on many authors (especially in Spain).

At the end of the day, though, it's a circular story with a lot of repetition, and the things that made it so transgressive and compelling aren't really that unique nowadays.

The level of cuckery that Jake engages in with Brett (re: the bullfigher) is pretty breathtaking. I'm glad that she didn't end up getting him killed in the ring. It would have been too predictable, for one thing, and added a discernible plot to something he clearly designed not to exist, for another.

At the end of the day, though, it's a circular story with a lot of repetition, and the things that made it so transgressive and compelling aren't really that unique nowadays.

I think it's exactly as, if not more, transgressive than it was at the time. The central argument of the story is "Who is the manly man and who is the cuckold?" And I don't think we have any better of an answer now than we had then.

I don't think there is a single manly man or cuckold in the story. The only way to win the game with Brett is not to play, but to go fishing instead.

There are more Bretts in today's society than ever before, and they have even more freedom and power. I know a dozen of them. That's what I mean about the relative level of transgression being lower than when the book was written.

I thought the Sun Also Rises made much more sense after college than highschool. When you meet people who live their lives without hope, or goals, or responsibilities.

I agree 100%, it'd be almost nonsensical as a highschooler

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