Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds • Hacker News Board

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#11

Post by divtxt » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 6:52 PM UTC

walexander wrote: post #9

What are with some of these comments? This is not a story about a man who lost his 401k value. This is about seeing the end of the road and realizing the greatest things you've done you can never do again. Here's a man who is considered by some the greatest american writer (words of my freshman year english prof), who felt like he would "never achieve what he was capable of"(paraphrase). See: http://www.jayebee.com/c…

What's with these comments is that the title of the post was changed about 10 mins ago.

Before that it was "What happens when a programmer retires?" or something like that. The first 5 or 6 comments made more sense then.

(btw, i didn't catch the before link)

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#12

Post by waterside81 » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:01 PM UTC

divtxt wrote: post #11

walexander wrote: post #9

What are with some of these comments? This is not a story about a man who lost his 401k value. This is about seeing the end of the road and realizing the greatest things you've done you can never do again. Here's a man who is considered by some the greatest american writer (words of my freshman year english prof), who felt like he would "never achieve what he was capable of"(paraphrase). See: http://www.jayebee.com/c…

What's with these comments is that the title of the post was changed about 10 mins ago. Before that it was "What happens when a programmer retires?" or something like that. The first 5 or 6 comments made more sense then. (btw, i didn't catch the before link)

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Like the parent, I was confused why people weren't mentioning Hemingway. Sadly, I only started reading his books well into my 20's - I wish I had ream them earlier. His books are addictive, you read one, you want to read them all.

As I read his works, I often wondered if he just lived in more interesting times or did he himself make life so interesting?

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#13

Post by BasDirks » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:12 PM UTC

waterside81 wrote: post #12

divtxt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with these comments is that the title of the post was changed about 10 mins ago. Before that it was "What happens when a programmer retires?" or something like that. The first 5 or 6 comments made more sense then. (btw, i didn't catch the before link)

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. Like the parent, I was confused why people weren't mentioning Hemingway. Sadly, I only started reading his books well into my 20's - I wish I had ream them earlier. His books are addictive, you read one, you want to read them all. As I read his works, I often wondered if he just lived in more interesting times or did he himself make life so interesting?

Some works are to be read AFTER your teenage years. One can only read a book for the first time once. Also, some of Hemingway's later works are often described as "Hemingway trying to write like Hemingway", and I have to agree. Hemingway DID make his own life very interesting, but he was also known to make it SEEM more interesting from time to time. But hey, he was ("one hell of a") a writer.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#14

Post by pittsburgh » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:13 PM UTC

There are so many comments in this thread which seem to be in response to an article different than what I read, that I'm wondering if the link changed.

Why isn't anybody commenting about the surprise ending to this article? Spolier: People thought Hemmingway was crazy for thinking the FBI was after him, but after he died it turned out they really were building a case on him.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:16 PM UTC

pittsburgh wrote: post #14

There are so many comments in this thread which seem to be in response to an article different than what I read, that I'm wondering if the link changed. Why isn't anybody commenting about the surprise ending to this article? Spolier: People thought Hemmingway was crazy for thinking the FBI was after him, but after he died it turned out they really were building a case on him.

[deleted]

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#16

Post by mcantelon » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:21 PM UTC

pittsburgh wrote: post #14

There are so many comments in this thread which seem to be in response to an article different than what I read, that I'm wondering if the link changed. Why isn't anybody commenting about the surprise ending to this article? Spolier: People thought Hemmingway was crazy for thinking the FBI was after him, but after he died it turned out they really were building a case on him.

Sounds to me that the title of the HN post initially didn't mention the Fed angle (and a lot of people may not have read until the end).

Disturbing, and unsurprising, that Hemingway was harassed.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#17

Post by keiferski » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:36 PM UTC

Reminder to HN: read the article before commenting, please.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#18

Post by philwelch » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 7:41 PM UTC

reasonattlm wrote: post #5

Bear in mind that this is an age of change. If you are young, then your life course will not look like that of your parents and grandparents. http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2004/06/the-transformatio... Retirement is for the frail and the exceedingly [wealthy+lazy]. There is the probability that you will never be the latter, and if you're young now there's a good chance that you won't be the former either - at lea…

If you're banking on science fiction life extension technology rather than planning for a time, frighteningly few decades from now, that your eyes, fingers, and mind won't be able to keep up with the demands of work anymore, the odds are still quite against you.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#19

Post by burgerbrain » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 8:22 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #18

reasonattlm wrote: post #5

Bear in mind that this is an age of change. If you are young, then your life course will not look like that of your parents and grandparents. http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2004/06/the-transformatio... Retirement is for the frail and the exceedingly [wealthy+lazy]. There is the probability that you will never be the latter, and if you're young now there's a good chance that you won't be the former either - at lea…

If you're banking on science fiction life extension technology rather than planning for a time, frighteningly few decades from now, that your eyes, fingers, and mind won't be able to keep up with the demands of work anymore, the odds are still quite against you.

There is nothing science fiction about continued improvement of modern medicine. The lives of the elderly today are dramatically different from those 2 or 3 decades ago. In another 3 or so decades it will be different still.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#20

Post by rmason » Sat, Jul 02, 2011, 8:25 PM UTC

Being pursued by the feds didn't make it any easier but his family history had multiple case of depression followed by suicide. Four different generations of Hemingway's family had suicides. Hemingway's father killed himself and it continues through Hemingway's granddaughter, the late actress Margaux.