Now why is it that we want the NSA and FBI (Hi there, Rights-abridging Feds!) to snoop on all our email, commentary and network transmissions?
Sure, J. Edgar Hoover was a special case. Or was he?
Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's speculative, and not really that true. My dad (born 1927) has high blood pressure, and he's on the same no-salt diet his father was on.
Some things don't progress. Sometimes technology gets to a local maximum and the next breakthrough is perpetually about 50 years away (i.e. energy production). We won't be the first generation to die of cancer despite spending our youths convinced that they would have cured cancer by then.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#23So, one paranoid lunatic contributed to the death of another?
It is too bad J.Edgar Hoover didn't write...
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's speculative, and not really that true. My dad (born 1927) has high blood pressure, and he's on the same no-salt diet his father was on. Some things don't progress. Sometimes technology gets to a local maximum and the next breakthrough is perpetually about 50 years away (i.e. energy production). We won't be the first generation to die of cancer despite spending our youths convinced that they would have cured ca…
That's a really terrible example. The survival rates of many forms of cancer have dramatically increased in recent years. The only reason we don't have a "the cure" is because if you understand what cancer really is, that is a nonsensical concept.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#25Wow, it's like he was in his own Twilight Zone episode. You think the FBI is watching you and everyone tells you they aren't. In that situation I think I'd believe the people around me and think that I was crazy.
Even though it was unfinished, Moveable Feast is one of my favorite books of all time. Definitely worth reading if you haven't yet.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'd also like to add that F. Scott Fitzgerald is required reading AFTER your teenage years along with Hemingway. He and Hemingway were close friends for a while.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#27Tangential: a favorite quote.
"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists." -Hemingway
Hemingway was a known harsh critic of the state. Sure you have freedom of speech and expression, but they have the freedom to keep an eye on you.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#28This is a chilling tale. To think that the very act of monitoring Hemingway contributed so directly to his demise.
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#29There 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.
Yeah. 11 counts of electro shock therapy? Are you freaking kidding me? Reading that part and coming back to these comments makes me feel a little insane..
Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds
#30So, one paranoid lunatic contributed to the death of another? It is too bad J.Edgar Hoover didn't write...
Well, they could be two of the most epic studies in self-loathing.
Hemingway (along with his "literary style of wearing false hair on the chest") damaged himself in his maniacal rush to prove himself the pinnacle of manliness. And Hoover, who was probably queer, commenced an unsurpassed reign of sexual blackmail of everyone including the wives of presidents.
Though I shouldn't speak such ill of the dead, I suppose.