Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds • Hacker News Board

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#31

Post by Gaussian » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 12:47 AM UTC

dmix wrote: post #26

BasDirks wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. I appreciated both authors far more later on.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#32

Post by Gaussian » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 12:49 AM UTC

aba_sababa wrote: post #8

Really good writing. Read like a Hemingway story. Wish the Times gave us more of that.

It was a pretty piece, for sure.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#33

Post by JFPetersen » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 12:50 AM UTC

The book that's referenced in the article is "The Dangerous Summer." It's not one of Hemingway's best works, but it's certainly worth the read if you like his style & can get the book from the library.

(I have a single copy that I'll send (for free) via media-mail to whomever wants it, provided it's in the U.S. Just shoot me an email at my user name @gmail.com.)

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#34

Post by drewblaisdell » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 1:04 AM UTC

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #27

Tangential: 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.

No, the government really does not have the freedom to wiretap our phones... or rather, they didn't during Hemingway's era.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#35

Post by metaprinter » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 2:39 AM UTC

Not sure why my original title was changed. I didn't change it... I think someone's been monitoring me, taking notes, judging me...

Really though, I love Hemingway and the end of his career when he realized could not retire, could never retire, that struck a nerve with me. What will I do in my 50s and 60? Will I still be able to practice my craft? At what level?

Home this clears up some confusion.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#36

Post by wwrap » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 2:54 AM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #4

My father-in-law retired at 75. He was writing firmware for chip stepper systems. He still reads Science and some chemical engineering stuff. I met a guy on his 60th birthday who was considering starting another start-up. I'm fifty. I did some back-to-back 100 hour weeks last year, and definitely felt it a lot more than I did when I was 30. But I work smarter and I know more tricks. My .emacs file is full of hardfoug…

Is this .emacs file on a github somewhere? :)

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#37

Post by Gaussian » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 3:38 AM UTC

A man haunted by more than the feds (another editorial from this weekend; Chicago Tribune):

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0701-hemi...

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#38

Post by Nick_C » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 5:10 AM UTC

burgerbrain wrote: post #19

philwelch wrote: post #18

Earlier 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.

I'm not so sure.

For one, most of us know the dangers of extrapolating past the end of data points, so we shouldn't base longevity changes on an extrapolated graph.

Secondly, there are signs that longevity has peaked. There was an article a couple of weeks ago that got bandied about in the Australian press (which I can't find now, darn it) that life expectancy is now a little shorter than it was a decade ago. From memory, it was USA data, so perhaps a US reader will remember it.

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#39

Post by dhbanes » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 5:15 AM 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…

About which article are you commenting?

Re: Hemingway, Hounded by the Feds

#40

Post by rooshdi » Sun, Jul 03, 2011, 7:34 AM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #4

My father-in-law retired at 75. He was writing firmware for chip stepper systems. He still reads Science and some chemical engineering stuff. I met a guy on his 60th birthday who was considering starting another start-up. I'm fifty. I did some back-to-back 100 hour weeks last year, and definitely felt it a lot more than I did when I was 30. But I work smarter and I know more tricks. My .emacs file is full of hardfoug…

I think I have some good years left :-)

You sure do pal. Thank you for the inspiration.