Last week I received an interesting and well thought out e-mail from Simon Thalmann regarding Hemingway’s six-word story. In fact, the e-mail was so interesting and well thought out that, with Simon’s permission, I’m going to reprint a good chunk of it here:
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn” piece by Hemingway lately in light of one of your recent posts, and while it struck me as intriguing when I first heard the story as an undergrad I can’t help but wonder now, as a father myself some years later: Do you think the piece would be worth anything had it not been Hemingway who wrote it?
Again, while initially the short may seem tragic, a simple second look show it’s actually quite, well, boring, for lack of a better word. For truly, what does the fact that a pair of baby shoes haven’t been worn really say? It doesn’t say anything. Anything inferred says more about the reader than the story. For instance, my wife and I are headed to a “Mom to Mom” sale tomorrow where people sell all their baby stuff. I imagine quite a bit of it will have signs saying “Never worn.” Does that mean all their babies were killed or stillborn or that there was some tragedy to speak of that kept their babies feet uncovered? Absolutely not. It just means they were never worn.
Incidentally, I’m not sure how it was in Hemingway’s day but now new parents are deluged with gifts at the birth of a child, and shoes — especially if you get multiple pair — are practically worthless. You may try a pair on the baby to see how they look once or twice, but the fact is they grow so fast and the shoes are such a hassle to deal with and serve no purpose that I imagine the majority of baby shoes could actually be considered “Never worn.”
Additionally, if “Never used” were always taken to imply tragedy, the classified section would be the most depressing part of the newspaper.
All this is to say I hope Hemingway really didn’t consider this his best work. “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Green Hills of Africa,” and his short stories at least count for something.
Simon brings up a lot of good points. I’d addressed them quickly in my reply via e-mail, but want to go more in-depth here.
For starters, no, I do not believe the six-word story would be so highly regarded if it had been written by anybody other than Hemingway (or a writer of Hemingway’s stature). Sure, if some lesser known writer had come up with the story, it probably would circulate around writers’ circles, but it wouldn’t be held is such high esteem (and SMITH Magazine wouldn’t be nearly as popular as it is). But this happens all the time. Take The Road, for instance. I can’t imagine that book not only being one of Oprah’s picks but also winning the Pulitzer Prize if it had been written by anyone else but Cormac McCarthy. The man has gotten to the point in his career where he can pretty much write anything and people will think it’s a masterpiece.
As I’ve mentioned here before, the greatest strength of Hint Fiction is also its greatest weakness, in which the effectiveness of the story replies heavily on a reader’s own life experience. So yes, Hemingway’s story could be taken many different ways, not all of them so dark. In fact, when I student taught I used this story to teach inference, and one of the students suggested that maybe the baby had been born without legs. Well … not the most likely reason, but plausible.
Still, I think it’s simply human nature to view things negatively, so when someone sees that story, they instantly think stillborn and death.
Finally, we need to keep in mind that there is no written account anywhere that says Hemingway is in fact the true author of that story. It’s all legend, just as the fact he claimed it was his greatest work is legend. But say he did write the story, and he did claim it was his greatest work. I’d have to side with him. Because back in Hemingway’s day, nothing like a six-word story had been done before. Sure, people had written novels and short stories, but a six-word story? If he did indeed write it (and I’m inclined to believe he did), then he was in fact the very first person to do so. So yeah, considering that it was such a new and innovative way of storytelling, I’d have to agree that it could be considered his greatest work.
But of course that’s just me. Simon, like I said, raised some really good points. What do you think?
I love the idea that the baby was born without legs – that’s some original thinking! Maybe the baby had tentacles. Could be anything – that’s part of the fun: figuring out the ‘riddle’. I would think, though, that the author (Hemmingway or not) would probably have been suggesting death. Perhaps not through people’s inherent negative nature, but through reasoning. It’s a logical answer. And although the other possible answers outlined in the email are also logical, they are more boring answers, so I think readers would naturally learn towards a more emotion-packed and interesting answer… Because the very nature of a story is to entertain, and through our preconceptions of what a story is and does, we fill in the blanks to adhere to that definition.
Those are my thoughts, anyway.
i gotta be quick coz i’m at work, but there is no way in heaven, hell or the green and blue bits in between that this six word story is Hemingway’s best work (even hypothetically). Are you kidding? i love hint fiction and other super-short stories (and without meaning to boast, have won a couple of tiny competitions for the form), but c’mon, they aren’t anywhere as hard to construct as a long piece. I mean, with hint fiction especially you have time to write multiple attempts over a short period of time. no, it’s not infinite monkeys and infinite typewriter territory, but if you bugger up a piece of hint fiction, you’ve spent a few minutes doing so. you bugger up a novel or short story and you’ve lost days/weeks/months/years. i’ve written hint fiction, and similar to haiku, you write a handful and one or two work. or you combine two or three good ones to make a really good one.
i love your work Robert, but you’re obviously biased towards hint fiction. not a bad bias, but biased nonetheless. this oft-quoted six word story (Hemingway’s or not) reads like something i or any other writer would jot down in a notebook as the idea for a larger piece. it’s a reminder. it is 1%; the other 99% is not yet written. it’s like looking at a single brick and saying ‘this is as good as a house because i can imagine the house’.
i like to admire hint fiction for what it is; i really like it, but i’d choose a great short story over a thousand great pieces of hint fiction, any day of the week.
Although I liked “The Road” a lot, I can see that it’s brooding depressive nature would have turned many off it if it had been written, say, by me or thee.
Robert, with your background in education I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but how about marketing the Hint Fiction anthology to schools? I plan on requisitioning a dozen or so for use in creative writing. What’s the rest of the story? (just like your inference activity)
Just sayin’.
While Sam has a point, it’s sort of the same as sitting in Art History class and *headdesk* when western art finally figured out how to do 3-d on a 2-d surface. What seems “duh” now, wasn’t at some point. Yes, you can tell a six word story, but before somebody like Hemmingway did it, was anyone listening? Well, now they are.
Sophie – Tentacles, huh? That would make for a VERY interesting twist.
Sam – You’re right, of course. I am biased toward hint fiction, because at this point I HAVE to be
But reread what I’d originally wrote. I’m not saying the six-word story IS Hemingway’s best work. I’m saying I really believe HE considered it his best work as, at the time, it had never been done before. Of course, I don’t think he could have ever imagined it becoming as popular as it was then, but it’s the same way for many authors: what we consider our best work, our favorite work, is usually not regarded so highly by others … if that makes sense.
Charles – Guess we’ll never know now, will be? And to think, you could have been THIS close to being on Oprah!
Aaron – You’re awesome. I know a handful of colleges are starting to play around with it, just as a few high schools are (a local high school made HF part of the mythology lesson this year, and that’s why a lot of stories submitted to this year’s contest contained mythological gods). But yes, we definitely are hoping schools pick it up.
I like to believe Hemingway wrote it and am not very concerned if he didn’t. If he did, I agree with someone above that it isn’t his best writing. But it’s also not a “who cares”? Or everything is a “who cares”? That is the easiest way to dismiss just about anything. But I did get a laugh out of trying to picture Hemingway and one of his many wives on their way to a “Mom to Mom” swap. There was probably no time in Hemingway’s life when any family would have had the glut of baby items that we have now. I’m also not sure it’s true that no one ever wrote a six-word story before Hemingway. Kafka had a an 8-word story: “A cage went in search of a bird.” It came from his journals, so he really is the author. Oh and one last irrelevant comment: The Road is the only book by McCarthy that I have ever been able to finish.
Jane – The only other tiny story written long ago I know about was Augusto Monterroso’s “El Dinosaurio” which I never really cared for. That’s why I’ve always felt the Hemingway piece was far superior. I was not aware, however, of the Kafka piece. I like it!
This is one of the many intriguing aspects to hint fiction: each reader can infer something totally different.
I think the “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn” is a tremendous six word story, no matter who wrote it. There could be so many reasons “behind” this story, not limited to: a stillborn, an infant’s death, a kidnapping, an adoption that fell through, or, as Robert’s student suggested, the absence of legs.
I disagree with Sam’s comment, “if you bugger up a piece of hint fiction, you’ve spent a few minutes doing so…” I’ve spent hours and days on pieces of hint fiction. Can a piece be written in a few minutes? Absolutely. But it can also take hours or days to get it just right.
Just my two cents!