“Write hard and clear about what hurts”
- Ernest Hemingway
This has always been one of my favorite quotes, while thinking about it this week, I realized how well it went along with Nietzsche philosophy. Nietzsche differs from other philosophers in that instead of running from pain and making his life as clean and sterile as possible, he argues that people should embrace the hurt and allow it to grow you. He says that without that pain, you cannot reach full potential. It is clear Hemingway agrees with this philosophy. He is telling readers that to create truly great art (whether that happens to be writing, painting, etc.) you have to create about something that matters, that is relatable. He is saying channel your pain, your heartache and create something truly memorable and messy. Embrace the hurt and don’t try to sterilize life, rather write (or create) hard and clear about what hurts.
I think this quote goes along perfectly with what Nietzsche says about embracing suffering. By embracing suffering, it enables you to better yourself by allowing yourself to learn from the bad experiences. It allows you to "write hard and clear about what hurts" because in the end you'll be able to look back at those times and know that you went at them with honesty and emotion, which is what Nietzsche argues that we do. I liked the comparison to Hemingway because this quote does show that he agrees with Nietzsche's thoughts on embracing suffering, because sometimes we have to do things that are hard and that hurt, but that's part of life and we should embrace it, not shun it away.
ReplyDeleteThis quote by Ernest Hemingway is a great representation of what Nietzsche tries to portray through his philosophy. He says to embrace life with all you have, because there's no way for you to reach your full potential when you have regrets from not taking risks. Yes, it's scary to not know what way happen, but that's what makes life exciting and the only way to expand your personal horizons.
ReplyDeleteThis quote also illustrates the way in which Nietzche thought about negative life experiences. He felt as though it was the attitude you took from these experiences that made the difference. For example, someone can have a terrible and traumatic upbringing, but they could either choose to have an attitude that causes them to use these experiences in a positive way, such as making art from it, or choose to have an attitude that causes them to make more negativity out of their past experiences. I think this is something that Hemingway is advocating in his quote. If you have negative experiences, write about it, writing being a metaphor for the use of those negative experiences to create something. Another key thing to note is that this way of thinking leads to the implication that any great writer should have substance before they attempt to create great works, for it is often the experiences one has in life that help someone create great works. Hemingway simply uses writing as an example and a viable channel in which to do this.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great comparison to what Nietzsche says about suffering. I find it interesting how he differs from other philosophers when it comes to suffering. For example, Stoicism says to remove disturbing emotions and to remove struggles but Nietzche says embrace it. I believe it is important to let bad experiences or struggles form you in a better version of yourself. I believe it makes us a stronger person and allows us to hopefully get through future struggles a tad bit easier.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great connection.
I love this idea! I completely agree with both Nietzshe and Hemingway on this topic. By eliminating pain and suffering, I believe you would effectively be erasing the potential for progress. "practice makes perfect" and "try, try, try again" would not be sayings if it weren't for failure, which goes hand-in-hand with pain and suffering. We do need to embrace these times that we are not so proud of so that we can build on them and eventually reach our goals or become better, more pure and insightful individuals.
ReplyDelete