I Hate Hemingway: A Letter

I'm joking! Here is a short letter to Hemingway lovers everywhere:


Dear you,

I'm sure you are a smart person and all, but if you like Ernest Hemingway more than J.D. Salinger than we are simply not meant to be.

I know they were both assholes. I know they were both great writers. Oh man, phonies right? Remember World War Two? It's all good.

It's just sort of a Brand New/Taking Back Sunday thing. A Mary Kate/Ashley thing. A Mets/Yankees thing. A Britney/Christina thing. You have to choose one.

To me, Salinger is the Ash to Hemingway's Gary.

Also, Salinger wrote other literary works- mostly short stories and the novel Franny and Zooey- and IT IS ALL AMAZING. Go read "Teddy", and then come back and try to argue with me, okay? All right okay I'm done.

But seriously, : read his short stories. Why don't you start with A Perfect Day For Bananafish? It's from the JD Salinger short story collection Nine Stories. Yeah, click that link. You can read it in a PDF! I love the internet. By the way, I lost my beloved copy of Nine Stories last semester. If you happen to find one, send it my way...because the Strand bookstore doesn't have any copies, what?! Lame.

By the way, a letter sent to Hemingway by Salinger is now being displayed at the JFK Library in Boston. Check it out.

“That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose.”  - J. D. Salinger

Can you tell that he was raised in New York City? haha!

“An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.”   -J. D. Salinger

There we go.

xo, Nikkidee :]