More About Hemmingway

I got all inspired by our reCAPTCHA Poetry post, and started wondering what other types of media we could mess with in some new way to create other works derived from the same media. I entered a discovery phase.

At CVS, I saw Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises" on audiobook, as read by William Hurt. I grabbed it, figured what the hell. As I walked home, I wondered what to do with it...maybe put it on random and record that, and release that as art, so it would be these three-minute blocks of Hemmingway out of context and with no relation to what came before or after. Or maybe I could get several audio books, and combine tracks at random, or maybe just audio books read by William Hurt, or...

And then I listened to it, and I got all off track. Because William Hurt, Academy Award-winning actor, reads the entire book like this: "The followING DAY...the FIesTA...explODEd. There is no...other WAY...to DEscribe it." Like he's reading it on a boat in rough seas, and inflecting his voice along with the waves, completely irrespective of the contents of the sentences or their punctuation. It's hella disorienting, and as if Hemmingway wasn't choppy enough already...

This got me thinking about William Hurt -- who used to like to punch deaf girls while drunk -- and wondering...is this is what it sounds like in his head when he reads? And if it is, how could he have ever possibly enjoyed reading anything? Or is he somehow channelling Shatner (my next audiobook purchase)?

Vince out.