{"id":2746,"date":"2013-04-09T16:25:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T21:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/?p=2746"},"modified":"2013-04-09T16:25:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T21:25:55","slug":"from-the-archives-homework-from-grade-12-the-old-man-and-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/?p=2746","title":{"rendered":"From the archives: Homework from Grade 12, The Old Man and the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fish & Chips & Literature<\/strong>
\nTranscription from An Interview with Ernest Hemingway<\/em>
\nThe Old Man and the Sea: What did the fish mean to the man?<\/em><\/p>\n

[Theme music. Captain Higliner sits at a table with Gilligan and Ernest Hemmingway, in front of a live studio audience.]<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nHello, and welcome to another sea-faring adventure in “Fish & Chips & Literature”. Today my guest is none other than that crazy skipper of literature, Ernest Hemingway. Hello, Ernest.<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nGood day, Captain.<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nAlso with us is that crazy first mate, Gilligan. Welcome aboard!<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nThank you very much. I’m your greatest fan, Mr. Highliner.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nThat’s Captain Highliner, you barnacle. Now, Ern… an interesting question has popped up, Ern. What exactly drove you to write a story all about a paradoxical theme such as one man’s need in life to seek meaning beyond his ability?<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nWhat? I don’t remember writing that.<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nSure you do! The Old Man and the Sea? The story symbolizes one man’s struggle with his dreams. He seeks the epitome of divinity from nature by trying to attain perfection in the fish he tries to catch.<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nUh … I don’t know. I just wrote a story about a big fish, humungous fish, and then this guys… he totally catches it. A really big fish.<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nYes, but the fish! It’s so much more than a fish! The fish embodies every dream of the Old man. It is his quest for wholeness with the sea, wholeness with the water, wholeness within himself.<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nYes! The fish, it is a simple metaphor representing the existential failure to find meaning in life. We all have a fish we seek to catch, it is our “pour soi,” as opposed to our “en soi”. The man was born by the sea, he lived by the sea, and thus he is a part of the sea, and the sea a part of him. He exists, and defines himself through his relationship with the sea. The sea is important to the man, because it doesn’t sum up his existence, it is<\/em> his existence. And his struggle to catch the fish is his struggle with himself to find a meaning in life, a purpose, a universal essence that sadly, just doesn’t exist.. That’s why you put the sea there.<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\n(Confused.) I had to put the sea there, though, or his boat wouldn’t float well.<\/p>\n

Captain Highliner<\/em>
\nAh! Brilliant! It really makes one think: How do any of us travel in life without a boat if we don’t have a boat, we must not have sea. This must mean we are all trapped in a pathetic state where life has no meaning because we cling to false notions, false realities. The Old Man is more alive than any one of us, for he floats upon an\u00a0ocean, unnoticed by the world around him, defining himself while we landlubbers, who have no ocean, no metaphor for vastness and freedom, remain undefined and meaningless.<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nI’m intrigued: does this mean that that the meaning of life is found within our quest for the unattainable? The more we strive for an unreachable quest, the more meaning we create for ourselves?<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nWhat? I just like fish. I thought it would be neat to catch a big fish. I mean, a really big fish. The biggest fish in the whole world.<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nAh yes, it all makes sense now! People have not abandoned their will to choose their passions, they are simpiy ignoring it. People do not understand they are always free choose. Consequently, we spend our lives with idle passiveness. The passion, the quest, the struggie with the infinite, the ocean, that brings us any form of purpose, is lost with our contentment with the guppies and minnows of life. The bigger the\u00a0fish, the greater your pursuit and the greater sense–sense–of purpose you will attain.<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nI’m getting a sense of *something*, that’s for sure. Listen, you guys, no one has said anything nice like, “The fish thing was really cool, Hemingway,” or, “Wow, that’s a big fish in there!” \u2026 You guys didn’t ever read my book, did you?<\/p>\n

[Captain Highliner and Gilligan bow their heads guiltily.]<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nUhrnm … Well, I read the back ….<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nI read some, but, you know … I mean, I’ve been busy … Un ….<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nYou guys probably don’t even know what a fish is.<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nWell, just you look here, Mr. Smartypants. Are you insinuating we are not intellectually sophisticated as yourself to understand your writing? Because if you are I’ll march right over there and knock your block off.<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nGilligan sit down! Be a dignified fisherman: arm-wrestle over it.<\/p>\n

[Crowd goes crazy. They arm-wrestle. Gilligan wins.]<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nOW! OW! My arm! \u2026 You’ve broken it! It’s … You’ve broken it off!!!<\/p>\n

[Gilligan stands on the Captain’s desk, swinging Hemingway’s arm above his head triumphantly.]<\/p>\n

Gilligan<\/em>
\nl’m so proud! This is the same arm that wrote “Moby Dick!!!”<\/p>\n

Highliner<\/em>
\nOoh! I’m so intellectually stimulated! Tartar sauce for everybody!!!<\/p>\n

[Screams from the crowd. Attendants enter the crowd handing out free gift packs of tartar sauce to ecstatic crowd members.]<\/p>\n

Hemingway<\/em>
\nSo when all’s done, so’s my arm. Life: Is it to speak, or is it to do? Is it to fish, or is it to lose? I will never know the answer, and as I lay here bleeding happily, I think I just have.<\/p>\n

[The interview continues for another twenty minutes, with the discussion of fish and chips in Plato’s cave.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fish & Chips & Literature Transcription from An Interview with Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea: What did the fish mean to the man? [Theme music. Captain Higliner sits at a table with Gilligan and Ernest Hemmingway, in front of a live studio audience.] Highliner Hello, and welcome to another sea-faring adventure in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2748,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2746\/revisions\/2748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsatski.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}