Ernest + Pound = BFFL

Looking back on Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast I realize how time went by so quickly, which is a rare feeling that occurs to me while reading a book. A Moveable Feast was such an easy and fast read, as described in class, it felt like reading a television series or as if recalling in memory. Seeing all the relationships he developed and habits he formed during his time in Paris was very relatable and insightful.

With the book you get to see the true identities and personalities of such famous and inspiring people: Gertrude stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound, to name a few. You see his relationship with them and the evolution of some of their careers and the truth behind their work and words.

His relationship with Ezra Pound was a harmonious and respectful relationship, professionally and amicably. Such a friendship must be difficult to strike in such a competitive field; they were both starving writers aiming for success with their words. However, Hemingway always spoke highly of him and even defended him from his other highly respected confidant, Stein. He involves Pound in his chapters with nothing but simple and bare words. If I recall from some of the pages in A Moveable Feast, he describes Pound as one of his best friend during his time in Paris, and “one of the kindest people he knows.”

He praised his work, even though at times he may not have always agreed or shared with Pound’s opinions he did not argue with him about it, he respected him. He enthusiastically praised Pound, contrasting Steins methods, which was based mainly judgment of personality and character; she was biased.

Writing Fiction Based on Walking

This walk was quite a challenge, for I was injured. This walk probably would’ve been a thirty to 20 minute exploration, but in the end it felt like an endless fight to the end.

Walking through the passage follows the atrium-like style around Paris. I went to one place that looks almost and not if looks exactly like the inside of the passages. It’s a Sunday flea market called Le Carreau du Temple, and when I went in my head I thought, “only in Paris can they make a flea market look fancy.”

I read a bit about the passages before I left, and I saw the specific definition and explanation for what I was about to participate to. The site said the passage was a “… private road open to the public, a shortcut between several channels, whether covered or not. Pedestrian area, the passage can house both commercial and housing. Only rich ornamentation and luxury boutiques differentiate a passage gallery.” I was confused with the notion that people could possibly be living there, because at first I thought it was a mall type of situation.

The style of the passage was very industrial like, it follows the cities themes that I believe it has in its architectural design: Industrial and historic. The walk was the exact opposite from my place and was not close to my past walks, which is why I find myself learning more in this assignment. In past assignments I found streets or areas that I have accidently strolled through or been to. This is, from what I recall, the first time an assignment has plucked me from my arrondissement and placed me in an unknown and not yet explored location by me.

Henry Miller

I find Henry Miller’s writing to be very serene, to be poetic, but not pretentious. I absolutely detest poetry, it’s a form of writing I could live without and find myself to be incredibly happy. Henry Miller’s writing is poetic, but it’s understanding that is why I can tolerate it.

This excerpt reminds me a lot of myself, and my travelling. Obviously mine is a more little lighthearted. I have packed up and moved a lot, I have moved from different countries, states, and even addresses. Its frustrating, especially for me, because I am not necessarily a fan of packing with my very LOUD Italian parents at hand.

I am more of a homebody, and even while leaving in Paris, both of my parents have currently moved; my mom back to America, my father sold my New York apartment, and in Los Angeles I have new house with my father. So I have not necessarily been happy with this arrangement of constantly moving and this unhappiness will continue when I find myself packing up from what I finally started to call my life here in Paris.

Reading further, and seeing his simple fluidity is in connection to the Paris lifestyle. Everything is so smooth here, and unlike America, where they are so uptight, in Paris everything can be explicit and open. For example, he speaks of whores, opium, and sex very openly.

However, the words and sentences are not derogatory or horrendous. Its actually very well put and goes perfectly with what he is saying and trying to accomplish.

Another sentence, I find myself relating to was the “where do we go from here?”

Living in Los Angeles there was always a plan for the night, this was mainly done because of driving and drinking and everything is in a distance. Living in New York, at night, it was mainly bars and we stuck to the ones next to each other. Now living in Paris, we usually start with dinner, but then we just walk with no significant plan. It’s a joy to walk in Paris, because everything seems to be or look like a historic landmark. For instance, last weekend me and my friends started with dinner and wine and from then on we walked through the stairs and they grabbed a crepe and I went over the grass and jumped in the empty fountains in front of the Eiffel tower and we watched the Eiffel tower light show. Perhaps mine is a little more PG, but that’s what I envisioned and correlated to when I saw that sentence.

Urban Nature: Combined Essay

                                                Urban Nature

I always said and have always called myself a “city” person.  I am a very fast paced, impatient person. I live off of other people surrounding me and I enjoy being in walking vicinity of all my necessary needs, such as:  restaurants, clothes, groceries, and much more. It is ironic, because I did not start that way. I was born in Italy, Puglia, where everything was dark and tiny and everything was not necessarily a drive, but if you walked you would feel like your stepping onto the set of Jeepers Creepers and you would feel very unsafe and scared.

I was born with more nature than concrete, it was beautiful, but as a kid I loathed it. I wanted to leave and that wish was later granted a couple years later when I moved to New York for college. Even my move to Los Angeles was not suffice, it was still so dark in the majority of the city, because in truth there was only one street light for every two blocks. I always called it a zombie town, because of how slow and nonchalant everyone seemed to be and how at night in some neighborhoods it tended to look like an apocalypse had just went down and everyone had been vanquished or disappeared. However, when I left I never knew how much I would miss, besides the food, its nature. The hikes, the grass, the water, its nature was one of the things I failed to understand or remember to say bye to when I left.

So when I left Los Angeles and I arrived to the metropolis New York, I was at first blind. I was excited the lifestyle I wanted, which was city life, had finally come to be. If I wanted food, I would go across the street, if I wanted to go to school, I would take the metro below my building and in one stop I was there. Everything was fast and quick, just how I liked it to be. So when I returned back to zombie town and I was greeted with what they always seem to live up to, which was there nickname, I did not realize what else I would be hit with, which was my longing for real and non-manmade nature. I missed my scenic drives (and driving as a whole), my lookout points, and the fact that if I wanted to be in nature it was just a twenty to thirty minute drive.

When I returned to what I now call my third home, my walks through central park just felt unreal and depressing, the state of weather that New York was in was also no help. Irony later fell on my lap, when I was assigned to explore all the parks of New York from one class, and in another I learned about biodiversity. From what I learned was that where Central Park was, unsurprisingly, was what used to be more of its metropolis. From biodiversity, I learned about the urbanization and choice selection of the trees, plants, and animals that was placed in Central Park. From what I recall, which may not be much, when the committee were selecting which trees and animals to unleash within the new natured vicinity. They did not take in consideration if the animals, trees, and plants would truly work together. After discovering that they did not, the committee played god and manipulated the nature of the park into working in a way that perhaps the plants and trees would never have done so from the start.

Although, I seem to be complaining, I am learning to just understand what is presented to me and stop fighting it, because at least there is some sort of escape from the constant concrete that tends to be now always around me.

This leads me to my now new life in Paris, and my return to Europe. Once again, I have found myself in a city life, something I adore, and once again I forgot something I would miss or as a human, need. This was nature; in New York at least it was a big piece urbanized landscape that went for miles. Here, at first, I had the largest difficulty with all the bans and requirements and locating it. Then we were assigned two parks, back to back, the first being Parc Monceau and the second being Parc des Buttes Chaumont.

The first, Monceau, was huge and it made me a bit nostalgic in regards to New York and its Central Park. It had all the things I have seen in all past parks I had visited; children playing, people working out, and couples strolling. I did not expect that part to be different, but what I saw instead was the aesthetic and the design of the city carried into the park. The park was more fluid and in tune with its city, although it may disrupt Paris’ roads, it at least continues its design aesthetic. Monceau has a very “ruin” or romantic feel. It feels as if it has a past and as if it was designed to be strolled and looked at. Most parks they plant a tree and place a few statues, but Monceau was so beautiful and so breathtaking that it made me feel relaxed with its nature. Getting lost in it was a pleasure more than a stress or burden. I also, unintentionally, planned it at a moment when the five minutes of sun that is granted everyday in Paris to be shining at the moment I was walking through.

I recently learned how to walk for pleasure I used to detest it. It was in my DNA to hate it, because I lived in a place where cars were a necessity for movement and transportation, and this is all thanks to my lovely zombie town. However, once I moved to New York and I became accustomed to its lifestyle and geography, I refused to use any other form of transportation besides my feet. This is only mainly accomplished in the summer, fall, and spring. Not a single soul could catch me outside in winter.

So since then I have adored walking, I cannot place a reason but perhaps that it is the only source of meditation that works on a character type like me. It is the only form to calm me and relieve me of all the annoyances that hit me throughout the day. I have never been one to meditate; it actually infuses me with more anxiety and stress, because the idea to stand or sit and not move, gives me stress. When I used to live in Los Angeles, I would go for drives when I was upset or needed space. Paris provides me with my favorite modes of transportation to help me relax all the while staring at its historic architecture and city.

Overall, I understand what the city is trying to accomplish. It is trying to create an illusion or a five-minute escape for its citizens. I always need a break from the city and the park provides it, and when I visit either of the parks, which I have so fortunately been able to see or visit, it certainly provides me with what I need. Especially in the summer and the trees and plants are fully blossomed and flourished in leaves and flowers, you can definitely block out the outside views of the tops of buildings. Luckily, I am one of the very few who enjoys the sound of traffic and cars so the noise pollution is never a bother.

I opportunely have temporarily moved to a location where it’s meant to be strolled through. Everything is designed and structured so beautifully, so I feel, even for non-walkers it is difficult not to even want to attempt it.  I was told the only to acquaint yourself with a new home and city was to walk through and get lost in it. Every time I was assigned a new place, and especially the park, I decided to lose myself in them. Each time I found a new way home with a new location to go to. After my visits to the park, I visited Montplier and took abuse to the fact that every city is either an hour or lower away and I went hiking and more. It was the perfect escape. So far, living in Paris, I have been granted the bests of all three of my past homes; the best food, nature and city life, beauty, and my family being in near vicinity. Paris does a good job of incorporating nature and city life. The parks were beautiful and a joy to visit.