Mini Post #6: The Hemingway Complex
And how it can be turned into a useful force
Dear Reader,
In his 2002 book: Being a Man in the Lousy Modern World, Robert Twigger discusses something called the Hemingway Complex. This is the force which drove the writer Ernest Hemingway and led him to constantly try to prove himself. He chose to volunteer in WW1 in Italy, he shipped himself straight to Spain to be a part of the Spanish Civil War and he purposely flung himself into the action in WW2. Despite his hardship, when all was said and done and he became a full-time writer, he thought writing was still not manly enough, so pursued several demanding sports in order to build up his tough-guy image in later life.
The Hemingway Complex is thus described as having a constant inescapable nagging feeling that tells you you are not as great as you could be, that you are too weak and soft, and that your life does not challenge you enough.
While Hemingway’s life ended tragically by suicide, and no one would argue that Hemingway’s life full of extreme suffering was deserved and the result of other deep-seated problems, it remains important to discuss this complex for another reason. That is because these feelings of inadequacy and failure seem to have reappeared en masse today, and this time the feelings may be justified. People more than ever live with the feeling that they are failures, that their lives are not challenging enough and that they are wasting their time. The question: “What on earth am I doing here?” (in this job or with these people) seems to be more commonly on people’s lips.
But what could be to blame? Is it confusion about where to go in life? Is it the lack of new wars? Is it the ease and comfort of our modern lifestyles? Or is it our true lack of challenge and struggle? Is it lack of effort we need to put in? Or is it the fact we relax on the weekend? Or are we making it all up and have deeper-seated problems like Hemingway which he went to extreme lengths to fulfil?
Well, Robert Twigger diagnosed the problem to spring from the fact that:
“Work is getting softer, more indoors, less manly.”
Where in the past there would have been blacksmiths, which required decent levels of fortitude and skill to be, and in the industrial age there were car mechanics and engineers, today there are computer programmers who program and change the microchip which controls the fuel gauge in your car.
It is no surprise that if we succumb to the easy 9 to 5, tapping away on our computers about someone’s insurance plan, hunch backed, eating processed food from the shop on the corner, that deep down we will not feel proud of our lives and the effort we are putting in. We are stripping our lives of the grit which makes someone worthy. We are stripping our lives of the challenge and adventure which gives us resilience and bravery. We are stripping our lives of the ability to reach the peak of what we possibly can achieve.
In short, it is our lack of purpose, the crippling ease of our lifestyles, and the lack of effort we put in that drives our collective Hemingway Complex. We are often not people, with grit, determination and drive, but husks doing the same endless thing again and again.
As mentioned, when Hemingway disliked the image of being a writer he purposely put himself through the hardship of sports, while thousands or millions of us every day work jobs which are even less active and demanding, yet do nothing about it.
But all is not lost, if you have the feeling that you truly could push yourself harder and do better, if you have the Hemingway Complex, then now is the time. Now is the time to push yourself harder and become the great strong person you are capable of becoming. It is within your grasp.
To quote Fight Club:
“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives.”
While Hemingway’s own methods can be seen as extreme and self-destructive, and copying him exactly may not be a good idea, you do not need to go to war like he did or even quit you job, but you just need to put the hours into something worthwhile which you would be proud to spend your time on. Find that purpose we lack. Go to the gym, do sports, begin deep intellectual pursuits, climb mountains, anything which makes you better. Do not live your life solely in the office. Escape the crippling ease of modern life.
Sometimes that Hemingway Complex is justified.
I hope you learnt something from this post.
Kindest regards,
The Everything Scholar