” The chances are that the first bullfight any spectator attends may not be a good one artistically; for that to happen there must be good bullfighters and good bulls; artistic bullfighters and poor bulls do not make interesting fights, for the bullfighter who has ability to do extraordinary things with the bull which are capable of producing the intensest degree of emotion in the spectator but will not attempt them with a bull which he cannot depend on to charge… “
Bullfights might be the cruelest way to entertain people at the cost of animals getting hurt, at least from today’s perspective. In his essay, “Death in the Afternoon” first published in 1932 American author Ernest Hemingway portrays bullfighting in great detail.
He describes picturesque towns and the lightness of summer as well as the feeling one gets when watching a fight. There’s almost something romantic about this battle of life and death in the arena- an art people struggle to comprehend nowadays.
But even Hemingway admits to the cruelty of bullfighting, meaning he does not completely agree with it. It is a tragedy ending with the bull’s death. Hemingway also talks about famous bullfighters, how they lived and died, and more importantly, how they performed in the arena.
Several times Hemingway himself was witness to good men losing their lives in the arena. So, why should you write a book, dealing with this cruel sport? Because it’s a form of sport where death is omnipresent! Death elementary, it is the only thing that we know for sure!
“Death in the Afternoon” is an apt novel, characterizing death so fittingly you can almost grab it and also he still describes a piece of Mediterranean culture, which seems incomprehensible to us from today’s perspective.
Copyright: http://www.rowohlt.de/buch/Ernest_Hemingway_Tod_am_Nachmittag.5223.html
