Hemingway and Pleasure

In his consideration of the way pleasure has become a recent topic of critical attention, as opposed to earlier generations\u27 fixations on the codes, the wound, or the repressions of the iceberg, Wyatt locates an early signal, from 1919, in a Hemingway letter to his sister: Taste everything, he advises. Recognizes how publication of The Garden of Eden triggered a wave of critical investigation into sensuality and related threads and how, in light of recent scholarship on Hemingway and food, consumer preference for provenance and authenticity have driven parallel cultural trends in gastronomy and artisanal liquid refreshments. Once again, the author finds instances of epicurean delight throughout Hemingway\u27s work, no example more insightful than a quote and comment on a line from The Battler : \u27As the skillet grew hot the grease sputtered and Bugs…turned the ham and broke the eggs into the skillet, tipping it from side to side to baste the eggs with the hot fat.\u27 Here the repeated s\u27s catch the moment\u27s hot sizzle, and the t\u27s enforce the happy smacking of the lips, demonstrating Hemingway\u27s pleasure in food and in writing about food. Returns to the post-The Garden of Eden scholarship, which began to take Hemingway\u27s complicated sexual and sensual pleasures more seriously