The Importance of Reading Ernest
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
Reviewed by Laurence Windham

Hard to believe that I haven't used this column, until now, to recommend the writings of Ernest Hemmingway. I have found his short stories to be concise illustrations of real lives and lifestyles. His characters live among us in the personages of friends, family members, co-workers, and acquaintances. Readers of his works also find that the situations and circumstances that his protagonists find themselves in and the actions and reactions based on character or the lack thereof simulate their own. His writing style is earthy, realistic, and conversational.

My first encounter with Hemingway happened while I was in Chicago for a friend's ordination. A group of us were there for a week before the event. One particular day, the group had decided to go see the Chinese acrobatic circus that was in town. About an hour before we were to leave, I found a collection of The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway in my friend's library. By the time the rest of the group was ready to leave for Wheaton, I was already somewhere in the heart of Africa with Ernest. My friends left and I read and napped, and read and napped, all day in a big easy chair near a window looking out on the city from my friend's apartment.

The Big Two Hearted River is inspiration enough to make backpackers of us all. The way that the character "Nick" hikes into the northern forests of Michigan and sets up camp makes you want to leave tomorrow. You can almost smell the food he cooks up in his skillet. Your pallet relishes the coffee sweetened by apricot juice, your tongue recoils in sympathy when "Nick" tastes the hot beverage too soon. The subsequent fishing that takes place during the rest of the story and "Nick's" inner dialogue with himself is something that we all should relate to. That is, if we take the time to do things that allow for reflection.

One of his "shorts" deals principally with manhood. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber is, in the words of my friend Mark Nordstrom, "a kick in the head". The story is victorious and tragic at the same time as the reader witnesses a boy/mans' transfiguration into a man. The story plumbs the depths of vanity, insecurity, adultery, shame and courage.

My favorite short story, by far, is The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The main character in this story is a man by the name of Harry who is dying. As he gets closer to death, He begins to evaluate his life- both past and present, and also future plans that he now will not get to. This story, like most of Hemingway, is depressing in nature. But the life story that is presented, with all the failures, the compromises, and the neglect of things important should provoke any reader to healthy introspection and evaluation of priorities. You could possibly view this whole story as the outcome of a person who refused the wisdom found in the book of Ecclesiastes.

The World's One Foundation
Foundation, by Isaac Asimov
Reviewed by R.C. Sproul Jr.

There is a difference between quantity and quality. A little bit of good trumps a lot of bad, but a lot of both is better still. Asimov, however, is victorious and both arenas. He has written nearly 300 books in his life. The Foundation series, as of 1988, consisted of seven titles, totaling over 650,000 words. I'm not done yet, but I'm coming down the homestretch. I am reading my fifth volume, and looking forward to the rest.

Asimov is by far the most well-known of science fiction writers. But he is more than that. He has written learned monographs on various scientific theories as well, and has a deep philosophical bent. The Foundation Series was awarded the "Greatest Science Fiction Series Ever Written Award" or some such thing from some society which believes it has the authority to make such decisions.

The premise in the series is rather simple. Hari Seldon, a mathematical wizard, has the ability to read the future. That ability is not supernatural, but the natural result of careful sociological and mathematical calculations. And what he sees doesn't look good. The Galactic empire, which has fostered stability and prosperity, if not liberty, across the 25 million planets under its sway, is about to collapse. What would follow is, according to Hari's calculations, roughly 30,000 years of utter barbarity, throughout the universe.

But Hari has a plan. If his calculations are correct, and if his plan is followed, the dark ages will be reduced down to a mere millenium. Quite a gift to leave to mankind, wouldn't you say? Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation, the first three released (in the early 1950's) but three through five chronologically, deal with the first half of that thousand years. The first two, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation deal with Hari Seldon's life, while Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth are yet a complete mystery to me.

What makes the books so delightful is watching the plan unfold, and watching the interaction of economics, philosophy, and even religion (though it is conspicuous by its near absence) in the forming of culture, and in its destruction. The sheer sweep of the books is breathtaking, and is sure to promote, wisely or not, a great deal of speculation about the future. What are we doing for what lies ahead? Can we, and ought we, try to read the signs of the times? Should we, and if so, how should we prepare for the eventual decline and collapse of western civilization? These are heavy questions that are sparked by this light reading.

These books are not high art, but they are folk art. They are fun and intriguing. While most of the characters are cardboard cut-outs, nevertheless one is at least concerned for the future of the empire as a whole. If you want some fun reading with a comparatively low guilt quotient, these seven books would be a fine place to begin. Just watch out for the modernist spin, and place not your hope in mathematics.