#257 | What Is the Timeless Lesson in Hemingway’s Pulitzer and Nobel Prize Winning Novella, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’?
Quick SUMMARY:
Douglas Vigliotti discusses Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella, “The Old Man and the Sea”. He explores Hemingway’s life, literary influence, and the novella’s enduring themes of perseverance, luck, and the human condition. Vigliotti shares favorite quotes and reflects on the importance of process over outcome, encouraging listeners to embrace resilience, engage with great literature, and to never lose the capacity for entertaining metaphor as a means of learning and seeing the world.
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TOPICS COVERED IN the EPISODE:
Introduction & Newsletter Promo (00:09) - Host introduces the episode, the book, and promotes the companion newsletter.
About Hemingway & His Legacy (01:18) - Discussion of Hemingway’s impact, his life, and his dualities as a writer and person.
Hemingway’s Struggles & Duality (02:24) - Explores Hemingway’s personal struggles, mental health, and the paradox of greatness and trouble.
Book Summary & Main Themes (03:44) - Overview of "The Old Man and the Sea," its plot, and major themes like luck, perseverance, and man versus nature.
Craft, Criticism, and Metaphor (06:08) - Analysis of the book’s literary style, critical reception, and the importance of metaphor.
Process vs. Outcome (07:16) - Reflection on the theme of focusing on process over results, with personal insights.
Favorite Quotes & Their Meanings (07:56) - Host shares and interprets favorite quotes from the novella, relating them to broader life lessons.
Closing, Contact, and Book Promo (09:41) - Wrap-up, how to support or contact the host, and promotion of the host’s own book and newsletter.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome back to “Books for Men”, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week I am turning back to a classic work. It is fiction. It is a novella. I guess it is short, around 128 pages or so. Came out originally in 1952 and it is called “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway. Of course, I will share more about the author in the story and why the book matters. And of course, some of my favorite quotes. But before I do that, I want to quickly remind you that there is a companion newsletter that goes with this podcast. And in a nutshell, it just rounds up all of the episodes from that month, sharing all of the author and publication information, along with episode summaries and all the key quotes from the book, as well as some additional book recommendations and other helpful links. So if you're in a hurry and you just want the meat and potatoes, the good stuff, then I highly recommend going over to BooksforMen.org and signing up for that once-a-month email.
01:18 - All right, so now that I've got that out of the way, let's turn back to the work at hand. “The Old Man in the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway. So what can I say about Hemingway that hasn't already been said both broadly and by me, because he is the second repeat author on this podcast? The first was the modern Japanese noirist Fuminori Nakamura, but I shared Hemingway's debut, “The Sun Also Rises”, in episode 117, which was actually one of the most listened to episodes on the podcast over the last three years, which is pretty cool. I will link that episode in the show notes. So since I shared his debut, I wanted to share his last ever work with you. And that's how we've got to. The book that I am sharing today. You know, Hemingway was a lot of things. Many are not so flattering. But above all, he was a writer who changed writing. And not many can say that this is something that I covered briefly in that first episode, so I won't get into it in too much detail here, but I even cited Murakami's thoughts on that.
02:24 - Someone else whom I featured on this podcast. But among a life of many faults, I would say it was his artistic integrity that ranked high as a strength in his life. And it's the thing we still quote unrelentingly and admire him for. And it's the very thing that I, in so many other writers, have latched on to over the years. Of course, that strength could detour into neuroticism, envy, fear of decline, and a list of other self-destructive behaviors. I would say like alcohol abuse, addiction, paranoia, and ultimately, this culminated in the taking of his own life. Of course, the root of this was his depression and trauma stemming from his father's suicide and his familial mental illness. A great three-part documentary that covers Hemingway's life in detail is the Ken Burns PBS documentary. It's tremendous, and I think I'm actually due for a rewatch since I've only watched it once. I highly recommend it. But there is one more thing of note before I talk about the story. And that's in general, I think it's really hard for people to come to grips with this idea that what makes someone great or unique or special also makes them troubled in other aspects of their life.
03:44 - It's like you can't have one extreme without the other. I think the brightest example of this is Tiger Woods, who was utterly amazing in one way and utterly broken in another way, and it was that same thing that drove both of those in his life that made him the person that he was again. I think for many people, it's a more glowing example of this. Whereas Hemingway, surely, or at least in my eyes, exemplifies the same duality. It's sort of like the paradoxical thinking of Oscar Wilde, which I shared a couple of episodes ago, and it's just this constant reminder that life is a two-sided coin. Heads doesn't come without tails. There's just no divorcing that. To me, this is just a really honest and true way to look at life, even if it is hard to come to grips with, especially when it hits home with people in our own lives. But enough about that. Let's turn to the book and story more specifically. So, quite simply, it's about a fisherman named Santiago who has gone close to three months without catching a fish.
05:01 - I think the exact number of days is 84 or something like that, because it's the 85th day that this luck turns, but I won't spoil that and tell you about the plot. I don't like to do that, just in case you haven't read it. But every day he plods out there with his rod and reel, looking for his first catch. And as I just said, without totally spoiling what happens, I will just say that one day that luck turns, but not before he suddenly gets unlucky again. I would say this notion of luck is one of the big themes riding in this book, along with perseverance in the meaning of success, and how to handle failure and isolation. And of course, there's the whole man versus nature component. Or, as I like to think of it, man versus the unknown or man versus the uncontrollable. Something that I think, as you age, you really have to come to grips with in your life in some fashion, because you realize how little control you actually have of the things that happen in your life.
06:08 - And if you're a listener of this podcast, you know, this is something that I talk about quite often. Many have praised this book for its precision from a craft standpoint and its rich themes, but going along with that same idea of strength can be a weakness. The very same things that won this work and Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, are the same things some of its detractors or critics didn't like about the book, and I find that to be really interesting. The metaphor and the irony for some is a little too on the nose, the sea, the fish nature. But to me, in a world that's devoid of metaphor right now, I think it strikes the right balance. Not just that, but this book matters because it shows you that what you do every day and more. So, how you approach what you do every day from a mental standpoint is your life, not the result. So it's a tale as old as time, something again that you've heard me talk about on this podcast.
07:16 - I've written about it in my own work. It's the idea of process versus outcome, and I just couldn't think of a better lesson to learn. And why not learn it from the hands of a master like Hemingway? Having said that, let me close out this episode by sharing some of my favorite quotes from the work. So the first one, and perhaps my favorite, is when he writes, “The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time. And he never thought about the past when he was doing it.” A tough pill to swallow for sure, but it's an important reminder to remain in the present and not hang your hat on the past. Or even more so, think about the future. Again, all of these are ideas that we've already talked about on the podcast. Another quote that I like is when he writes, “Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. So when luck comes. You are ready.”
08:30 - Goes without explaining, but I will hammer it home and just say it's a very Hemingway-esque way of saying focus on your craft. So when your time comes, you are ready for it. And I'll quickly share just two more before I wrap this up. The first being, “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” There may not be a more important idea than that in showing that resourcefulness is the key trait for those who are able to achieve tall tasks, or at least it's a realistic way to place the control back in your hands. Because, as we already mentioned, there are so many aspects like the great big ocean and sea that are uncontrollable for you, just as they are for our protagonist in this story, Santiago. And the last quote that I am going to share with you is this one. “Everything about him was old except his eyes, and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.”
09:41 - I think that quote is deserving of letting you stew on it and consider the meaning of it, if it is not already obvious to you. Okay, so that's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Of course, if you did, the best thing that you can do to support the podcast is click subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on, because that is the best way for new listeners to find the show and, in return, inspire more men to read. If you want to reach out to me, there are two ways that you can do so: on Instagram @DouglasVigliotti. It's the only social media that I have or via my website DouglasVigliotti.com. I didn't mention this at the top of the episode, but I do have a new book out titled “Aristotle for Novelists: 14 Timeless Principles on the Art of Story”. If you'd like to find out more information about that, you can visit the website AristotleforNovelists.com. Last but not least, for more information on this podcast specifically, which includes signing up for that newsletter that I mentioned earlier in the episode, which rounds up all of the episodes. All you have to do is head over to the website BooksforMen.org.
