Post Office and The Old man and the Sea (1 Viewer)

hey guys, I was considering writing a chapter for my dissertation forming a comparison between Bukowski's Post office and Hemmingway's The old man and the Sea in terms of their representations of the grind of work. I'm trying to say that the post office is for Chinaski what the marlin is for Santiago in terms of the physical and psychological toll they create. I was wondering what thoughts anybody has about this? Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 
My thought is that you should participate in a few threads, contribute to the overall conversation, and then ask for help. Nobody likes a one trick pony.

But since I'm a sucker with philosophy on the brain, I'm going to put my two cents in on your question anyway.

My other thought is that Post Office doesn't 'represent' anything. It is what it is - it expresses something. Calling a work 'representative' demeans it and ignores its itness, its specificity. Fleshing out some possible avenues of meaning of that expression is what critical work, including comparative critical work, is about. And don't be 'trying to say' anything. I will paraphrase Yoda at the drop of a hat. Your project sounds promising. Bukowski is better and more real. And welcome to the forum.
 
My thought is that you should participate in a few threads, contribute to the overall conversation, and then ask for help. Nobody likes a one trick pony.
My thought is that someone with 30 posts shouldn't be telling anyone else what to do around here.
 
there is something existential in the quest. maybe tie in Moby Dick and Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus somehow.

and Hemingway only has one M. ;)
 
Hi JamesM, this may be not be for you; but if your doing a 'free will v necessity' theme on the grind of work, then a direct comparison with the destructive effects of loss of work and the desperation for paid 'drudgery' as in in The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck would be useful? Or as in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the absence of free will to choose work, induced by 'fit for purpose' workers in a docile, drugged up 'utopia' where individualism and creativity is deviant behavior, might be interesting.
 

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