Hemingway + The Killers = Hip

If you think of hip as the perceptual present, ones identity, and knowledge, does Hemingway’s The Killers equal hip?

In Hip: The History John Leland says about The Killers, “The present that never becomes the past” (75), but he also says about Hemingway, “In the absence of a past, he too, was remaking himself in the present” (74).

Perceptual present – everything we experience is in what we consider our present, even when we are thinking about the past or future, we are doing this in the present.

The Killers:

Time – The time of this story is never clear, what is talked about in the present, killing a man never happens, so it never becomes part of the past.

Identity – For most of the characters their identity is not clear, except for Sam you always know who Sam is, at least him physically.

Knowledge – Everyone in this story seems to be confused about what is going on except Ole Anderson; he knows why the men have come, and what his ultimate fate will be.

Does The Killers equal hip? I think the way Hemingway wrote The Killers, a story about trepidation, where the reader just like the characters never really know what is going on, but we know it must end badly at some point, was creative. I’m not prepared to agree or disagree; I will just sit in the perceptual present and ponder it.