Time and Place (possible spoilers)

[Brad]

Gio said: ..."there's very little reference to time (but always place), so as a reader, you can put whatever time you want within his stories."

So let's talk about that.

[Gary]

i do believe that hemingway is timeless. that' s one of the things i've always liked about him. like, austin, you know it's a particular time frame, but with hemingway, it could happen today,and be believable.

[Gary]

i just read the story. yes, it could easily be happening in 2009, but the thing to think about it was illegal in the united states. and if it was legal in africa, which the title refers to it being in africa,would a hack doctor do the job. at the end of the story, by moving the luggage to the"other tracks", what does that indicate to you their decision turned out to be????

[Gary]

whoops. i realized later it's set in spain. the title threw me off.

[Brad]

I just came by tonight (we're on vacation) and I was going to set you straight about Spain, but you beat me to it. Nicely done. I wonder if it was legal in Spain at that time. It was, after all, a Catholic nation.

[Gary]

when was the copyright of the story? might be able to do a bit of research online. yeah, but, europe still is a lot looser on moral issues then the usa. it's that puritan mentality shit. ha!

plus, there's always switzerland!

[Brad]

I suppose that is the thing about being on the train tracks isn't it? Even if Spain wouldn't have been as willing to perform an abortion you can bet she could have got one in Paris or Switzerland or other places in Europe at the time. I imagine the story is probably during the interwar years, so already looser morals than North America were looser still.