day of drinking

Malena told me a story of one traditional meaning of the bullfights in spain. the bull represents a man and the bullfighter a woman. he comes for her but she side-steps the thrust everytime, inflicting an injury to the hapless suitor, and in the end she kills him with her blows. my first reaction was to descredit this symbolism as overly cynical. however after thinking about it, i see some validity in it. perhaps hemmingway, who knew and loved the bullfights, deserted his 'true' love because he knew his spine might be lost in the process.