Catalonia Bans Bullfights (Hemingway Saw It Coming)

Score one for the bulls. Catalonia became the first region in mainland Spain to ban bullfighting today, reports the BBC. Animal rights activists who see the sport as barbaric succeeded in getting the ban passed, much to the dismay of those who see it as an integral part of the nation's tradition.

So what would Hemingway think of all this? He celebrated bullfights in his novels, but he probably wouldn't be surprised, writes books editor Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. Even in the 1920s, sentiment against the sport ran high. He wished opponents would just go away, but, as he wrote in Death in the Afternoon, "that is too much to expect and anything capable of arousing passion in its favor will surely raise as much passion against it."
(More bullfighting stories.)