[theoh]

It's only within a cultural context that it seems odd to liken a less famous writer to a more famous one. For an outsider it would be unremarkable and possibly helpful.

I think the feeling about comparing yourself with Hemingway, or Hemingway with yourself (note: comparison does have an asymmetric feeling for me) may arise from the fact that you don't really believe your (hypothetical, putative) writing is similar to Hemingway's on the crucial dimension of quality. So it naturally jars to think of Hemingway's writing defined as similar to it.

The words of the defendant in your example actually read to me more like a Groucho Marx gag than a credible defense, but I'm in Ireland where usage may differ.