Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 16:36:59 -0500 From: Eric Yost <103423.421-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: PLC: Henry Miller and the Academy Quoth Sterling, "This is subversive?" What makes it subversive is that it is actually lived. I mean, what if people actually did some of the things literature recommends? What if -- instead of a track to law school, teaching, or journalism -- literature were actually meant to be lived? What if people put all their career plans (aka comfort strategies) aside until they had dealt with core existential issues? That's subversive! And unlike beatnik felon Herbert Huncke (that the guy, Reg?) Miller actually dropped his drawers and went out into the unknown. There may be none of Nabokov's sublime touch or Mann's consistent play of ideas, but there's a spirit in Miller that, to me at least, elevates his work's obvious shortcomings. Courage is very subversive. Because he seems to be mostly about courage, Miller should be taught more widely. --- from list phillitcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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