Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 14:56:42 -0400
From: Stirling Newberry <allegro-AT-thecia.net>
Subject: Re: PLC: Henry Miller and the Academy Who Doesn't Read Him


At 8:13 PM -0500 12/23/97, Eric Yost wrote:
>In his excellent post, Stirling remarks that "It isn't taking the time
>itself which is laudable - thousands will do it, some will do nothing but
>drink and wench - while others will pursue - and
>reach - high standards of art or science.
>
>
>"Courage? It seems more as if you have some notion that being a bum is, in
>itself, laudable, and Miller provides social permission for you to believe
>this.  This is just about the last reason to teach anybody's work."
>
>To say this is to misread Miller.  He was a wretched human being.  But he
>acheived a degree of personal liberation that was rare in his time, and
>documented his own salvation with a candor born of courage.  Granted that
>the "likely suspects" Stirling cites are a glittering pantheon, Miller,
>though of a duller gloss, offers a hopeful vision.  He  is as universal as
>Tolstoy.

If you think that Miller's degree of personal liberation was unusual - then
your social history of Europe between the Wars is pretty week. It was in
fact very common.

>When Stirling writes that  " Miller is what people are
>behind closed doors, " he is dead wrong.  The least important part of
>Miller  is the erotica.  Certainly one cannot be familiar with his works
>and fail to see a mind that flies easily between Nietzsche and Spengler to
>Faure's art history to his description of meeting W.E.B. DuBois or Dali.
>He searches through all kinds of gnostic tangles, going from Ramakrishna to
>Bergson.

To say this makes me wonder whether you can read period. I did not point
out Miler's erotica as the sign of his being what people are like behind
close doors, and the two sequences from "Last Tango In Paris" that I
mentioned would specifically go against any such interpretation. Miller's
self-absorbed ranting, Miller's evasion of responsibility, Miller's desire
to talk about how great he is, and how there is a weight from the past that
bears down on him, Miller's rage and invective.

The difference between a first rate thinker, and first rate writer, of
Nietszche's caliber is rather simple. Miller says his book is a long
running insult, but we forget what that insult really meant. When Nietszche
sharpens his claws in "On Scholars" or in his writings against Wagner - he
really does bring down the house. He's funnier, better read, and a better
example of interconnecting that Miller. Nietzsche would have, in all
probability looked at Miller and said "What a moralist." Because Miller's
rebellion is completely against the normal. Nothing else, agains the
normality that he felt weighing down on him. You call this liberation. But
it is not. You call this subversion, but it is not. To be subversive is to
philosophise with a hammer, not a bottle.

When supporting the idea of Miller as a canonical author, which he is, it
is important to look at what is actually taken from his work, for it is
that which has really moved people to work.

>Stirling writes that " insight
>is to be able to combine the crude parts of the self with the other facets
>of personality. "  Yes and that is the essence of Miller's success.

If Miller is your idea of combining these two facets, then you  have got to
be pretty shallow. He rants, he rails, he exults, he rages, he lathers. He
rinses it down with booze. He repeats.


>Personal liberation is Miller's main concern, not the denial of social
>norms as such.  Whatever form such liberation may take, it cannot but
>unfailingly be personal, and not the stamp of any discernable uniform.
>Simply by insisting on being ourselves, we can subvert the status quo.
>That takes courage, courage which a
>Miller-worshippers/hero-worshippers/disciples obviously do not have.

If Miller's liberation is so personal - then why is it so common and tawdry
and obvious?


Stirling Newberry
business: openmarket.com
personal: allegro-AT-thecia.net
War and Romance: http://www.thecia.net/users/allegro/public_html




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