File spoon-archives/phillitcrit.archive/phillitcrit_2000/phillitcrit.0008, message 304


From: Douve1-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 23:59:26 EDT
Subject: Re: PLC: Poetry, prose, fiction as meaningful



Troy wrote
> I read for entertainment. 

This could be one factor in your posts coming under attack as often as they 
do. You're on a list with people who read professionally (and for 
entertainment), and who are in professional mode when on list.

I have recently
>  read Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer." It was a lot of fun to read, and I
>  have learned a lot about writing from him, butI wouldn't suggest it
>  necessarily as a place to go to learn how to live. He's a bum and a
>  scoundrel and he's sexist - but a joy to get to know. 

Yes, he is, and that even I considered him a 'joy' to get to know is in part 
a sign that we live in world where in most men are encouraged to think about 
women the way Henry does, that is, as conquests and ornaments, and that most 
women are still encouraged to see themselves that way.  It was the actual 
descriptions of fucking and the dropout life and the critiques of the status 
quo for men that got him in trouble with critics and censors.  But the 
attitude about women, no.  

But, he too, Troy, is writing with a moral -- an anti-establishment moral, 
but a moral nonetheless.  He gives speeches, proselytizes, in his novels 
even!  Did you not notice that?  Your view doesn't seem to hold, and 
certainly does not explain its own contradictions.  Having them explained 
might be helpful, for me at least.

peace,
Simone




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