Love Verse 96, (C)l996,(C)2005 A. Alexander Volenski Love Verse 96 is a book of analogy's and essays on various subjects; love, nature, music, famous authors/authoress's, etc.; an interesting piece of information and thoughts. The following unedited excerpt from Love Verse 96. Essay Henry Valentine Miller (1891-1980) When you ever meet a writer, your meeting someone who is extraordinary in expression, and when one reads a book, there too they are meeting that same Muse of a writer, as they read and imagine thought expression, words, times, places, events...for in actuality...immortality is woven in the lines and words written, and that is done as within a Muse expression; the Muse is the writer, the writer the Muse, yes, a bond is there, a spirited bond, which is of the Human...yes, humanity is specially gifted with many immortal talents, and as the creative nature unfolds, so too we see...and thusly, as I read of Henry Miller and his books...there too I see the 'man' and also meet in a way, the Muse, his Muse...and the Muse will not be possessed or enslaved... the Muse is only of one...the writer and Muse are one...just as the writer and Love are one...and this oneness cannot be duplicated, it is free flying, and of the importance...the importance, human, humanity, struggle, tears, joy, birth, newness, freedom. Henry Miller and my grandfather of Russia, would be of the same generation...and my grandfather was very kind and thoughtful to me... and I would say...that would be one link I can focus upon to try and understand Henry Miller, and his written message. In France, Henry Miller had a long relationship with a very French woman, Anais Nin, a diarist and novelist...a very expressive woman indeed...(a quote from her) "woman does not forget she needs the fecundator, she does not forget that everything that is born of her is planted in her"; from The Diary; vol. 2 (1967), August 1937 entry. Anais Nin: "...Electric flesh-arrows...traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears..." The Dairy; vol. 2 (1967), entry October 1937. On pornography, "the violence and obscenity are left unadulterated, as a manifestation of the mystery and pain which ever accompanies the act of creation," preface of Tropic of Cancer (1934). Henry Valentine Miller, born New York City, 26 December 1891...at the age of 39 he went to Paris (1930), and lived a beatnik (bohemian) existence...he wrote 3 erotic novels there, Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), Tropic of Capricorn (1939). In 1940 he returned to America and resided at Big Sur, California. He continued writing vivid semiphilosophical and ribald works...The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), The Air-conditioned Nightmare (1945-47), and a trilogy, The Rosy Crucifixion...Sexus (1949), Plexus (1953), Nexus (1960), and also Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957)...there is more... The World of Lawrence (1980)...He also was a talented watercolorist... he died 7 June 1980...Pacific Palisades, California. a few quotes by Henry Miller: "America is no place for an artist: to be an artist is to be a moral leper, an economic misfit, a social liability. A corn-fed hog enjoys a better life than a creative writer, painter, or musician... To be a rabbit is better still," from The Air-conditioned Nightmare. "The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon," from An Open Letter to Surrealists Everywhere...(1939). "Hitler is no worse, nay better, in my opinion, than the other lugs. He makes the German mistake of being tactless, that's all," from a letter to Lawrence Durrell...(1939), (published in The Durrell-Miller Letters 1935, 80, 1988). "Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement," The Wisdom of the Heart...The Enormous Womb...(1947). "Sin, guilt, neurosis, they are one and the same, the fruit of the tree of knowledge," The Wisdom of the Heart...Creative Death, (1947). "The real enemy can always be met and conquered, or won over. Real antagonism is based on love, a love which has not recognized itself," The Air-Conditioned Nightmare...Stieglitz and Marin...(1945). "One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one," interview, Writers at Work...2nd. series...(1963). "It is the American vice, the democratic disease which expresses its tyranny by reducing everything unique to the level of the herd," The Wisdom of the Heart...Raimu...(1947). "...self which has a name and can be identified in public registers in case of accident or death. But the real self, the one who has taken over the reins, is almost a stranger...he is the one who is filled with ideas; he is the one who is writing in the air," Sexus, chapter 2...(1949). "I didn't have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let's say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony...," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, A fortune in Francs, (1957). "A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a dairy. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there that of the pulse, the heart beat..." The Cosmological Eye...Un Etre Etoile...(1939). closing comments: And where does one begin to write a little about Henry Valentine Miller a man very much within the open-way...a man who was censored in this country [USA] for many years and eventually that censorship was lifted. What did the censorship of Henry Miller's books really accomplish... Why even have censorship, if on some future date that censorship is lifted, and that which is in question...freely published...etc.. Presently when one looks to censorship, one finds it everywhere even today, such a curious control system the Censor. Censorship in many ways can be viewed as a kind of 'time-block', you know, 'hold something back until the establishment can re-group and get control of it'...especially the money system...I mean...look around; permission and censorship is very active...and in a decade, that which is censored today will be freely shown everywhere...and why is this...has anyone taken a look in that direction? However, let's get back to Mr. Miller and his books...very interesting man and Muse, very complete in description and also in feeling, and the woman of France...Anais Nin...I would say she had an impression upon Mr. Miller, a very deep and sensually active impression, and from it many things were manifested through his written material of that time. Yes, love and sensuality, passion and the vitality and vitalism of the harmonic feeling...warmth between a man and woman...such a desire and fulfilling accomplishment the passions of making love can be...and this was written of by Henry Miller for the majority of his life in this century. I would say...if one were to read in complete detail, the material written during the 1930's while Henry Miller was living in France and enjoying the companionship of Anais Nin, if one were to read her material too, ah yes, the hidden sensual delight would surely be there within the line and threads of them both...but how to translate...and that (translation) is always a question. Translation, like understanding, brings us to the beginning paragraph about the writer and the Muse within the writer; all writers whether man or woman...have an immortal Muse of humanity. And that Muse is ever and always present when one reads and also opens to the visionary, of self through that which is written...a created written visionary within the medium of words, art, or musical composition, that visionary ability of the human is always present, if one does only take the perception and truly perceive... ...In closing, I would think that one must become more aware of the Muse within the writer, and attempt to realize this open and natural human quality which all are born with. This page created April 98 members.tripod.com