1930s Bonus Footage | Henry Miller Rant

This is an outtake from my most recent American Lit video: • American Literature | ...
Warning: In this video I conflate author and protagonist in a way that feels right but might infuriate my colleagues (and viewers). Still. I hate this book.

[@keanuarcadio1055]

Yes, Miller was a romantic but a highly intelligible, controlled romantic, he had refined the model of a 19th century artist, a flaneur - Poe, Baudelaire, Rimbaud. Miller lived within society, whilst living outside of society as a reprobate, antihero, rogue. It is a contradiction, as a reader you just have to comprehend, but that really depends on the flexibility of your thinking. Also he was a reader of Emerson, who in his Independence of solitude essay says: "the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." Which affirms his reason for having so many friends and enjoying the company of people whilst the latter - again the contradiction, but also, a rejection to anything monotonous. And as for the point of women, he was interested in women as material, he could have been interested in bananas, urinals, men, wheels, rectums, angels, it is irrelevant. There is no ethics pack or health and safety in making great art dear.

[@jamesharrel]

A reader cannot be obsessed with purity or even just "goodness" and appreciate "ToC," as so many people are today, and as so many people were at the time Henry wrote it. If a reader thinks it is the job of Literature to prescribe rather than describe, in fact, if a reader thinks that Literature has a "job" at all, then Miller is worthless to him or her. I sometimes think of "ToC" as "Ulysses" with no ego or pretension--the two qualities that allowed Joyce to be taken into the canon. Having said that, understand that while I love "ToC," it was not the first Miller book I read, and it is not at all my favorite of his. I read it at the end of, or just after, my University education; I reread it about 20 years later, just a few years ago. I liked it much more the second time, but it is still not my favorite. This is a suggestion, not truly a criticism, but to have a valid opinion of "ToC" or Miller, a reader must at least read both Tropics, "The Cosmological Eye," The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare," and his major writings completed while he lived in California. Otherwise, any opinion of "ToC" is limited to an opinion not of the work or Miller but rather of society, culture, sensitivities, and other bothersome, artificial preoccupations of existence.

[@SuperSawyerg]

one of the best replies I have ever seen on youtube. A perfect tonic to this ignorant, narrow-minded video rant.

[@joaquinmonfort1974]

I think the book is more about how the system sucks your soul and makes you a slave to money. You thereby lose the spirit, the creative fire that makes the experience of being alive so unique and wonderful. In that sense its actually spiritual. I don't think Miller was a mysogynist. I am certain he would have cheered a similar book if it had been written by a woman who had had anonymous sex with loads of men or pricks - indeed he was good friends with Anais Nin and Erica Jong, so go figure. He was celebrating all women and the life affirming act of sex by not being specific. If he had focused on one woman he would have set her up as an ideal against which to judge other women. I think you have misunderstood him and read him too literally. Think again. I love his imaginative, candid prose. In my view it has few equals. He also raises the battle cry of "freedom", helping people of either sex break free from the shackles society tries to place on them, to control them and maintain the status quo.

[@JCloyd-ys1fm]

It’d be funny if some teen picked your copy of The Tropic of Cancer out of the little free library…. Lol the depravity!

[@AnhTuPhucDerrickHoangCanada]

Busy rationality

[@chokkan7]

I'll readily grant you that HM had his faults (among which must be included that he was a product of a society and an environment that did not value the same things we do today; yes, he alternately objectified and worshiped women...go figure), but I think you missed the point on the protagonist of Tropic of Cancer. Miller did indeed indulge his muse for years, sinking to a sorry state in order to subsist, and he often begged for spare change. He once described the last time he begged; the man moved away from him as though he were diseased, and then flung the coins into the muck of the sewer with a sigh of disdain. Not only did HM never again beg after that, he made it his mission to find and repay everyone who'd ever sponsored him once he had achieved a measure of success. It could well be that the loathing you felt for the character was exactly what he wished to communicate...

[@josecortez5213]

Please do not read anything from Michel Houellebecq if Henry Miller is offensive to you.

[@DJKairos88]

or Bukowski

[@geezerpoet]

This is exactly what the feminists of the late 60's and early 70's were saying about Henry Miller. Norman Mailer later came to his defense. How can one say that you are wrong? You are not. Henry Miller is like Rabelais. He transcends logical analysis. Somehow like reading Whitman there's that in him which is life asserting and makes you glad to be alive. And it's not just men who feel that way.

[@angus11yaung]

you dont know what you are talking about......Henry Miller is one of the most influencual figures in american literature he influenced a whole generation after him. You can search opinions about him as a person from the people tha knew him....he is a far better person than you....for that i am absolutely sure....just compare the way you speak and the way he was talking

[@jamesnetwall1193]

I won't argue with you as you are entitled to your opinion but I find it staggering that people that look like they buy into the whole politically correct agenda that's being sold in universities I have such a problem with this book and yet I know tons of women I have many female friends who are extremely well-read who absolutely love Miller they may not think Tropic of Cancer is his best book but they like the book. Interesting. Perhaps not interesting at all but certainly worth a comment. I'm going to try to be fair and I'll check out some of your other videos hopefully you have something else to offer I don't believe you are right about Miller though but I'm not going to debate it on here

[@carolynscott9007]

I love Henry Miller's writing. I've read Tropic of Cancer, am now reading Black Spring and will read Tropic of Capricorn next. He conveys his life growing up in the early 1900's in NYC, and his living in Paris in the 30's. He wanted to write the truth about his life and for that, I appreciate him. He was young, trying to find his way, through the streets of NY and Paris. Trying to make a living out of writing. How could I write about street people as he did, not ever being on the street as he was. It was a whole different time, era, but he was ahead of his time. He wanted to break away from everything he'd been taught and that takes guts to find your own way. Please everyone watching this...read Henry Miller for yourself and find your own interpretation. I watched his interview with a woman and he's very respectful, listens carefully and playful. He moves me to take myself less seriously, and enjoy life, my writing and my art. Life as art.

[@thebookfox]

I consider "Naked Lunch" to be a cesspool :-p

[@alltheshelves9142]

Absolutely. But I love the Cronenberg film. You like horror! Did you like that one?

[@thebookfox]

Oh goodness, if it's anything like the book, I don't think I could handle it!

[@BookYourImagination]

I started reading this in college (many years ago and for the same reasons you did). One of my college professors told me it crap and I shouldn't read it. But I protested -- it's not crap, it's a brilliant piece of writing! But then I really didn't like it, so I didn't bother to finish it. I figured it could be great to someone else. Great discussion!

[@alltheshelves9142]

I was reading it for exams and my professor had only read little excerpts (snuck from his parents' copy when he was way too young to read it) so I really had no one to vent my frustrations to. It really is crap. I stand by that.

[@AlongtheFarClimbDown843]

*You likely have pin worms. Have your stool checked.*

[@browngirlreading]

I have this on my TBR. This is probably why I haven't gotten around to it just yet. Thanks for talking about Miller because I don't think I've heard anybody mention him on Booktube yet. Great video!

[@alltheshelves9142]

I'm not going to say DON'T read it, but I will say that for me it was a really terrible reading experience. I'm glad I read it because it's such an important part of American literary history but....blech.

[@saintonfire77]

Awhile back I read this book that you might look at someday, "Renegade: Henry Miller And The Making Of Tropic Of Cancer" by Frederick Turner. I want to say I always enjoy your videos-just lovely-peace

[@alltheshelves9142]

I wonder if that book would help me appreciate Miller more - something I think I should try to do to give the guy a fair shake. Thanks for watching!

Thanx for this rant! I read Henry Miller when I was very young (about 16/17) and never again after that...

[@alltheshelves9142]

Wow! This would be quite a book to read at that age! I might have liked it better then, actually...

[@MarieBergCarlsen]

Ohhh, that does sound very interesting, from the judge's description haha :P But from your hate towards it I think I'll just leave it be O.o Loved this outtake - would love more rants about bad books like this! ^_^

[@alltheshelves9142]

I know! I was so excited to read it when I read about how much stuffy old white guys hated it, but it turns out I have more in common with stuffy old white guys than I thought I did.... :)

[@timetoread1795]

Hahaha, oooh nooo!!!! I have this on my shelves...Oh my gawd, the things you are saying about the character is already making me want to throw the book across the room. Will read it anyways because I must, but I am glad I know this going in to it.

[@alltheshelves9142]

It's the worst! Just throw it in the garbage!!! :) JK. Don't throw a book in the garbage...but it's a real slog of a book.

[@ginahasnolife]

I haven't read Tropic of Cancer, but I have read The Henry Miller Reader, which is a collection of his shorter stories and essays. Now this book has a few of my favorite passages of all time, sudden rays of sunshine in the general gloom and doom that pervades most of his bibliography. For example, he writes about going to the bathroom (which is a topic I don't usually enjoy reading about) and he describes certain books he remembers reading while going to the bathroom and how fondly he remembers those books... and then he transitions into describing bathrooms in France versus bathrooms in New York, and you can just *feel* how much he loves France and the people who live there. This passage is so yellow and warm, I love just thinking about it. Reading it out loud. Of course, you get the more traditional Henry Miller in the collection too, but even here, there are wonderful excerpts. He describes his family after returning home to them after many years, and in that story he is definitely self-critical (which is one of the things you thought was missing in Tropic of Cancer). I'll stop blabbering, but my point is - I'd give him another shot. Not the Tropics (I tried reading Tropic of Capricorn and wasn't a fan), but some of his other work.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks for the heads up about more pleasant Henry Miller I could read! I don't want to completely give up on him as a writer, but I had such a bad experience with Tropic of Cancer that I have yet to return to him. That bathroom nostalgia sounds fun! :)

[@thuntz29]

I absolutely adore your videos! ^^ I have never read any Miller... how about the Tropic of Capricorn?

[@alltheshelves9142]

I could not bring myself to read that one. Not after my experience with Tropic of Cancer. Thanks for the kind words!

[@OneBookMore]

I love that you put your copy into the recesses of a little library.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Spreading its putrefaction around the neighborhood!

[@DanMartinlikesyou]

Hahaha! I'm so happy you shared the open sewer book with your neighborhood.

[@ASoron0424]

Well put! I could never make it through Cancer, though I really liked Sexus and the Greek book (whose title I can't spell), and kinda beat myself up for it because that, supposedly, is the masterpiece. But yeah: I was super uptight when I was 18 and wouldn't let myself have fun and when, at 21, I read Sexus I started to wish I'd read Henry Miller sooner so that I could have had like this spiritual coach about how to life a carefree life. Now I revisit his work and it's hard not to be totally cynical about it, and about him, and the absurdity of what he believed in and how he conducted himself. I still think that a lot of the prose of the Rosy Crucifixion is beautiful and hypnotic and alive in the way of few other authors -- but I agree with you that he's a bit of a scoundrel and it impedes a lot of the work.

[@alltheshelves9142]

The main character of Cancer believes he's such a badass - living off the grid and at the mercy of all his friends - but I feel like 2000s hipster culture has given me a lot of perspective on how annoying those guys can be. Like, he the kind of friend that shows up at your door with a guitar and tells you that he'll sing for his bread. No thanks, pseudo-hobo! But this is the only Henry Miller I've read and it sounds like you've had at least a little better experience with him than I have!

[@thisisyrrobotfriend]

Yes! Fuck Henry Miller. I hated Tropic of Cancer with my entire being. That description is so much better and more exciting than the actual book. I think that character was probs pretty autobiographical (I know writers hate when ppl draw parallels like that but that's how I read it). It was the kind of book that makes me annoyed that art can be more about intention than technique. Thanks for this rant!!

[@alltheshelves9142]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I know the book was influential or whatever, but I think there were other writers before and about the same time period doing way better stuff (Djuna Barnes! And hardly anyone talks about her!).