Henry Miller Recalls and Reflects [Interview 1956] (4/9)

This is a rare interview conducted in New York in 1956 with author Henry Miller and his friend Ben Grauer engaged in a lengthy, candid and insightful discussion about his life, his work and what it means to live the true life of the spirit.

[@ericzawoYT]

This guy is my hero.

[@ganazby]

I read a Martin Amis interview recently, in which he condescendingly described Miller as a "second rank" writer. In my view, Miller is a first rank writer, whose oeuvre far supercedes Amis and his narrow, upper-middle-class view of humanity. Miller was an artist to his core; Amis is a pretender, whose novels will be long forgotten before he's in the grave.

[@giolevi6782]

too bad we can't extend life to people who deserve to stay alive forever. henry miller would qualify that honor because of his honesty and wisdom that he shares with his fellow man. he is profound and humble with his honesty.

[@comingupforeire7050]

Saw an interview with amis, he seems like a depressed kind of guy, wouldnt enjoy a drink with him. But as for Miller he is endlessly interesting.

[@MrGunwitch]

Miller blows Amis out of the water. Miller's writing comes from a pure place, whereas with Amis, it's contrived, an affectation, a product of fancy schooling and false ideas of how the world is. Amis is forever trying to step out from his father's shadow and it shows in every line of his writing.

[@reaganwiles_art]

You feel that you're carrying your own self all the time as it were

[@vudu8ball]

If i had to be in a life boat with someone I'd much prefer it were Henry Miller. Maybe he isn't a great writer but he is a great authentic human being and they are far rarer than great artists.

[@brandonterzic]

I have heard of martin Amis before but I don't think I have read any of his books. Calling Henry Miller a second rate writer though will pretty much assure that I never will. To me Henry is a transcendental artist, I don't think he really gave a shit about being a "great writer" as far as what is normally constituted as such. He was just trying to express himself as truthfully as possible. But you know what, Bob Dylan said Miller is America's writer, and so did Norman Mailer and George Orwell.

[@reaganwiles_art]

Though they are world's apart Nabokov and Miller were both great writers and were both published by the Olympia Press. Amis's mistake was trying to imitate Nabokov. Imitate Nabokov! The only one who could successfully imitate Nabokov was Nabokov, also unsuccessfully .... Amis should have just stuck to reviewing books. Miller is truly inimitable though. Miller's subject, like Whitman's, is himself which is everything interconnected to him. There were periods of The Air Conditioned Nightmare which were so flat, so lifeless, dead, dead that reading those pages was like walking through the valley of the shadow of death. One needed faith to read them through to get to the other side. And once I got to the other side I just had to shake my head and admire Henry Miller's courage! for writing through such ennui. He is a Gargantuan writer. Like Dylan. I never knew Dylan said that about Miller. Dylan doesn't give two shits about what people think about it, he puts it in. Also, Miller. With Nabokov I think writing was a kind of sickness, genius, a game, games within games, in Nabokov there is so much of a gulf, the thinnest thread of sanity, No it is impossible to say what it is. Sometimes a book of his seems to cast a spell, then again the same book will seem as lifeless, as pompous and bloated, as devoid of all meaning as well, as life sometimes also does! but N. never wrung tears and laughter out of me as Miller had done. Nabokov's hatred of Dostoevsky and Freud! Miller's worship, almost, of Dostoevsky! Isn't disparity tremendous.

[@Elcore]

Amis has written some good novels, and they won't be forgotten for a few hundred years after his death (at least), but compared to Miller he is definitely a second rate writer. The problem is that Amis and Will Self are pretty much just go-to guys when TV shows or magazines or newspapers need someone to say something about books. They really know fuck-all apart from a series of big and sometimes made-up words.

[@josiahsixkiller]

@ganazby Martin Amis, never heard of him.

[@richardgonzalesgonzales3529]

Amis : That Old Candy Store Owner !!! Never could He hang a painting nearly as wondrous ; as beautified and strikingly revealing , as any of The Masters’ truly mystical , hypnotically descriptive paragraphs ; paragraphs that explode in Ones’ mind , hallucinatory yet as real as prophecies proving themselves alive and potent through all the senses ... while Amis stuck closely and safely to the white line : The Master took Us over the edge ; holding Us tightly in a suicidal lovers’ embrace ; only to land Us upon a world made knew again : A world beyond death yet within its belly ; no longer affected by its belching ... more alive and susceptible to the previously overlooked flaws , now attributes , of Life !

[@YaleRoth]

so profound.. miller is rolling

[@ganazby]

Marlon, I couldn't agree more. Well said.

[@canoerepairshop]

They stand or fall

[@DJKairos88]

Service or Servitude