Tag Archives: books

A Smokestack or a Button

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Lee

“What strikes me now as the most wonderful proof of my fitness, or unfitness, for the times is the fact that nothing people were writing or talking about had any real interest for me. Only the object haunted me, the … Continue reading →

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Note to Myself

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Lee

In letters to Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller writes about the struggle of the writer: “Expression seems such a natural, God-given thing – and yet it’s not either. It’s a lifelong struggle to find yourself.” (August 1936) Just writing the truth: … Continue reading →

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Henry Miller, Weird Ideas, and “Damned Facts”

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Lee

Joshua Buhs’ essay in the latest Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal (“‘One measures a circle, beginning anywhere’: Henry Miller and the Fortean Fantasy”) begins with a casual reference to Charles Fort, made by Henry Miller in Big Sur and … Continue reading →

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Truth and Wonder in “Henry and June”

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Lee

Taken from her diaries, Henry and June is Anaïs Nin’s account of her relationship with Henry Miller and his wife June Mansfield. During the course of the relationship, we see Anaïs and Henry grow, learning from each other. And all … Continue reading →

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First Encounters: Miller, Dostoevsky, Deleuze and Guattari

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Lee

“Such a day it may be when first you encounter Dostoevsky. You remember the smell of the tablecloth on which the book rests; you look at the clock and it is only five minutes from eternity; you count the objects … Continue reading →

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Henry Miller Goes Into the Nightlife

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Lee

(Page numbers refer to the edition of Henry Miller’s Black Spring published by Alma Classics in 2012) There’s a chapter in Henry Miller’s Black Spring called “Into the Nightlife. . .” It’s about “this mad thing called sleep”, and describes … Continue reading →

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Henry Miller’s Certitude in Black Spring

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Lee

(Page numbers refer to the edition of Henry Miller’s Black Spring published by Alma Classics in 2012) In the chapter of Black Spring called “The Angel is my Watermark”, we get to watch Henry Miller as he creates a work … Continue reading →

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Spiral Form in Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Lee

(Page numbers refer to Henry Miller and Narrative Form: Constructing the Self, Rejecting Modernity by James M Decker. Routledge, 2005) Henry Miller rejected linear narrative, creating instead something he called “spiral form”. (4) “I . . . have chosen to … Continue reading →

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Notes on James M Decker’s Concept of “Spiral Form”: An Essay Review

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Lee

Page numbers refer to “‘The agonizing gutter of my past’: Henry Miller, Conversion, and the Trauma of the Modern” by James M Decker, in Henry Miller: New Perspectives, ed. James M. Decker and Indrek Männiste (Bloomsbury, 2015) pp. 21-31 Abandoned … Continue reading →

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Notes on Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer Episode 7: Hopelessness and Endurance

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Lee

“Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable.” Giving up belief in miracles means giving up hope, giving up any reason to … Continue reading →

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