Re-read, 02/2021: Despite the fact that this contains no new material, this collection of Miller’s writings on writing is great; having these pieces all in one place gives an overview of his career path and development as an artist you won’t get elsewhere.



Considering that the bulk of Miller's best writing deals with the story of how he set out to become a writer, a collection of his work dealing with writing can do little wrong, in my book. There are truly few other writers who could discuss the act of writing who I'd really want to read.

A great book for aspiring writers.

"The million words or so which I had written previously, which were intelligible words, mind you, well ordered, well connected, were as nothing to me - crude ciphers from the old stone age - because the contact was through the head and the head is a useless appendage unless you're anchored in mid-channel deep in the mud. Everything I had written before was museum stuff, and most writing is still museum stuff and that's why it doesn't catch fire, doesn't inflame the world."

Henry Miller recounts the event one afternoon at a New York theater that set off an inner explosion, blasting a hole to the innermost depths of his soul so that he finally had access to the lava and fires of his authentic voice as a writer.

"I had to learn, as I soon did, that one must give up everything and not do anything else but write, that one must write and write and write, even if everybody in the world advises you against it, even if nobody believes in you. Perhaps one does it just because nobody believes; perhaps the real secret lies in making people believe."

Henry Miller on persistence. In many respects, this is the first lesson for any writer at any point in their writing, rank beginner to seasoned veteran: rather than brooding or moping or gabbing about what you would like to write, gather your energy and sit down and write and write and write. Nothing happens unless you firmly plant your ass on the chair and write.

"Today, when I think of the circumstances under which I wrote that book, when I think of the overwhelming material which I tried to put into form, when I think of what I hoped to encompass, I pat myself on the back, I give myself a double A. I am proud of the fact that I made such a miserable failure of it; had I succeeded I would have been a monster."

Sometimes our failures teach us more than our successes. I recall a number of years ago writing a full-length novel. I read it over a couple of times and came to a realization: I'm not a novelist. Of all the creative endeavors I've engaged in over the years - playing renaissance music, performing street theater, mask acting, dance, writing prose poems, drumming - the time I spent writing that novel was, by far, my least satisfying artistic endeavor. Never again! As a creative artist and writer, much better to go with what you love.

"If I had long been reading the face of the world with the eyes of a writer, I now read it anew with even greater intensity. Nothing was too petty to escape my attention."

Brilliant advice for a writer in any literary form: pay keen attention to detail. As I've come to discover, this also goes for writing reviews: if you are having trouble writing about a book in general, overarching terms, dig deeper into the details, focus your writing on a key chapter or theme, or, digging even deeper, zero in on a series of the author's sentences and share your observations, feelings, ideas about those authorial words.

"Sometimes I would sit at the machine for hours without even writing a line. Fired by an idea, often an irrelevant one, my thoughts would come too fast to be transcribed. I would be dragged along at a gallop, like a stricken warrior tied to his chariot."

See! There were even times when the great Henry Miller struggled at his writing desk. I suspect the next time Henry sat down at his machine, he probably wrote for hours, deep into the night and maybe even the next morning.

"Thus, not so strangely, I developed a kind of painter's eye. Often I made it my business to return to a certain spot in order to review "a still life" which I had passed too hurriedly that day before or three days before."

Another gem of advice: refine and develop your sense of words and rhythm of language but also expand your sensual involvement with the world - the eye of an art critic, the ear of a music connoisseur, the grace of a dancer.

"Thus, whilst sedulously and slavishly imitating the ways of the masters - tools and technic, in other words - my instincts were rising up in revolt. If I craved magic powers it was not to rear new structures, not to add to the Tower of Babel, but to destroy, to undermine. The novel I had to write."

Learning technique and the rules of writing from literary masters is important but even more critical: developing your own voice and vision.

"If I was unhappy in America, if I craved more room, more adventure, more freedom of expression, it was because I needed these things. I am grateful to America for having made me realize my needs. I served my sentence there. At present I have no needs. I am a man without a past and without a future. I am - that is all."

Good going, Henry. You "served your sentence" in the air-conditioned nightmare but you never were trapped by it or continually felt the need to react to it.

"There are huge blocks in my life which are gone forever. Huge blocks gone, scattered, wasted in talk, action, reminiscence, dream. There was never any time when I was living one life, the life of a husband, a lover, a friend."

One clear lesson I takeaway here: if you want to write - strike when the iron is hot. Don't postpone your writing to some future time. When you reach the future, you will be a different you, thus, if you write at all, your writing will be different.

"To discuss the nature and meaning of obscenity is almost as difficult as to talk about God."

The last chapter of Henry Miller on Writing is dedicated to writing and obscenity, reflections by the master you will not want to miss.

I really liked it.

He is wonderful, although I sometimes had to get him used to me ;-)

On the title page of Henry Miller on Writing the book’s editor, Thomas Moore, includes a dedication: “To Henry Miller, who brought be to life.” Clearly this book did little for his writing capabilities, which is to say this is not that kind of book. It’s a collection of excerpts from Henry Miller’s work, all revolving around his struggles, successes, and thoughts in regards to writing, divided into four sections: “The “Literary” Writer,” “Finding His Own Voice,” “The Author at Work,” and “Writing and Obscenity.”

I think most people would be better off just reading from Miller’s ouvre since a large chunk of this book is pulled from his more popular works. That said, there’s something interesting in reading Miller’s meditations on a specific topic, in a semi-chronological order, and at length. There are noticeable shifts in tone and style between each excerpt that help show his evolution, and his curiosity, candor, and cheer give the topic of writing enough breadth that the subject never stales.

Henry Miller on Writing is very different from Stephen King’s On Writing. We only get sidelong glances at the interior of Miller’s work while that is what makes up the meat and potatoes of King’s guide. I mention this solely for the purpose of telling the prospective buyer that this is not a how-to. It’s more like an ode to the craft and imagination that sometimes drifts into the highfalutin and self-aggrandizing. But it inspires in the sense that you can read on his difficulties in finding and exercising a voice, and the thousands of words poured out before he found a few of value. A taste, if you will:

My literary experiments lay in ruins, like the cities of old which were sacked by vandals. I wanted to build, but the materials were unreliable and the plans had not even become blueprints. If the substance of art is the human soul, then I must confess that with dead souls I could visualize nothing germinating under my hand. (34)

Yes, a bit excessive, but it’s a good reminder for the heights to which good writing can take a person. Again, I’d like to re-emphasize that you might be better off just reading the books that this one pulls from but there’s still value here. We’re all mostly aware that pursuit of our passion won’t pay the bills, but reading Henry Miller on Writing is a reminder to the mired soul to give yourself fully to something and be its devout practitioner, at least when “life” allows.

While there are some magnificently crafted sentences herein, Henry Miller wastes lots of words.

An engaging and though provoking book, a kind of must read for those who have something to say. This might put you on the right track or take you out of the hole of uncreativity you have walked into...
___
Shashi
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya

A compilation of bits and letters about writing. If you like Henry Miller, you might be interested in what makes him tick as a writer, although this is revealed steadily throughout his books.

Il misticismo che non ti aspetti, la gioia di vivere, capacità di scrittura smisurata, fluida, che fa semvrare tutto così facile.

Inspired.. fluid.. associative. What we love of Henry Miller

Una de las singularidades de los escritos de Miller es la fuerza con que embiste, en cada caso, el espejismo. La expresión de su andar en busca de vivir el tiempo de vida hizo de sus textos, estelas vivas. La escritura y la existencia suceden en el exilio, no coinciden consigo mismas. Este itinerario de no coincidencias da cuenta de la apertura de la letra comprendida como trazo cósmico.