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Here I offer some of my insights on Miller's narrative based on what it contributes to the study or religious travel (not necessarily pilgrimage).
Anthropological research, when focused on studying other cultures, centered on the experiences of “fieldwork,” a task that led anthropologists to towns and villages in order to understand a “native” culture. (Clifford, 21-23) Despite these attempts, modern anthropologists have found flaws in this logic as a result of consistent interactions between groups of people. These interactions prevent a culture from being truly native as they are tainted by a culture with which they have had contact. Thus, anthropologist James Clifford argues that in order to study other cultures one must understand the “local/global historical encounters, co–productions, dominations, and resistances” through a lens focused “on hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences as much as on rooted, native ones.” (Clifford, 24) This approach permits the study of culture in its entirety, both as native and as interrupted by exterior cultures and can be found throughout travel writings such as Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi.
tThe basis for Clifford’s argument is that all cultures have interacted in some capacity with others. Fieldwork is a prime example. An anthropologist researching a culture does so by attempting to “blend in” to the town. However, this task is impossible. Despite attempting to “blend in,” he stands out due to his cultural differences in clothing, body language, and other actions while bringing many of his personal traditions, biases, and practices to his research. This often results in the mingling of cultures a phenomenon that does not simply occur with anthropologists, but rather it occurs in all cultures as a result of interactions with others and the larger world; the villages are not static. They may receive world news from the radio or a newspaper; they may partake in the arts of other cultures; they might trade with other tribes, states, or countries; they may interact with travelers from abroad or even a travelling member of their own culture. In each of these different ways, it is possible to see how a single culture might be exposed to one or more different cultures. Consequently, Clifford argues that we are not simply studying their own traditional lifestyle, but a lifestyle that has been influenced by the larger world; it is an experience of mixed origin that borrows from the larger world, not simply the local community. In this way, a culture is truly dynamic. It is this dynamic understanding of culture that Clifford refers to as a “hotel,” since culture “comes to resemble as much a site of travel encounters as of residence.” (Clifford, 25) It is this exact world that Henry Miller enters into during his travels to Greece.
tHenry Miller’s travel narrative begins with an explanation of why he chose to travel to Greece and an account of his journey with a Turk, a Syrian, some Lebanese students, and an Argentine. (Miller, 3-7) These men coerce him into a conversation on America with which they were all enamored. “Progress was their obsession. More machines, more efficiency, more capital, more comforts-that was their whole talk.” (Miller, 6) Despite the far ranging cultures of origin, they were all fascinated with the American culture and lifestyle to which they had access. Even the Greek he meets on the ship has a desire to travel to America. (Miller, 7) From this early story, it is made known that Greece is influenced by many different cultures, evidence that the Greek culture, and maybe even the larger European culture, is not simply native. The American influence is further emphasized when Miller travels with Katsimbalis to Spetsai where they meet Mister John, the hotel proprietor, who describes the fruit stand he owned in New York City. Mr. John, a Greek by birth, left his home and travelled to America where he lived for many years before returning to Greece. (Miller, 64) It is clear from the conversation that his experience altered his understanding of his own culture which he then shared with others.
tThe integration of culture did not solely manifest itself in one’s outlook on life, but also infiltrated their homes. While in Athens, at the residence of Seferiades, Miller is treated to an evening of Jazz from Seferiades collection of Jazz music which consisted of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and many other Americans. (Miller, 107) Later, when he arrives at the home of Mr. Tsoutsou, he enters “the sort of den which St. Jerome might have created for himself” with a “cross-cut of everything which had gone to make the culture of Europe.” (Miller, 131) For Mr. Tsoutsou, like Seferiades, they are attracted to various aspects of other cultures which they crave to integrate into their daily lives. Miller, rather unimpressed by their grasps for ulterior cultures, remarks “Soon one would have to come to a place like Crete to recover the evidence of a civilization which had disappeared.” (Miller, 131) Miller offers a strong critique of the merging of cultures, suggesting that like America, one can no longer find the “true” culture of “Europe proper” as they have strayed from the “native experiences” in favor of incorporating facets of many cultures, thus creating a “hybrid, cosmopolitan experience.”
tMiller largely writes about these “hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences” which permeate his trip, but the paradox is that Miller does not want to find a “hybrid, cosmopolitan experience,” but rather the native Greek experience. While his “native experiences” are few, they always occur for him as moments of personal clarity. During a trip to Mycenae, Henry Miller has what amounts to a religious experience. In his mind, the experience is not rooted in other cultures, but simply that of the Ancient Greeks. Here he has found a connection to the past through “one of the navels of the human spirit.” (Miller, 86) Mycenae may be the birthplace of not only Greek culture, but all culture. This assessment is both emotional and fantasized. Miller is actually unsure about the experience, questioning “whether I was recalling things I had read as a child or whether I was taping the universal memory of the race.” (Miller, 86) For Miller, it was desirable to believe that he had taped a “universal memory” whereby he could experience the true Greek culture. Instead, it is more plausible that his life experiences led him to revere Mycenae for its holiness. Furthermore, Miller’s experience is not even shared by the Greeks around him as evidenced by the story about the little boy who was crying because his sister stole three drachmas. Miller is shocked that money even exists in such an awe-inspiring place as Mycenae. For Miller, this represents the world he left behind in New York City: “American culture.” Separation appears impossible in this place. (Miller, 87) Miller, desirous of holding onto his “native experience,” passes it off as “an hallucination” to which he responds “Let him stand there and weep…he didn’t belong, he was an anomaly.” (Miller, 87) While Miller wishes to look only at the “native experiences,” he finds it impossible to analyze Greece from this sole perspective.
tIn reality, the study of another culture requires one to utilize an approach which allows for the study of the culture in its entirety, both as “native” and as “hybrid, cosmopolitan.” As Clifford maintains, this research must be more like a hotel than a field since one must “rethink cultures as sites of dwelling and travel.” (Clifford, 31) These hotel interactions then do not necessarily mean that everyone must travel. Rather, the interactions between people create a greater knowledge base which provides an alternative understanding of travel. Miller himself takes part in this form of travel during a revelation that his travel experience has been far broader than travelling back and forth between Athens and Corfu. Miller says,
people came to me at the cafes and poured out their journeys to me; the captain was always returning from a new trajectory; Seferiades was always writing a new poem which went back deep into the past and forward as far as the seventh root race; Katsimbalis would take me on his monologues to Mt. Athos, to Pelion and Ossa, to Leonidion and Monemvasia; Durrel would set my mind whirling with Pythagorean adventures; a little Welshman, just back from Persia, would drag me over the high plateaus and deposit me in Samarkand. (Miller, 51-52)
He further explores Greece through the paintings of Ghika as well as other artists and writers. This realization is important in the mind of Clifford, because it demonstrates that this form of travel and the traditional version of travel is equally important since it allows everyone an opportunity to gain both a local and global sense. These types of events, according to Clifford do not take place in the fields, but rather in a “hotel lobby, urban café, ship, or bus.” (Clifford, 25) And it is certainly not a coincident that these are the same places where Miller is able to travel through the experiences of others. The world Miller experiences is one where “people leave home and return, enacting differently centered worlds, interconnected cosmopolitanisms.” (Clifford, 27-28) For the duration of his travels, Greece was his hotel where he could experience Greek culture, not simply as a “native experience,” but in its entirety, his believed “native experiences” coupled with “hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences.”
t
Anthropological research, when focused on studying other cultures, centered on the experiences of “fieldwork,” a task that led anthropologists to towns and villages in order to understand a “native” culture. (Clifford, 21-23) Despite these attempts, modern anthropologists have found flaws in this logic as a result of consistent interactions between groups of people. These interactions prevent a culture from being truly native as they are tainted by a culture with which they have had contact. Thus, anthropologist James Clifford argues that in order to study other cultures one must understand the “local/global historical encounters, co–productions, dominations, and resistances” through a lens focused “on hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences as much as on rooted, native ones.” (Clifford, 24) This approach permits the study of culture in its entirety, both as native and as interrupted by exterior cultures and can be found throughout travel writings such as Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi.
tThe basis for Clifford’s argument is that all cultures have interacted in some capacity with others. Fieldwork is a prime example. An anthropologist researching a culture does so by attempting to “blend in” to the town. However, this task is impossible. Despite attempting to “blend in,” he stands out due to his cultural differences in clothing, body language, and other actions while bringing many of his personal traditions, biases, and practices to his research. This often results in the mingling of cultures a phenomenon that does not simply occur with anthropologists, but rather it occurs in all cultures as a result of interactions with others and the larger world; the villages are not static. They may receive world news from the radio or a newspaper; they may partake in the arts of other cultures; they might trade with other tribes, states, or countries; they may interact with travelers from abroad or even a travelling member of their own culture. In each of these different ways, it is possible to see how a single culture might be exposed to one or more different cultures. Consequently, Clifford argues that we are not simply studying their own traditional lifestyle, but a lifestyle that has been influenced by the larger world; it is an experience of mixed origin that borrows from the larger world, not simply the local community. In this way, a culture is truly dynamic. It is this dynamic understanding of culture that Clifford refers to as a “hotel,” since culture “comes to resemble as much a site of travel encounters as of residence.” (Clifford, 25) It is this exact world that Henry Miller enters into during his travels to Greece.
tHenry Miller’s travel narrative begins with an explanation of why he chose to travel to Greece and an account of his journey with a Turk, a Syrian, some Lebanese students, and an Argentine. (Miller, 3-7) These men coerce him into a conversation on America with which they were all enamored. “Progress was their obsession. More machines, more efficiency, more capital, more comforts-that was their whole talk.” (Miller, 6) Despite the far ranging cultures of origin, they were all fascinated with the American culture and lifestyle to which they had access. Even the Greek he meets on the ship has a desire to travel to America. (Miller, 7) From this early story, it is made known that Greece is influenced by many different cultures, evidence that the Greek culture, and maybe even the larger European culture, is not simply native. The American influence is further emphasized when Miller travels with Katsimbalis to Spetsai where they meet Mister John, the hotel proprietor, who describes the fruit stand he owned in New York City. Mr. John, a Greek by birth, left his home and travelled to America where he lived for many years before returning to Greece. (Miller, 64) It is clear from the conversation that his experience altered his understanding of his own culture which he then shared with others.
tThe integration of culture did not solely manifest itself in one’s outlook on life, but also infiltrated their homes. While in Athens, at the residence of Seferiades, Miller is treated to an evening of Jazz from Seferiades collection of Jazz music which consisted of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, and many other Americans. (Miller, 107) Later, when he arrives at the home of Mr. Tsoutsou, he enters “the sort of den which St. Jerome might have created for himself” with a “cross-cut of everything which had gone to make the culture of Europe.” (Miller, 131) For Mr. Tsoutsou, like Seferiades, they are attracted to various aspects of other cultures which they crave to integrate into their daily lives. Miller, rather unimpressed by their grasps for ulterior cultures, remarks “Soon one would have to come to a place like Crete to recover the evidence of a civilization which had disappeared.” (Miller, 131) Miller offers a strong critique of the merging of cultures, suggesting that like America, one can no longer find the “true” culture of “Europe proper” as they have strayed from the “native experiences” in favor of incorporating facets of many cultures, thus creating a “hybrid, cosmopolitan experience.”
tMiller largely writes about these “hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences” which permeate his trip, but the paradox is that Miller does not want to find a “hybrid, cosmopolitan experience,” but rather the native Greek experience. While his “native experiences” are few, they always occur for him as moments of personal clarity. During a trip to Mycenae, Henry Miller has what amounts to a religious experience. In his mind, the experience is not rooted in other cultures, but simply that of the Ancient Greeks. Here he has found a connection to the past through “one of the navels of the human spirit.” (Miller, 86) Mycenae may be the birthplace of not only Greek culture, but all culture. This assessment is both emotional and fantasized. Miller is actually unsure about the experience, questioning “whether I was recalling things I had read as a child or whether I was taping the universal memory of the race.” (Miller, 86) For Miller, it was desirable to believe that he had taped a “universal memory” whereby he could experience the true Greek culture. Instead, it is more plausible that his life experiences led him to revere Mycenae for its holiness. Furthermore, Miller’s experience is not even shared by the Greeks around him as evidenced by the story about the little boy who was crying because his sister stole three drachmas. Miller is shocked that money even exists in such an awe-inspiring place as Mycenae. For Miller, this represents the world he left behind in New York City: “American culture.” Separation appears impossible in this place. (Miller, 87) Miller, desirous of holding onto his “native experience,” passes it off as “an hallucination” to which he responds “Let him stand there and weep…he didn’t belong, he was an anomaly.” (Miller, 87) While Miller wishes to look only at the “native experiences,” he finds it impossible to analyze Greece from this sole perspective.
tIn reality, the study of another culture requires one to utilize an approach which allows for the study of the culture in its entirety, both as “native” and as “hybrid, cosmopolitan.” As Clifford maintains, this research must be more like a hotel than a field since one must “rethink cultures as sites of dwelling and travel.” (Clifford, 31) These hotel interactions then do not necessarily mean that everyone must travel. Rather, the interactions between people create a greater knowledge base which provides an alternative understanding of travel. Miller himself takes part in this form of travel during a revelation that his travel experience has been far broader than travelling back and forth between Athens and Corfu. Miller says,
people came to me at the cafes and poured out their journeys to me; the captain was always returning from a new trajectory; Seferiades was always writing a new poem which went back deep into the past and forward as far as the seventh root race; Katsimbalis would take me on his monologues to Mt. Athos, to Pelion and Ossa, to Leonidion and Monemvasia; Durrel would set my mind whirling with Pythagorean adventures; a little Welshman, just back from Persia, would drag me over the high plateaus and deposit me in Samarkand. (Miller, 51-52)
He further explores Greece through the paintings of Ghika as well as other artists and writers. This realization is important in the mind of Clifford, because it demonstrates that this form of travel and the traditional version of travel is equally important since it allows everyone an opportunity to gain both a local and global sense. These types of events, according to Clifford do not take place in the fields, but rather in a “hotel lobby, urban café, ship, or bus.” (Clifford, 25) And it is certainly not a coincident that these are the same places where Miller is able to travel through the experiences of others. The world Miller experiences is one where “people leave home and return, enacting differently centered worlds, interconnected cosmopolitanisms.” (Clifford, 27-28) For the duration of his travels, Greece was his hotel where he could experience Greek culture, not simply as a “native experience,” but in its entirety, his believed “native experiences” coupled with “hybrid, cosmopolitan experiences.”
t
