The best darned book I ever did read

"O que é encantador - e por vezes aterrorizador - é o facto de o mundo ser tantas coisas diferentes para tanta gente. Que pode ser, e é, todas estas coisas ao mesmo tempo."

The opening chapter was really invigorating - how inspiring the people who populate Big Sur are in theory. The subsequent sections, detailing their lives and explaining their lunch dates and gifts received were a little less so. I really enjoyed what I read, but I only got about halfway. I highly recommend that first section!

What, on the surface, seem to be the rantings and ravings of an old man giving endless lists of things and observations on everything and nothing, is actually a fun and pleasant read.

En principio, tendría todas las papeletas para no gustarme: autoficción con no pocas dosis de New Age y de autoayuda, pero es que Henry Miller marca la diferencia. Aquí es ya un escritor mundialmente consagrado que relata sus desdichas y tribulaciones en una comunidad del Big Sur, la región costera californiana en la que se instala con su mujer e hijos luego de su periplo parisino y de su aventura griega. La guerra de Europa ha terminado y en general, Miller ya no se encuentra con la hez de la Humanidad como en libros anteriores. Es un pobre y entusiasta optimista que se esfuerza por mantener la curioridad por la vida desdeñando, o mejor dicho, redescubriendo los valores americanos. Describe un paisaje paradisíaco y un paisanaje repleto de artistas, que acuden al insigne escritor–y pintor– en busca de aprobación y de inyecciones morales que les ayuden a expresarse. Miller emplea la fórmula de Cartas a un joven... poeta, o novelista, o escritor en ciernes, camuflada entre divertidas caracterizaciones de amigos y vecinos. Son sus corresponsales los que le aportan suculenta materia para este libro, y gracias a sus respuestas de cuarentón ácido e irónico accedemos a su filosofía de vida. Como un La vida instrucciones de uso, pero que se maneja no ya en un inmueble, sino en una colonia dispersa. Y lo que más se agradece: no hace un estudio moral del ambiente, se centra por igual tanto en imbéciles como en virtuosos.

“Only a fool hopes to repeat an experience; the wise man knows that every experience is to be viewed as a blessing.” pg 27. Been looking for this quote.

Picked this up at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, which was established by Henry's friend Emil White, whom this book is dedicated to.

Great read! Being unable to get through Tropic of Cancer, I was curious to read a non-fiction work by Henry Miller. And I discovered that I adore him. A great lover of nature and human nature alike. Such a big heart, seemingly looked for the good in people, almost to a fault as with his friend, Moricand.

There was only one irksome aspect of his story about living in Big Sur and that was his tendency to wax on about it being this untouched, national treasure, but then turning around and dumping his garbage over the ridge (and therefore into the ocean). I guess one could chalk it up to the times, but this created some dissonance for me, or as my friend Frank says, it created "a fissure in the ambiance".

Spoilers / favorite quotes:
"A man with talent has to make his living on the side or do his creative work on the side. A difficult choice!" Page 14

"...what makes him tick is that mysterious element "X" which his fellow man seems so will able to do without. He is almost certain to eat, talk, dress in a fashion eccentric to his neighbors. Which is quite enough to mark him out for ridicule, contempt and isolation. If, by taking a humble job he demonstrates that he is as good as the next man, the situation may be somewhat ameliorated. But not for long. To prove that he is "as good as the next man" means little or nothing to one who is an artist. It was his "otherness" which made him an artist and, given the chance, he will make his fellow-man other too. Sooner or later, in one way or another, he is bound to rub his neighbors the wrong way." Page 14 and 15

"The enchanting, and sometimes terrifying, thing is that the world can be so many things to so many different souls. That it can be, and is, all these at one and the same time." Page 23

Henry Miller recommends:
Scriabin piano sonata no5 op 53
Wagner love and death theme from Tristan and isolde

Wow! Below is part of Henry's response to his friend Moricand when asked if he had lost all interest in astrology (of which Moricand was a "subject matter expert").

"I abhor people who have to filter everything through the one language they know, whether it be astrology, religion, yoga, politics, economics or what. The one thing about this universe of ours which intrigues me, which makes me realize that it is divine and beyond all knowing, is that it lends itself so easily to any and all interpretations.

Everything we formulate about it is correct and incorrect at the same time. It includes our truths and our errors. And, whatever we think about the universe in no way alters it…

Let me get back to where I started. We all have different lives to lead. We all want to make conditions as smooth and harmonious for ourselves as possible. We all want to extract the full measure of life. Must we go to books and teachers, to science, religion, philosophy, must we know so much- and so little! To take the path? Can we not become fully awake and aware without the torture we put ourselves through?

There are no exceptions. Everyone even the most enlightened has his private griefs and torments. Life is perpetual struggle, and struggle entails sorrow and suffering. And suffering gives us strength and character.

To understand one's problems, to be able to look into them more deeply, to eliminate the unnecessary ones, none of that really interest me any longer. Life as a burden, life as a battle ground, life as a problem-these are all partial ways of looking at life. Two lines of poetry often tell us more, give us more, and the weightiest tome by an erudite. To make anything truly significant one has to poetize it. The only way I get astrology, or anything else, for that matter, is as poetry, as music. If the astrological view brings out new notes, new harmonies, new vibrations, it has served its purpose-for me. Knowledge weighs one down; wisdom saddens one. The love of truth has nothing to do with knowledge or wisdom: it's beyond their domains. Whatever certitude one possesses is beyond the realm of proof.

The saying goes, "it takes all kinds to make the world." Precisely. The same does not hold for views or opinions. Put all the pictures together, all the views, all the philosophies, and you do not get a totality. The sum of all these angles of vision do not and never will make truth. The sum of all knowledge is greater confusion. The intellect runs away with itself. Mind is not intellect. The intellect is a product of the ego, and the ego can never be stilled, never be satisfied. When do we begin to know that we know? When we have ceased to believe that we can ever know. Truth comes with surrender. And it's worthless. The brain is not the mind; it is a tyrant which seeks to dominate the mind."
Page 320 to 323

"Most of the ills we suffer from our directly traceable to our own behavior." Page 325

"Live simply and wisely. Forget, forgive, renounce, abdicate. Do I need to study my horoscope to understand the wisdom of such simple behavior? Do I have to live with yesterday in order to enjoy tomorrow? Can I not scrap the past instantly-begin at once to live the good life – if I really mean to? Peace and joy… I say it's ours for the asking. Day by day, that's good enough for me. Not even that, in fact. Just today!" Page 326

"Art is a healing process, as Nietzsche pointed out. Mainly for those who practice it. A man writes in order to know himself, and thus get rid of self eventually. That is the divine purpose of art.
Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal." Page 400

"What we dream is the reality of tomorrow." Page 403

This book, about Henry Miller's life at Big Sur, is a mixed bag. Some of the character sketches are very good, and some are not at all. When Miller wrote about his benefactor Jean Wharton, for instance, I nearly put down the book because of how barf-y and supplicating it was. Miller is always good for a few poignant thoughts though, and consistently does a great job when raking someone over the coals.

Here was one passage I underlined:

"The most difficult thing to adjust to, apparently, is peace and contentment. As long as there is something to fight, people seem able to brave all manner of hardships. Remove the element of struggle, and they are like fish out of water. Those who no longer have anything to worry about will, in desperation, often take on the burdens of the world. This not through idealism but because they must have something to do, or at least something to talk about."

Henry Miller is not for me.

A love song to Big Sur, punctuated with wisdom. Beautiful.

"Often, when following the trail which meanders over the hills, I pull myself up in an effort to encompass the glory and the grandeur which envelops the whole horizon. Often, when the clouds pile up in the north and the sea is churned with white caps, I say to myself: "This is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked out on from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look." "

Makes Big Sur sound like a place to live the good life and Henry Miller sound like someone who loves to hear himself talk. The character study at the end is the best part.