On Henry Miller: Or, How to Be an Anarchist

John Burnside

Published by Princeton University Press 2018

On Henry Miller

Or, How to Be an Anarchist

John Burnside

Volume 10 in the series Writers on Writers

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400889228

Overview
Contents

About this book

An engaging invitation to rediscover Henry Miller—and to learn how his anarchist sensibility can help us escape “the air-conditioned nightmare” of the modern world

The American writer Henry Miller's critical reputation--if not his popular readership—has been in eclipse at least since Kate Millett's blistering critique in Sexual Politics, her landmark 1970 study of misogyny in literature and art. Even a Miller fan like the acclaimed Scottish writer John Burnside finds Miller's "sex books"—including The Rosy Crucifixion, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn—"boring and embarrassing." But Burnside says that Miller's notorious image as a "pornographer and woman hater" has hidden his vital, true importance—his anarchist sensibility and the way it shows us how, by fleeing from conformity of all kinds, we may be able to save ourselves from the "air-conditioned nightmare" of the modern world.

Miller wrote that "there is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy," and in this short, engaging, and personal book, Burnside shows how Miller teaches us to become less adapted to the world, to resist a life sentence to the prison of social, intellectual, emotional, and material conditioning. Exploring the full range of Miller's work, and giving special attention to The Air-Conditioned Nightmare and The Colossus of Maroussi, Burnside shows how, with humor and wisdom, Miller illuminates the misunderstood tradition of anarchist thought. Along the way, Burnside reflects on Rimbaud's enormous influence on Miller, as well as on how Rimbaud and Miller have influenced his own writing.

An unconventional and appealing account of an unjustly neglected writer, On Henry Miller restores to us a figure whose searing criticism of the modern world has never been more relevant.

Author / Editor information

John Burnside is a poet, novelist, and memoirist whose recent books include Still Life with Feeding Snake and Ashland & Vine. He has won many awards for his poetry, including the T. S. Eliot, Forward, Whitbread, and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, and the Guardian, and he writes a regular nature column for the New Statesman. He is professor of English at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

Praise for John Burnside: "A brilliant poet, a brilliant memoirist, and a brilliant novelist."---Christina Patterson, The Independent

Praise for John Burnside: "A master of language."---Hilary Mantel, London Review of Books

"Exploring Henry Miller's reputation and work and making the case for his relevance today, John Burnside has written a lively, engaging appreciation with an exhilarating, globe-trotting literary range."—Kasia Boddy, University of Cambridge

Praise for John Burnside: "Quite simply, he is a wonderful writer."---Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

On Henry Miller is a considered, moving account of how this flawed but much mis-read writer thought, and of what he still offers, philosophically and politically.---Guy Stevenson, Literary Review

Burnside’s provocative study makes a strong case for Henry Miller as a romantic anarchist comparable, on the basis of the evidence provided here, to Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman.

"John Burnside, a remarkable writer, vividly shows his affinities with Henry Miller. Paralleling Miller's style, Burnside is impressionistic, digressive, hyperbolic, and sometimes outrageous. He argues that Miller wrote to ‘find out if books can help us to live better,' and this is Burnside's aim too. Burnside and Miller make a good match."—Jay Martin, Claremont McKenna College

Praise for John Burnside: "A writer of manifest and manifold talent."---Adam O’Riordan, Sunday Telegraph

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
BY WAY OF A PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
In Praise of Flight Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Like a Fluid (The False Pornographer) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
On Love and Property Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	46
Henry Miller as Anarchist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Like a Fluid (The Great Romantic) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
The Air- Conditioned Nightmare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
The Time of the Assassins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
The Creature World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165