and all the rest: tidbits from henry miller

Part One: The Oranges of the Millennium

What was inaugurated with virginal modesty threatens to end as a bonanza. (11)

Artists never thrive in colonies. Ants do. (13)

Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri

The longing to be reunited, with a common purpose and an all-embracing significance, is now universal. (57)

Nobody suffers. Only literature suffers. (67)

Men have an ingrained tendency to regard these irruptions of the spirit as closed dramas. (135)

It is abundance we worship, then common sense would dictate that we cease wasting our time and energy on the manufacture of destructive products and destructive thoughts. (141)

The fellow who is out to burn things up is the counterpart of the fool who thinks he can save the world. The world needs neither to be burned up nor to be saved. The world is, we are. Transients, if we buck it; here to stay, if we accept everything created is also creative. (144)

- Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on going somewhere (miller)

And if one moves fast enough the gap can become tremendous, painful too for those unable to follow.

-132, "Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on false beginnings (miller)

As for spiritual resources, has there ever been a deficiency? Only in man’s mind.

The air is full of theories about the new order, the new dispensation. Marvelous pictures are painted of the period just around the bend, when we of this earth will see the end of making war, when atomic energy will be utilized for the benefit of all mankind. But no one acts as if this glorious age which is dawning were an imminent, wholly realizable, thoroughly practicable one, indeed the only viable one. It is a beautiful subject for discussion at cocktail hour, when all the current topics have been chewed to a frazzle.

- 131, "Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on always be unsatisfied (miller)

The longing for paradise, whether here on earth or in the beyond, has almost ceased to be. Instead of an idée-force it has become an idée fixe. From a potent myth it has degenerated into a taboo. Men will sacrifice their lives to bring about a better world—whatever that may mean—but they will not budge an inch to attain paradise. Nor will they struggle to create a bit of paradise in the hell they find themselves. It is so much easier, and gorier, to make revolution, which means, to put it simply, establishing another, a different, status quo. If paradise were realizable—this is the classic retort!—it would no longer be paradise.

- 24, "Part One: The Oranges of the Millenium," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on being weighted down - equality! (miller)

The world presses down on all alike. Men are not suffering from the lack of good literature, good art, good theatre, good music, but from that which has made it impossible for these to become manifest. In short, they are suffering from the silent, shameful conspiracy (the more shameful since it is unacknowledged) which has bound them together as enemies of art and artist. They are suffering from the fact that art is not the primary, moving force in their lives. They are suffering from the act, repeated daily, of keeping up the pretense that they can go their way, lead their lives, without art. They never dream—or they behave as if they never realize—that the reason why they feel sterile, frustrated and joyless is because art (and with it the artist) has been ruled out of their lives.

- 57-58, "Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on hope: pushing through to the future (miller)

We are in the habit of speaking of “the last frontier,” but wherever there are “individuals” there will always be new frontiers. (18)

…the American way of life is an illusory kind of existence, that the price demanded for the security and abundance it pretends to offer is too great. The presence of these “renegades,” small in number though they be, is but another indication that the machine is breaking down. (18)

"Part One: Oranges of the Millenium," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller

on desperation and originality (miller)

…the man who is about to blow his top does not have to fix his eye on the Iliad, the Divine Comedy or any other great model; he has only to give us, in his own language, the saga of his woes and tribulations, the saga of his non-existentialism. In this mirror of not-ness everyone will recognize himself for what he is as well as what he is not.

- 58, "Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri," Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Boch, Henry Miller

on appreciation (miller)

Nothing is bad when you look at it hungrily. (The first step in the art of appreciation.)

- pg 91 of Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch

henry miller and thingness

Part One: The Oranges of the Millennium

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

Part Two: Peace and Solitude: A Potpourri

If you can’t give the is-ness of a thing give the not-ness of it! (56)

Light is the one thing we cannot steal, imitate, or even counterfeit. (95)

You can’t slash mountains to ribbons, nor cut the sky to pieces, nor flatten a wave with the broadest sword. (146)

- excerpts from "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch," Henry Miller

from: big sur and the oranges of hieronymous bosch (miller)

One fact stands out, however, and that is the inborn urge of the American to experiment, to try out the most crack-brained schemes having to do with social, economic, religious and even sex relations. Where sex and religion were dominant, the most amazing results were achieved. The Oneida Community (New York), for example, is destined to remain as memorable an experiment as Robert Owen’s in New Harmony (Indiana). As for the Mormons, nothing comparable to their efforts has ever been undertaken on this continent, and probably never will again.

In all these idealistic ventures, particularly those initiated by religious communities, the participants seemed to possess a keen sense of reality, a practical wisdom, which in no way conflicted (as it does in the case of ordinary Christians) with their religious views. They were honest, law-abiding, industrious, self-sustaining, self-sufficient citizens with character, individuality and integrity, somewhat corroded (to our present way of thinking) by a Puritan sobriety and austerity, but never lacking in faith, courage and independence.

- (16-17), Part Two: Peace and Solitude: a Potpourri, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, Henry Miller.

dead time (miller)

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. Were these empty souls truly concerned about the plight of their fellow-men they would consume themselves in the flames of devotion. One need hardly go beyond his own doorstep to discover a realm large enough to exhaust the energies of a giant, or better, a saint.
- Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch, page 28

Homer, the aged poet: What is wrong with peace that its inspiration doesn't endure?
- Wings of Desire/ Der Himmel uber Berlin, 1987