The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur
by Arthur Hoyle
The Transcendent Perspective
For Miller, the specifics of his time and place were merely stepping stones to a higher reality, where he viewed himself not just as a citizen of a country, but as a universal being inhabiting the cosmos. He held a deep skepticism towards biographical details that focused on mere facts, which he felt obscured the true essence of imaginative reality.
The Rational Man's Dilemma
Miller criticized Western civilization for its overreliance on reason and intellect, which he believed led humanity away from the fundamental powers of emotion, instinct, and the unconscious. He saw these aspects as crucial for true human expression and understanding.
The Role of the Artist
Miller saw art as a vehicle for individuation, asserting that the artist's role was to guide others towards personal freedom by exemplifying an escape from conventional societal constraints.
Art as a Pathway
According to Miller, art was not just a form of expression but a means of exploring and accepting one's true self. He believed that the artist plays a critical role in society by reviving primitive, anarchic instincts that modern comforts tend to suppress.
Inner Peace and Understanding
Miller described experiencing a profound peace at Epidaurus, which he identified as a universal peace that involves surrendering personal attachments. This peace allowed a deeper connection with the world and an alignment with the cosmic heartbeat.
Vision of a Transcendent Reality
Miller believed that transcendent experiences allowed him to fuse cognitive and intuitive modes of consciousness, which significantly altered his perspective and understanding of reality.
Individualism Outside Society
His disdain for the direction of modern civilization led Miller and his contemporaries to seek transformation and meaning outside the conventional societal framework, often finding solace in personal freedom and self-guided paths.
Organic Literary Forms
In "Tropic of Cancer," Miller embraced a form that mimicked the organic flow of life itself, contrasting sharply with structured, conventional narratives, and emphasizing a holistic acceptance of life's experiences.
Imagination Against Conformity
Miller staunchly believed in the limitless potential of the individual, which he felt was stifled by the materialistic focus of American society. He envisioned a new type of human being emerging from the ruins of a collapsed Western civilization, a being more in tune with the cosmos.
The Artist's Joy
Miller found great joy in the intuitive process of creating art, viewing his spontaneous artistic impulses as connected to what he considered 'divine creations.'
Rejection of Conventional Work
For Miller, traditional work was anathema because it constrained the imagination, which he valued above all.
The Artist as a Medium for Alternate Realities
Both Miller and his contemporary thinkers saw themselves as conduits to an alternate, truer reality, challenging the rationalist, scientific perspective on progress.
The Spiritual and the Secular
Miller and others believed that by focusing on spiritual cultivation, humans could access a higher reality that transcended the mundane aspects of worldly existence.
Suffering as a Path to Enlightenment
Miller recognized suffering as a transformative force that was necessary to achieve a higher understanding and consciousness.
Self-Discovery and Individual Foundations
He emphasized the importance of each individual constructing their own philosophical and existential foundations, diverging from societal norms to discover personal truths.
Whitman's Influence and the Commonplace
Inspired by Walt Whitman, Miller appreciated the intrinsic value of everyday life and the potential within every individual, which he believed was often overlooked in pursuit of the extraordinary.
Integration with the Cosmic and the Mystical
Miller saw himself as fundamentally connected to a higher intelligence or cosmic force, which shaped his understanding of existence and reinforced his belief in the miraculous nature of life.
Self-Liberation as Central Theme
Ultimately, Miller's work and philosophy centered around the theme of self-liberation, exploring the multifaceted nature of human existence from the physical to the spiritual, and advocating for a life lived in true alignment with one's innermost self and the broader universe.
The physical man of the senses
The instinctual man in the grip of unconscious forces and drives
The spiritual man who yearns for harmony, union, connectedness with his fellow man and the cosmos
The intellectual man, the rational man who must use his mind to navigate his relationship to society, to try to understand it and come to terms with it.