“Today I am proud to say that I am inhuman, that I belong not to men and governments, that I have nothing to do with creeds and principles. I have nothing to do with the creaking machinery of humanity—I belong to the earth!”—Henry Miller, Tropic Of Cancer

“Anything else, in my opinion, is literature, and I am not interested in literature.“—Henry Miller, The Cosmological Eye

With my son and heir home sick from school and a few other things on the go, like studying a bunch of driving manuals in order to regain my long lapsed class 1 driver instructor’s license, this will be a short post.

The juxtaposition of the above quotes is pleasing to me on a couple of counts.

Two books: Tropic Of Cancer, and The Cosmological Eye, written from different points along the living arc of an artist’s life. The first a great raucously triumphant ‘FUCK YOU’ in the face of everything we hold sacred, everything that bolsters the image we cling to of ourselves and the civilization that underpins us. The second calmer, more poised, Buddha-like years before our general western obsession with Eastern esotericism.

 

Ahhh, to break free, to escape, to liberate our inner selves from the shackles our burgeoning cities burden our souls with! Shackles otherwise known as ‘responsibilities’ passed down from one well-meaning generation to the next. To liberate ourselves inwardly, and then carry that newfound knowledge of freedom back to the city and live life exultantly, without reservation or regret! To shine and sing in every thought, word and deed!

To walk amidst the crowd yet not be of the crowd. To smile contentedly and laugh at the whole gamut of humankind’s wondrous folly. To recognize the derivative for what it is and joyously cherish the pure and unalloyed. To feel compassion for all beings working through their destiny as best they can, muddling forwards often enough in the dark (we humans at any rate) unaware of the quiddity lying buried within.

Ahh, what crazy musings a weekend spent in the mountains can evoke.

Nah, that’s not true.

You reach a certain point in life and you carry the mountains in your heart wherever you may be. As Miller says: “[You] have nothing to do with the creaking machinery of humanity—[because you] belong to the earth!”