Subject: ASSC: AFTSD: A Conversation with Henry Miller
Date: 2 Dec 1996 19:04:10 GMT
From: idleeric <stdumbo@mich.com>

1949 (as reported by Gore Vidal):

Lawence Durrell -->

I must confess that I'm bitterly disappointed in [Sexus], dispite the
fact that it contains some of your very best writing to date. But, my
dear Henry, the moral vulgarity of so much of it is artistically
painful. These silly meaningless scenes have no 'raison d'etre', no
humor, just childish explosions of obscenity -- what a pity, what a
terrible pity for a major artist not to have critical sense enough to
husband his force, to keep his talent aimed at the target. What on earth
possessed you to leave so much twaddle in?

Henry Miller -->

I said it before & I repeat it solemnly: I am writing exactly what I
want to write and the way I want to do it. Perhaps it's twaddle, perhaps
not .... I am trying to reproduce in words a block of my life which to
me has the utmost significence -- every bit of it. Not because I am
infatuated with my own ego. You should be able to perceive that only a
man without ego could write thus about himself. (Or else I am really
crazy. In which case, pray for me.