Henry Miller on Writers, Writing and Artists

I recently did a post on The Allure of Nymphet's blog about author and ephepophile Henry Miller, and his writings on nymphets and age-discrepant relationships. In addition, he has some gems in his novels about writing, writers and artists. The excerpts below are taken from Henry Miller's Sexus.

 "It's much better to be preoccupied with wonderful ideas than with the next meal, or rent,or a pair of shoes. Of course when you get to the point where you must eat, and you haven't anything to eat, then to eat becomes an obsession. But the difference between an artist and the ordinary individual is that when the artist does get a meal he immediately falls back into his own limitless world, and while he's in that world he's a king, whereas your ordinary duffer is just a filling station with nothing in between but dust and smoke."

 "'You've got to eat, haven't you?'...I observed that the men who were most in life, who were molding life, who were life itself, ate little, slept little, owned little or nothing. They had no illusions about duty, or the perpetuation of their kith and kin, or the preservation of the State. They were interested in truth and truth alone. They recognized only one kind of activity-creation."

"But Arthur Raymond had absolutely no regard for time; when he was interested in a subject he thought nothing of food, sleep or sex."

 "A painter can knock out a half dozen paintings in a year-so I'm told. But a writer-why sometimes it takes him ten years to do a book, and if it's good, as I say, it takes another teen years to find a publisher for it, and after that you've got to allow fifteen to twenty years before it's recognized by the public. It's almost a lifetime-for one book, mind you. How's he going to live meanwhile? Well, he lives like a dog usually. A panhandler leads a royal life by comparison. Nobody would undertake a career if he know what lay in store for him."

"There was another thing I heartily disbelieved in-work. Work, it seemed to me even at the threshold of life, is an activity reserved for the dullard. It is the very opposite of creation, which is play, and which just because it has not raison d'etre other than itself is the supreme motivating..."

"...they had of their own pledged themselves to give all. They gave gratuitously, because it is the only way to give. This was the way of life which appealed to me; it made sound sense. It was life-not the simulacrum which those about me worshiped."

"I want to start a new life with you. Let's go away from all these people! And I want you to quit that awful job. I'll find a place where you can write. You won't need to earn any money. I'll soon be making lots of money. You can have anything you want. I'll get all the books you want to read....Maybe you'll write a play..."

While I was re-reading the above excerpts I couldn't help but think about artists (i.e. writers, poets, painters, etc,) like James Franco and Nabokov. In a New York magazine profile that I wrote about in a previous post, Franco's assistant shared that Franco doesn't eat unless she, literally, puts food in front of him, and, like Tesla, Franco sleeps about four hours per night. Furthermore, Nabokov was so consumed with his translation of Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse that he worked it for over 17 hours per day. And what writer doesn't dream about being freed from his day job. 

Writing Nonfiction is Like Cracking a Safe.

The award winning non-fiction writer Rich Cohen wrote in a Vanity Fair article about his effort to ghost write a book about Theodore Forstmann, "Writing a nonfiction story is like cracking a safe. It seems impossible at the beginning, but once your're in, you're in." That is exactly what I experienced while writing The Allure of Nymphets. Despite the fact that the book has been published, I'm still pulling pulling jewels out of the safe for the blog.

For example, on my plane ride back into New York City on Monday, a young lady two rows up was watching Leon (1994) on her humongous silver MacBook. I left Leon out of the appendix of The Allure of Nymphets, because the relationship between the nymphet Mathilda (13-year-old Natalie Portman) and Leon (46-year-old Jean Reno) had some sexual overtones, but was for the most part platonic. But what I forgot was that Mathilda was a teen prostitute and in the opening scene she serviced (off-screen) a middle-aged john. 

And this week's New York magazine has a cover story on Childhood in New York. This excerpt from the article is consistent with the research that I related in The Allure of Nymphets about childhood being a relatively recent invention:

They [reformers and the government] viewed kids smoking at 10 and 12 and having independent money and walking into bars as the worst thing in the world. It reminds you that "child" is a label, not a reality. 

I will be writing a review of the New York article for Friday's post on The Allure of Nymphet's blog.

13-year-old Natalie Portman in Leon (1994)

THE ALLURE OF NYMPHETS in Paperback

The Allure of Nymphets, From Charlie Chaplin to Mark Sanchez, Man's Fascination with Young Women, is available in paperback and for the Kindle.

You can also purchase my novel, Katie, in paperback and for the Kindle.

Plot Summary for Katie: Roger, a frustrated New York City public high school teacher and member of Manhattan’s underground pickup artist community, abandons his traditional economics curriculum to teach the art of seduction. With such enticing new material, perhaps his underprivileged students will be more engaged in class, and thereby better behaved. However, when Roger gets into an argument on the subway with the powerful Mr. Miller, who becomes so upset that he sets out to destroy Roger’s teaching career, Roger reluctantly decides to seduce Katie, Mr. Miller’s beautiful teenage daughter, to get revenge. Little does Roger know that this seduction will have a lasting effect on his life, and the lives of his students.

LARRY CLARK STUFF and PHILIP ROTH: UNMASKED

I've been so busy putting some of the "final" touches on the paperback version of the new book and posting on the new blog that I haven't taken out any time to visit any museums, see any plays, etc. That was until yesterday when I visited the Larry Clark Stuff exhibit at Milk Studios in Chelsea and I saw, for free, the Philip Roth: Unmasked documentary at the Film Forum. 

I wrote about Larry Clark and Philip Roth in The Allure of Nymphets, because both of them are clearly ephebophiles. And it appeared from the exhibit and the documentary that both Clark and  Roth have taken advantage of the fact that sex sells. Although, it seems that their works were done out of passion and not out of insincerity. 

Philip Roth said something in the documentary that every new writer needs to know, which is that one cannot write out of thin air. One has to take from experiences and observations and embellish them. I was surprised that, like me, Roth discovered that principle on his own and wasn't taught it in school or by another writer. 

LARRY CLARK STUFF

THE ALLURE OF NYMPHETS Galley Copy

I recently received the galley (preview) copy of The Allure of Nymphets. It will be available for purchase for the Kindle and in paperback after I read it to myself (out loud) THREE MORE TIMES.

My First eNovella

Despite the fact that Katie and The Allure of Nymphets are available in digital formats, I have never read an eBook. I still haven't, but I did download and read Jonathan Ames' You Were Never Really Here eNovella/Kindle Single. I have to admit that I would not have downloaded You Were Never Really Here  but it isn't available in paperback and the plot summary gave me the impression that I would be able to write a post about the eNovella on The Allure of Nymphets blog. Obviously, I have nothing against eBooks/eNovellas, but I prefer the feel of a paperback in my hands. And like Nassim Taleb wrote in Antifragile, eBooks are not antifragile.

Outline for Next Book

While I wait for the galley copy of The Allure of Nymphets, in addition to some marketing for the book, I made the first outline for my next book, which is tentatively titled "You Made Me This Way!", The Surprising Link Between Child Abuse and Homosexuality. I wanted to write The Rabbi, The Monk, and The Pimp first, but out of altruism,  I've decided to write the former book first. More details are forthcoming. 

Nabokov Museum Vandalized

The Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg was recently vandalized by the ultraconservative St. Petersburg Cossacks for promoting pedophilia. Although Lolita could have been more moral (e.g. Humbert could have tried to (illegally) marry 12-year-old Lola), the novel doesn't appear to promote pedophilia, but it does exemplify the allure of nymphets.  

Ironically, if Nabakov would have written the novel approximately 50 years earlier (Lolita was published in 1955.) or even made the setting in the late 1800s, Lola would have been of legal age, because the age-of-consent in most states was 10 before the turn of the 20th century.

The ELECTION and the ELECTION within 12 Hours

I accomplished something today, I believe, very few modern humans have been able to accomplish. I read an entire novel and watched the movie the novel was adapted from within 12 hours. The novel is Election by Tom Perrotta and the movie is, unsurprisingly titled, Election (1999), and stars Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. For a full review and analysis of the novel and movie refer to my new blog.

POETS & WRITERS Recognition

As I work on the final stages of my second book, The Allure of Nymphets/From Emperor Augustus to Charlie Chaplin/Man's Fascination with Young Women, I've been recognized by Poets & Writers magazine as a member of the literary community and a professional writer; thus, I'm privy to a discount rate on a subscription to the bi-monthly periodical. I normally read the magazine at the Barnes & Noble on 86th and Lexington, but due to the Poets & Writers' amazing marketing strategy I'm going to subscribe.