Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer

Warning:
This post contains a photograph of female sudoriferous glands.
Avert your eyes lest the boobs cause impure thoughts!

Dear Henry Miller,
You are a raunchy old man and I love you for that.
XOXO,
Danielle
PS - Call me


I really don't know how to give this book the due it deserves.
To give you a sense of my appreciation for it: Quotes from Tropic of Cancer take up four pages of my book quote notebook. Quote-book?

In short, Tropic of Cancer is a novel about finding a way for life and decadence to thrive in the most dire of situations. Miller exposes the savage nature of mankind through a series of semi-autobiographical accounts of people (namely "working ladies") he encounters while living in a grim and filthy 1930s France. Sex and squalor, basically.

Some have called Miller a misogynistic bastard for depicting women as sexual objects and many have argued for the ban of the book because of its X(XX)-rated accounts of certain rendezvous. Those people should really stick to reading Twilight.
And now for quotes although I highly, highly recommend you read this novel novel.

"Passed me men and women ignited with sulfur, porters in calcium livery opening the jaws of hell, fame walking on crutches, dwindled by the sky-scrapers, chewed to a frazzle by the spiked mouth of the machines."

"We have no need for genius - genius is dead. We have need for strong hands, for spirits who are willing to give up the ghost and put on flesh."

"Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy."

And, how could I forget:
"A laboratory cunt and no litmus paper that could take her color."

7 comments:

  1. True story--over break, I went to the library specifically to check out 'Tropic of Cancer', specifically because I saw it in your facebook favs. I had too much homework to read it and I had to return it when I left for school. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to make a similar trip with a more desirable outcome.

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  2. favorite line: " Those people should really stick to reading Twilight."

    precisely why I love you.

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  3. if anything positive is written about twilight on this blog, i will gag. hannah, that means you.

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  4. Lock that down, Clementi.

    Claire, the fact that you read this blog is the reason I love you.

    Disclaimer: I don't mean to offend fellow FlyHunniez. But really, Hannah? Twilight?

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  5. IT'S NOT MY FAULT! AHAHAHAH!

    it's a guilty pleasure...


    I am ashamed.

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  6. In my defense,
    I read it before it was popular.

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  7. TRUE FACT.
    I am sitting in a coffee shop right now and this huge creep from LA is hitting on my friend and me and talking about the wonders of Henry Miller.

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