REVIEW: Nexus (The Rosy Crucifixion #3)

Nexus (The Rosy Crucifixon #3). Henry Miller. Grove Press (1987), Paperback, 316 pages.

"How does one know that one day he will take wing, that like the hummingbird he will quiver in mid-air and dazzle with iridescent sheen? One doesn't. One hopes and prays and bashes his head against the wall."

There is an element of the exotic and the animalistic in Miller, but at his core, he is a typical and rebellious American. He is equally at home comparing himself to a dog or to Jesus, and through these images, he traces his evolution from Wastrel to Want-Not Prophet, from his dingy childhood to idyllic Paris. On the surface, it is easy to see oneself in Miller's desperate attempts to sort out love, work, money, and art. ...and really, Miller is so likable in this last installment of The Rosy Crucifixion precisely because he is exactly like most other Americans: cursing our day jobs and fantasizing about the adventures we will have when we are fortunate enough to retire. I may be exaggerating a bit, but Miller manages--at least in part--to relish life and his role in it, regardless of both its glories and its flaws. He learns to let go, pick up, embrace everything, value nothing...this book almost reads like Miller's Enlightenment/Gnosis/Reincarnation/Resurrection...and that is the idea.

Nexus features less of the sex-capades of Sexus and the rambling characterizations of Plexus. Instead, Miller's writing falls into more of the agitated and artistic rambling that was only occasional during those downtrodden times. He refers to the sources of his inspiration more frequently, and somehow manages to both glorify and demonize them as he finds his own voice.

I took a lot of personal notes while I was reading Plexus, and I regret being less thorough as I read Nexus. There are so many references to other authors, painters, sculptors, musicians, and historical figures that taking notes would be a lengthy endeavor. As this was my first reading of Nexus, I'll leave that to future exploration, and I'll sum up the experience with one of Miller's last references:

***SPOILER ALERT!!!!***

Just before he leaves, he expresses an interest in finding an old record of Alexander Scriabin's Poème de l'extase. He claims that the first time he heard it, he became obsessed, and that something in him had changed. "It [the music] was like a bath of ice, cocaine and rainbows" (p. 307). Interestingly enough, there appears to be an order to Scriabin's work that closely mirrors Miller's Rosy Crucifixion: I. His soul in the orgy of love; II. The realization of a fantastical dream; III. The glory of his own art.[1] I'm not certain that the parallel is completely intentional, but given Miller's penchant for referencing other artists, I would hardly be surprised if it were. [1]Benson, Robert E.. "Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54". ClassicalCDReview.com. Retrieved 2012-04-04.

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At last, I'll say this: Nexus is the culmination of several years of struggling to act and to become what Miller already was: a writer. I would recommend the trilogy for anyone who has ever struggled with a difficult career move or lifestyle choice. Miller's experiences ring true, and his advice is pure: be yourself and learn when to say, "Goodbye!" (Now, don't all run out on your families just because Paris beckons. Follow your own paths.)

Rating: 4/5

REVIEW: Aesop's Fables; A New Translation by G.K. Chesterton [Kindle Edition]

Aesop's Fables; A New Translation. G.K. Chesterton. Public Domain Books (2004), Kindle Edition, Print length: 145 pages.

I wonder if modern man has always anthropomorphized animals. I suppose that ancient religious beliefs and practices could point to valid explanations, but how many animal stereotypes can we trace directly back to the influence of Aesop's fables? Aesop's works are important, because as Chesterton notes, they are simple truisms that require a certain degree of humility. People are reduced to "chessmen" and animals to their most basic qualities. In addition, the fact that these are likely collected works, and not simply the product of Aesop's mind, matters. Aesop, then, serves as a sort of orator, and yet he was supposedly thrown off of a cliff for...who knows...being "offensive?"

I wonder how often we bother to question our standard characterizations of the animals and the people found in Aesop's fables, and our often blind acceptance of the morals at the end of each one. Chesterton supposes in his introduction that ancient man thought themselves too mysterious to depict in the same manner as the cave paintings at, say, Lascaux. I think that some of the politics in the fables are obvious, and I wonder if this is where Aesop had a greater role in their creation. There are fables about the gods, the Oracle at Delphi, and slaves...fables that speak of class differences that easily could have gotten Aesop in trouble, if he were a Phrygian slave. There are lots of contradictory messages, too: tales of birds in cages who yearn to be free, and slaves who value protection over freedom. There are stories of cocks whose necks are wrung because they can only tell time, while a tame partridge is kept because it serves as a decoy to catch other birds...and then another tale in which a partridge is killed for its treachery when it offers to be a decoy in the interest of self-preservation. At face value, people take these morals to be self-evident truths, but the people in these stories are always the ones who contradict themselves. On the contrary, an Ass is always an ass.

Like Grimm's fairy tales, violence is a factor. The natural world has always had a bit of the gruesome to balance out the beauty. We accept this as normal, and it is, but it is also strange when we give voices to beasts and birds, and then use them to teach children right from wrong. Nothing is so cut and dry in a modern world, and yet these fables have survived despite the differences. I think that simplicity is the key. We tend to complicate matters, when all people really seem to crave are simple answers.

Rating: 4/5

To be quite honest, I'm being polite with this review. I gave this collection a 4/5 for historical importance, but I really wanted to give it a 3. The short form of the fables was easy to read, but it got to be rather dull, after a while. (In fact, it was enough to turn me off of ancient lit. for a while. I started reading an 1000-page, sprawling and modern novel this morning, just to shift to the other extreme. I NEED this, right now.)

A Very Bookish New Year!

As the first day of the New Year drifts away, I -- like everyone else who has first world problems and first world guilt -- feel the need to start fresh. I haven't been here in ages. In fact, this blog was created in a frenzy of possibility during a very long break from the real world. Reading can be like that, too: an escape-artist's favorite dream. Unfortunately, the "real world" is often no more real than the words on this page or any other; it is just more immediate and demanding.

This holiday season has been full of books! I received a Kindle from my mother, and six new books, so far. I can barely contain my enthusiasm for future reading, but I am also overwhelmed by choice and a self-imposed responsibility to enjoy these new gifts as much as I possibly can. I have a difficult time knowing where to begin. It has been this lack of direction/focus/whatever you want to call it...that has made keeping up with reading and blogging a difficult endeavor. I have distinct urges to complete every available reading challenge and book list that I can find, online. In other words, my eyes are bigger than my stomach...er...if my stomach ate books for breakfast.

Basically, I am starting from no place in particular, but I am on a mission. I call it: Operation Read Everything I Currently Own. (OREICO? Sure, why not.) I have lots of different interests, so I'm not exactly sure how this could appeal to anyone who might be reading this, but I don't much care. I love you, but I need to get started, and I need not be concerned by theme posts, list-whittling, or anything else that could distract me from the whole point of these things: Durrrr. READ.

I'm going to post to this blog on Wednesdays, at least until everything starts moving along at a decent clip...and then, we'll just have to see where it goes.

Cheers!