Henry Miller Describes The Beauty Of Big Sur Giving Literature The Oranges Of Hieronymus Bosch: Part II
© Robert Edward Bell
"Big Sur And The Oranges Of Hieronymus Bosch", was written after Henry Miller had lived on the beaches and neighboring forests of Big Sur for thirteen years. Composed years after the success of "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn", the book highlighted an important step in the development of the novelist. Miller had matured from the earlier years as a young man, slowly making the difficult transition from literary unknown towards that of novelist, to an older wiser man; looking back over his life and the world around him, to produce a work unparralleled in its' grasp of complex ideas, turning them into beautiful prose that simplified the abstract into language of the common man. For Miller, the book would accidentally turn into his "magnimus opus" or the summarized completion of his life's work. The last pages of the book consist of an epilogue intended to be originally entitled, "This Is My Answer", was to be the final expression of the author's view on the meaning of art with-in the context of the life experience. What came later was the novel and incredible literary experiment, "Big Sur".
In describing his real-life community, Miller not only introduced the reader to the physical beauty of the region surrounding Big Sur, while describing the variety of artists and unique personalities that used to inhabit the small secluded oceanic precipice, but also created a mythic America for the modern mind; a world of symbolance and order built on the foundations of the natural world. With this small book, Miller was able to show a land and a people living in a world on the outskirts of the mainstream, uninhibited by the conventionalism of society. Part of the appeal of the new journalism created in the late 50's and early 60's was to introduce every-day characters borrowed from real life. These new characters were meant to portray the new styles and fashions entering daily life, with a newer more modern narrative voice. A new generation was entering the scene of daily life and culture; and this form of journalism was designed to capture that spirit and energy, giving birth to original literary art forms. Truman Cappote's, "In Cold Blood" is an example in that new genre in detective fiction was created. The "Kool-Aid Acid Test", by Tom Wolf or "The White Album", by Joan Dideon are two other works that come to mind; both illustrating new themes for the later half of the twentieth century, as well as, turning factual events in history into a narrative style of presentation for the reader.
