If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that Henry Miller's unique voice resonates with the commonality of human experience, much like Walt Whitman.
Gore Vidal's quote highlights the notion that great authors often embody the collective thoughts and emotions of their era. By comparing Henry Miller to a 'village idiot,' it suggests that his unconventional opinions and style reflect a deeper truth that resonates with the universal human experience, akin to Walt Whitman's profound connection to the common man. This suggests that the simplicity or eccentricity of their expressions may reveal essential truths about society and individuality.
In practice
In a discussion about the value of authenticity in literature, you can use this quote to emphasize the importance of expressing genuine thoughts.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
I think the only positive thing that came from Uruguay's dictatorship was the spread of Montevideo natives around the world, and I continued writing about them from my various places of exile.
Our sadness wonβt be of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.
The significance of life is living.
The young feel tired at the end of an action, the old at the beginning.
It is only by the abolition of the State, by the conquest of perfect liberty by the individual, by free agreement, association, and absolute free federation that we can reach Communism β the possession in common of our social inheritance, and the production in common of all riches.
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.