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.
The human mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals.
Use of a mentally ill person's involuntary confession is antithetical to the notion of fundamental fairness embodied in the due process clause.
Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.
I believe there is something of the divine mystery in everything that exists. We can see it sparkle in a sunflower or a poppy. We sense more of the unfathomable mystery in a butterfly that flutters from a twig--or in a goldfish swimming in a bowl. But we are closest to God in our own soul. Only there can we become one with the greatest mystery of life. In truth, at very rare moments we can experience that we ourselves are that divine mystery.
In the order of literature, as in others, there is no act that is not the coronation of an infinite series of causes and the source of an infinite series of effects.
It was behaviour that I thought not far from racism, sexism or any other kind of prejudice or snobbery. 'Because you are not cute, I do not want to know you' was, to me, hardly different from suggesting 'because you are gay, I dislike you
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