Henry Miller
Paperback | Pages: 292 pages Rating: 3.83 | 2924 Users | 169 Reviews
Point Epithetical Books The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
| Title | : | The Air-Conditioned Nightmare |
| Author | : | Henry Miller |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 292 pages |
| Published | : | January 17th 1970 by New Directions (first published 1945) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Travel. Literature. Writing. Essays |
Chronicle In Pursuance Of Books The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
In 1939, after ten years as an expatriate, Henry Miller returned to the United States with a keen desire to see what his native land was really like—to get to the roots of the American nature and experience. He set out on a journey that was to last three years, visiting many sections of the country and making friends of all descriptions. The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is the result of that odyssey.Particularize Books In Favor Of The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
| Original Title: | The Air-Conditioned Nightmare |
| ISBN: | 0811201066 (ISBN13: 9780811201063) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Epithetical Books The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
Ratings: 3.83 From 2924 Users | 169 ReviewsPiece Epithetical Books The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
I hadn't read Henry Miller since 2001 and forgot how brilliant his prose is in the service of indignation. That said, Miller's rage at American consumerism, corporatism, materialism, and all-around ignorance -- a feeling with which I duly agree -- once in a while, but far too often, sails past insightfulness and lands in the realm of self-righteousness, leading one to suspect that underneath his bohemian persona lies a secret aristocrat. This from the last chapter of The Air-ConditionedWonderful to Read. Full of world vision, realism, thoughts, humour (like in all of Miller). Most of all, of personnality. Very appropreate for the still largely Up to date criticism of the north American mentality (which i find, applies well to Canada), and of it's "individualism without individuality (or personnality)". I feel like reading it again.
Update: I'm abandoning this one some 50 pages in. He is far too annoying and the racism is really grating on me. If you have read it, and know that it improves, please tell me.In this book so far, Miller goes from being a more-or-less cool sex-drugs-and-rock&roll guy (as in Sexus/Nexus/Plexus and the Tropics) to being an archetypal Grumpy Old Man. The train is ugly! I don't like the skyline! That station is horrific! That seagull shows the utter decline of the American nation! I can't stand
Reading the prologue to this book by Henry Miller astonishes me. Written 70 years ago, it could have been written today. Some excerpts:It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress - but a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful ... Whatever does not lend itself to being bought or sold ... is debarredWe are accustomed to think of
Reading the prologue to this book by Henry Miller astonishes me. Written 70 years ago, it could have been written today. Some excerpts:It is a world suited for monomaniacs obsessed with the idea of progress - but a false progress, a progress which stinks. It is a world cluttered with useless objects which men and women, in order to be exploited and degraded, are taught to regard as useful ... Whatever does not lend itself to being bought or sold ... is debarredWe are accustomed to think of
The problem with this book wasn't that it was strictly bad. On the contrary, a reader gets a glimpse of some of Miller's talent as a writer, with pages upon pages of rhapsodic prose tumbling word upon word until the effect is less like a text and more like standing under a waterfall of imagery and ideas.Unfortunately that doesn't constitute the bulk of the book. What Miller offers is a trip around a country with which he is disgusted and alienated. It's unfair to either blame him for the cliché
A book that is especially relevant for its relevant criticism of the American model, and its tribute to occupied France.After we get a little lost in the portrait gallery that dots the book.
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