Henry Miller

[LOT64 at aol.com]

> Has anyone ever looked at Henry Miller and his writings in
> relation to TRP?

"And while we are on the subject what about Lawrence Durrell."

It's interesting that Andrew brings up Durrell in relation to Pynchon.  One
similarity is that THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET is grounded on a scientific
metaphor.   Its been many years since I read it but if I remember correctly,
in his foreword, Durrell says that he is looking at the events he is
depicting through the lens of  Einsteinian relativity.  I also remember
something about using the structure of the four books in time and space in a
very unusual way (examining the time/space continuum,or some such).  Don't
hold me to it though, it was a long time ago.  I loved those books when I
first read them.  They were the main impetus for a trip I took through the
Mid-East a few years later.  I found JUSTINE the most difficult one to get
through but the other three knocked me out.  This was about thirty years ago.
 I tried re-reading about ten years ago and couldn't deal with the intense
romanticism and I wondered why I had liked these books so much.  I will
reread them in the future, however.  Sometimes reading the same book at
different stages of one's life tells us more about ourselves than about the
book.

The exotic flavor of Alexandria certainly seeps into the Egyptian sections of
V.  I envy you Andrew for being able to have the experience of reading these
delightful books for the first time.

I think the fact that I read these books at the same time as a small group of
friends and that we sat around discussing the characters and plot
developments and started to use them as metaphors for people around us helped
make the quartet the intense experience it was.

Ron Churgin