Still on my reading wish list, so this is more of a Book preview; "Stand Still like the Hummingbird": a book-of-essays/anthology. I'm giving it a look-see even though I don't yet own it. However, curiosity got the better of me, so here are some extracts and quotes from an unconventional writer. Some of Henry Miller's early works were banned in his home country of the US for their controversial content involving religion, sex, social criticism, philosophy and explicit language. Six books of his written between 1934-59 were all banned.
Image from Animal-HD-Wallpapers.com
Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past. Even if that is objected to as an overstatement, it will probably be admitted that Miller is a writer out of the ordinary, worth more than a single glance; and after all, he is a completely negative, unconstructive, amoral writer, a mere Jonah, a passive acceptor of evil, a sort of Whitman among the corpses. - George Orwell acknowledging Henry Miller in his Essay: "Inside the Whale" (1940)
“I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable.”
“ our needs … what is it that we need? certainly the more liberated one feels the less one needs. the sage demonstrates it daily, and the idiot too. just to breathe, to know that you are alive, isn’t it marvelous. “
Extracts from the book - "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" - a collection of essays from Henry Miller.
“ our needs … what is it that we need? certainly the more liberated one feels the less one needs. the sage demonstrates it daily, and the idiot too. just to breathe, to know that you are alive, isn’t it marvelous. “
Extracts from the book - "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird" - a collection of essays from Henry Miller.
-- And your way, is it really your way?
…
What, moreover, can you call your own? The house you live in, the food you swallow, the clothes you wear — you neither built the house nor raised the food nor made the clothes.
The same goes for your ideas. You moved into them ready-made.
-- Quote: Henry Miller
Henry Miller photos via famousauthors.org
"There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy."
-- Henry Miller
Drawing of a Hummingbird from illustrationdresser blogspot. Above, the rare Albino Hummingbird.
Some further quotes by other writers to continue the theme...
... We look at him through the wrong end of the telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.
-- Poem extract: "Humming-Bird"
by D.H. Lawrence
The sunlight speaks. And it's voice is a bird:
It glitters half-guessed half seen half-heard
Above the flower bed. Over the lawn ...
A flashing dip and it is gone.
And all it lends to the eye is this --
A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.
-- "The Hummingbird"
by Henry kemp
RSS Feed
