Inspirational book details author’s life,
why universities don’t teach his works
Courtesy of Turtle Bay Books
“The Devil at Large”
Erica Jong
Turtle Bay Books
• _. __ _
In “The Devil at Large,” Erica
Jong turns both critical and celebratory
eyes to Henry Miller and the indi
vidual, sexual, and spiritual freedom
he and his writings embodied. This
book is a heady brew, almost as
intoxicatingly inspirational as Miller
himself.
And for those unfamiliar with
Miller’s work beyond a fleeting ac
quaintance with ‘Tropic of Cancer,”
l. . ..--1
a chapter or two here gives the essen
tial bio and essence of Miller without
boring the initiated.
Jong charts Miller’s life from his
boyhood in Brooklyn to his first mar
riage and employment at Western
Union (a place Miller would call the
“Cosmodemonic Telegraphic Com
pany”), and from his exile in Paris to
his death a decade ago.
The Jazz Age, however, is where
this book primarily dwells. From
Henry’s time in Paris came his first
great work, “The Tropic of Cancer,”
nis explosive marriage to June, and
his passionate love affair with Anais
Nin.
This was “the age of bobbed hair
and bobbed skirts, discarded corsets
and the introduction of Trojans,” when
“modem women were learning to
drink, smoke, and make love.”
Wriling about Henry M iller entails
more for Jong than plodding out a
literary biography. This memoir traces
Henry and Erica’s exchange of letters
beginning with hispraise of her novel,
“Tne Fear of Flying.”
Miller recommended and gave
copies of her book to everyone he
knew. He wrote an open letter to the
New York Times defending ‘The Fear
of Flying” from prudish critics, tout
ing tne book as the “feminine coun
terpart” to his own “Tropic of Can
cer.”
In writing about Miller, Jong writes
about the writer’s life: what it means
to “remake oneself spiritually,” and
how, for Miller, the line between truth
and fiction was inherently blurred.
Jong dives intoquestions surround
ing Miller’s indulgent depictions of
sex and comes up with brilliant an
I
swers. Miller viewed “sex as the gyre
of birth, sex as the DNA of existence,
the matrix of all creativity” writes
Jong. “Miller used the word ‘sex’ in a
cosmic, not a genital sense. And he
was surprised to discover that the
world did not agree with him.”
“The Devil at Large” also delves
into Henry’s side of his frenetic sexual
and romantic intertwining with Anais
Nin. Miller had always remained faith
ful to his promise never to write any
thing that would jeopardize the career
of Nin’s banker husband.
Nin wrote of Miller,*! want to kiss
the man whose passion rushes like
lava through achill intellectual world.”
From here Jong explores the rea
sons why Miller is not taught in uni
versities.
Academics seem to have a fear of
his brand of freedom, a fear of flying
with the most base and honest expres
sions of human ex istence and the male
psyche. (Come to think of it, I’ve
never seen Jong's counterpart novel
on lit. class reading lists either.) Or
possibly there is a simple fear of
“bad" words.
When asked to justify his use of
obscenity, Miller declared that it
needed no justification. “Life is ob
scene and miraculous,” he said, “and
neither is there any justification of
life.”
“The Devil at Large” concludes
with letters, annotated bibliography,
and a worthwhile list of background
reading. The title comes from the
subtitieof Miller’s “Insomnia,”a book
of midnight scrawls, watercolors,and
photographs.
— Calvin Clinchard
Fairuza Balk and lone Skye in “Gas Food Lodging.” ,
‘Gas Food Lodging’ is fun film
“Gas Food Lodging,” Allison
Anders' thrillingly fun debut film,
tells the story of a single mother and
her two adolescent daughters in the
quirky tumbleweed town of Laramie,
New Mexico.
Nora (Brooke Adams), a waitress
at the Pull-Off Plaza Truck Stop,
struggles to keep control of her rebel
lious daughterTrudi (lone Skye) while
her vounger daughter Shade (Fairuza
Balk) longs to establish a “regular”
family who does “normal” things by
finding a man for her mom to marry.
Shade, a matinee addict, constantly
goes to see Elvia Rivera movies,
wherein families are always nuclear,
solid and secure. This sparks her de
sire to set up her mom, which she
attempts with humorous results.
. At the same time, Shade feels her
self beginning to come of age. She
awkwardly falls fora boy whose dream
girl is Olivia Newton-John and whose
shyness strikes Shade like rejection.
Shade recovers by falling into a
friendship with a Mexican-American
boy named Javier (Jacob Vargas) in
spite of her friends racist attitudes.
Trudi plays the dating game on
entirely sexual terms until she meets
Dank (Robert Knepper), a British
geologist, who shows her that her
seemingly dead surroundings are alive
with beauty and meaning. Choosing
to be with Dank awakens Trudi’s
spirit.
Fairuza Balk (Shade), who has pre
viously starred in “Valmont” and
“Return to Oz,” and plays Cari 1 Fugate
in the upcoming mini-series
“Starkweather: Murder in the Heart
land,” will appear at the 7 p.m. screen
ing of “Gas Food Lodging” this Satur
day for a discussion with the audi
ence.
“Gas Food Lodging” is showing at
the Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater
on Thursday, April 1 through Satur
day, April 3, and Thursday, April 8
through Sunday, April 11. Show times
are 7 & 9:15 p.m. daily, with matinees
Saturdays at 12:4S & 3 p.m. and Sun
day at 2:30 & 4:45 p.m.
— Calvin Clinchard
-- .-.r'
mm i
Thursday April 1,7:00 pm
East Campus Union - The Hollow
FREE to students
Sponsored by
UPC and STAND
Written
Continued from Page 9
Avon paperback cover model
Fabio has been instrumental in
bringing more attention to the genre,
she said.
“We should be very grateful the
public loves Fabio,” she said. “Be
tween Fabio and Forbes magazine,
everybody suddenly woke up....
It’s been a good year for romance.”
She discovered Fabio, she said,
after spotting the Italian Tarzan
standing in a theater — only who
she saw wasn’t Tarzan. Instead,
she envisioned him as a pirate wait
ing to sail on the cover of a romance
book with a silicon babe in his
arms.
“He really is a beefcake,” she
said.
And thanks to her maneuvering,
Fabio’s career took off.
“The media adore him, but no
body knows why,” she said.
Because of readers’ response,
Fabio will have a book w ith a poster
insert out in October. The book, she
said, will be ghostwritten.,
But ghostwriting is nothing new
in the publishing industry, she said.
“A lot of this stuff about ro
mance writers getting credit is
bullshit—a lot of them don’t even
write their own books,” Falk said.
Regardless, she said, readers
wanted a book by Fabio, and ac
cording to a survey she conducted,
readers didn’t seem to m ind whether
he wrote it or not.
Falk’s latest idea is to develop a
line of ethnic romances. In the May
issue of “Romantic Times,” Falk is
soliciting ideas and manuscripts
for ethnic plots.
“It takes five books to make an
author,” she said at the conference.
“If a writer sells less than SO
-it
A lot of this stuff about romance writers getting
credit Is bullshit — a lot of them don’t even write
their own books
-Falk
Publisher
percent of the number of bodes
ordered by their publisher, new
authors will have a harder time
getting a second book printed.”
Her auburn eyes Lit up as she
talked about how to become a star
writer.
“You have to be able to touch
the pulse of women and make them
cry ” she said.
“You also have to be a trend
watcher,” she said, adding that time
- 77
travel is a big trend now. “West
erns are going to be huge after the
year 2000."
She suggested emulating the big
time authors like Barbara Cartland,
Mary Higgins Clark, Judith
McNaught and Danielle Steel. .
“If you like contemporary books,
shoot for the Danielle Steele mar
ket. ... Who cares if you don’t like
reading her stuff — she sells 2.8
million books. Figure out how she
does it!”
T I
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