One thing I immediately noticed about Henry Miller during my reading is his style of writing. The structure of his writing reminds me of my own writing. I get the impression that he writes simply to get his point across. He doesn't seem to have any goals in terms of specific literary achievement. (Not to say that as a bat thing, but simply an observation that is primary goal seems to be expressing his points and thoughts.) I also noticed that the manner in which he describes things is very unique. Its almost as though he expects his audience to know exactly what his metaphorical descriptions refer to. I believe that he perhaps did not fully understand that not everyone would be able to assume his mindset, and there for would not understand his way of speaking. For some, maybe he included enough information to infer, but it does not seem like an easy writing style to comprehend.
Noticing these things about Miller made me see that not everyone is able to properly interpret what my mindset might have been at the time of my writing and therefore would not understand the message the way I would have liked them to. Better describing the interpretation that I would like my readers to have and leaving less room for guessing is something that I need to work on in my own texts.
Dhyani: Great response! I think that you're exactly right about Miller. Often he writes as if it's just as important to give himself pleasure as any reader, and sometimes that makes it difficult to follow what he really means which means that we have to interpret it the way we see fit. In many ways, his writing is like jazz--it improvises off a theme, sometimes leaving what he's talking about and riffing for a bit and then coming back to the original point. It's not easy, but I think it's worth it if we're willing to stick w/ him.
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