A few months before the outbreak of the Second World War, Henry Miller spent a few months in Greece. This is the memoir of that trip, reflecting on the author’s journey through Greece. Inspired by the Greek writer George Katsimbalis (the “Colossus”), Miller celebrates Greek culture, nature and philosophy, contrasting its vitality with the materialism of the modern West. He also spends time there with his friends Lawrence Durrell and Theodore Stephanides, about whom Gerard Durrell writes much in his account of his years in Greece. This memoir combines vivid descriptions, personal insights and meditations on life, art and the human spirit. Written 80 years ago, most of his insights are so current. A gorgeous book.
“The greatest single impression which Greece made upon me is that it is a man-sized world. Now it is true that France also conveys this impression, and yet there is a difference, a difference which is profound. Greece is the home of the gods; they may have died but their presence still makes itself felt. The gods were of human proportion: they were created out of the human spirit. In France, as elsewhere in the Western world, this link between the human and the divine is broken. The skepticism and paralysis produced by this schism in the very nature of man provides the clue to the inevitable destruction of our present civilization. If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms. Much has been said about a new order of life destined to arise on this American continent. It should be borne in mind, however, that not even a beginning has been visioned for at least a thousand years to come. The present way of life, which is America’s, is doomed as surely as is that of Europe. No nation on earth can possibly give birth to a new order of life until a world view is established. We have learned through bitter mistakes that all the peoples of the earth are vitally connected, but we have not made use of that knowledge in an intelligent way. We have seen two world wars and we shall undoubtedly see a third and a fourth, possibly more. There will be no hope of peace until the old order is shattered. The world must become small again as the old Greek world was – small enough to include everybody. Until the very last man is included there will be no real human society. My intelligence tells me that such a condition of life will be a long time in coming, but my intelligence also tells me that nothing short of that will ever satisfy man. Until he has become fully human, until he learns to conduct himself as a member of the earth, he will continue to create gods who will destroy him.”
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