Posted BySchwitters on November 05, 19101 at 22:57:45:
In Reply to: Re: Under the Twats of Paris posted byOld Fart on November 05, 19101 at 16:21:43:
: In the Diaries of Anais Nin, which I read some twenty-odd years ago, she mentions Miller writing pornography for a guy at something like a dollar page. She tried her hand at it, but the buyer didn't like her stuff. It was too literary. I suppose Miller's contribution became Opus Pistorum, but why anyone would want to read it is beyond me. It has no relationship to Miller's serious writing, it's just some crap he churned out for a paycheck.
: I believe he also posed for some pornographic photos. But I don't see any museum wanting to hang them along with his watercolours.
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Opus Pistorum may be peripheral to Miller's main body of work, but the same can be said for his paintings, which display a marginal talent at best. Their principal interest is in shedding some light on the author of that 'serious writing' you mention. The same is true of Biographies of Miller. Why would anyone read them when they can just take a spin through the Tropics again? Hell, why not? Consuming these peripheral works broadens and sharpens our affinity for the artist. Now I wouldn't hand a copy of Opus Pistorum to someone looking to get a first taste of Miller's writing, but I wouldn't say that it has no relationship with his serious work.
As for posing for pornographic pictures, I believe that probably never happened. In Brassai's book, "Henry Miller: The Paris Years", he points out the following passage from Tropic of Cancer:
Then one day I fell in with a photographer [Brassai]...He wanted to know if I would pose for him with my pants down, and in other ways...since I was assured that the photographs were for a strictly private collection, and since it was destined for Munich, I gave my consent.
Brassai though claims, "never did I use him as a model for any pornographic pictures. For one thing, I did not do pornography". And later, "Though Miller portrayed me as a pornographer in Tropic of Cancer, his intention was not to debase me; it was to debase himself".
Brassai seems to believe that Miller's use of exaggeration (and lying) in his books was a means of constructing a mythology of himself. He wanted the myth to be complete with warts and all and if there weren't enough warts in real life, he'd invent a few just to round out the picture, - which is why it seems strange to me that Miller would not own up to authoring the book.
P.S.
The quotes from Brassai's book are on pages 127-129 and 164.