The Smile at the foot of the ladder - Henry Miller

[Corona]

To start with, let's say I don't know if that's the correct section for discussing this book, so feel free to move it if it's the wrong one!

Anyway, since I've not seen a topic about Henry Miller I'd like to know if anyone has ever heard/read this book by him! It's not a very famous one, as it's impossible to say it's one of his masterpieces - I'd go with his Tropics - and yet I happened to like it very much some years ago, when I was 16.
The plot is quite simple: it's about the story of a clown, Auguste, a talented one, loved by his public who decides to quit with this kind of life to find himself.
As one can easily see, it's nothing really original and stilistically speaking it's not that innovative, and yet I believed it to be magical in its own unique way and that's a given, if we take into account it's much shorter than an average novel - less than 100 pages -, but it has some lyrical moments.
Henry Miller himself praised his book as being the only real book he's ever writen, although it's actually one of his few books not taking inspirations from autobiographical instances.
I would say that's surely very interesting: it deals with the concept of fiction and reality and the impossibility of fully distinguish them. Once again, nothing really original, but still a very good read!

Any thoughts?

[cacian]

Hi Corona
I find the title rather intriguing and that in itself a fictional lyric that either means something or is trying to tell me something.
Either way I might try and find out or maybe you could say what you think it means.
I would not myself call the plot simple because of the way the character and the idea is presented in this story.
Idea one is the character is being a clown. This can mean different things to many people and for me it could only mean laughter at the expense of others. I know I would not want that as a hobby let alone a way of life. I reserve judgement.
Idea two the name Auguste and that means many things in its own. It is a Latin word it is also a month of the year AOUT in French.
So already for me it has got me thinking why Auguste of all names.
Idea three here is quitting. To say that one must quit a job something they do for a living to find themselves is a bit tricky for me anyway.
Here is why it takes guts will and also drive to chose to be a clown. That in itself is a great achievement because not everyone is one.

I find the opening quite impressive:

''nothing could diminish the lustre of that extraordinary smile which was engraved on Auguste's sad countenance.
In the ring the smile took on quality of its own detached magnified expressing the ineffable.
At the foot of the ladder reaching to the moon Auguste would in sit in contemplation, his smiles fixed his thoughts far away. This simulation of ecstasy, which he had brought to perfection always impressed the audience as the summation of the incongruous. The great favourite had many tricks up his sleeve this one was inimitable. Never had a buffoon thought to depict the miracle of ascension.''

The idea of a buffoon and the ascension which has a religious connotation is rather inquisitive.

[cacian]

I was meant to ask have you read the Colossus of Maroussi? It is apparently A Miller Self Portrait.
I am thinking of acquainting myself with Travel Literature only I hear this book has been tempered with due to this I quote:

As an impoverished writer in need of rejuvenation after nine years living in Paris, Miller travelled to Greece at the invitation of his friend, the writer Lawrence Durrell. The text is inspired by the events that occurred during Miller's six months living there. Miller's evaluation is tempered by the outbreak of the Second World War, which eventually forced him to return to America.[1] The book was written in New York, and the book was tempered by Miller's resentment at having to return to his native land, and his subsequent feeling of isolation.[1]

[Corona]

No, I didn't. I'm planning to read both the Colossus of Maroussi and Black Spring, but the latter is not available in my language!
I've just read the two tropics and I believe Tropic of the Capricorn to be a masterpiece; of course it's to be said I've read it more than two years ago, so I don't remember it very much and can't say if I would like it as of now.
As for The Smile I find your points very intriguing and I have to admit I didn't think too much of symbolism implied in the novel at the time I've read it.
Maybe the reference to the month of the year is to symbolize the summer of life, as the character is seeking wholeness, and to bright of his own light - to paraphrase Nietzsche his goal is "becoming himself" - , that's something he could accomplish just for a short while(I don't want to spoil anything to anyone!)
As for the qualities of the novel, I remember it to be poetic, although not on the same level as his tropics, like in the brief excerpt you posted!
I should give it a second reading to fully judge it, though!

[cacian]

Hi Corona I don't know about the Nietzsche goal of ' becoming himslef'. I think maybe not so much becoming because he already is a better word would finding oneself.
It is very hard to think in the place of a clown let alone a person I do not know.
I guess the imagery here about a clown is the idea of makeup being removed.
At the end of the day a clown wears a mask to make others laugh. The idea perhaps here is the question: could he make anyone laugh without the makeup is one challenge one ought to find for themselves.
This would make sense. Laughing with others is more then being laughed at. No one likes to be laughed at.
One should laugh at oneself yes but I think laughing together is again more.
Makeup holds a significance of one hiding behind a kind of a shrine as if one is not happy about oneself looks and emotions.
To remove the makeup is to remove all that intricacy of anxiety and fear in fact one is to face oneself without the mask.
And so in a way I would say the clown is relevant in terms of the removal of that façade the costume the makeup and the crowd.
By ridding himself of that one should rid himself of the stigmas attached with it and then begin to explore oneself.
The bottom of the ladder means he is perhaps to climb that ladder yet.
The smile being the irony that one needs to climb in order to find when in fact all there is to it to face oneself without going very far high or very near.