Henry Miller, out of context
““But what is it you want of a woman, then?” I demand. He begins to mold his hands; his lower lip droops. He looks completely frustrated. When eventually he succeeds in stammering out a few broken phrases it’s with the conviction that behind his words lies an overwhelming futility. “I want to be able to surrender myself to a woman,” he blurts out. “I want her to take me out of myself. But to do that, she’s got to be better than I am; she’s got to have a mind, not just a cunt. She’s got to make me believe that I need her, that I can’t live without her. Find me a cunt like that, will you? If you could do that I’d give you my job. I wouldn’t care then what happened to me: I wouldn’t need a job or friends or books or anything. If she could only make me believe that there was something more important on earth than myself.” - Henry Miller “Tropic Of Cancer” (via takesamuscle)
Alright. Reblogging this NOT because I am trying to call anyone out or pick any internet fights (that statement goes to anyone who happened to reblog that quote before me. I’m not mean I swear!). The reason for this post is solely my feminist rant about what happens when literature gets taken out of context and explodes all over the internet in the non-critical world of reblogging.
This quote is a great example of why I can’t stand Henry Miller quotes (or, certain other literary kings/queens) out of context. Because his characters make me too angry and offend me too much even when they have a context. Because the way this character talks about women is absolutely shitty and disrespectful in my opinion, and it gets misconstrued in the reblog-universe as some empowering quote about how men admire women who have brains, or some romantic quote about how some man is just waiting and suffering until he can pour all of his obsessive love onto some worthy woman who probably exists only in dreams.
“She’s got to make me believe that I need her… Find me a cunt like that.”
Stop and take that sentence in.
Now imagine you are a brainy love filled radiant dream woman (and you very well could be already). Do you want someone referring to you as a cunt-not-a-person? And not only that, but you, the cunt, have to MAKE someone - someone who is physically weakened because he thinks that your existence is impossible - believe that you’re worth their undying forever obsessive stalker-like love and passion? The language and structure of this quote is so screamingly misogynistic that I can’t even keep my mouth shut. And it further perpetuates the unfounded but unquestioned idea in our society that one individual should be able to fill all of their partner’s needs, and that there’s someone out there who is going to save us from our pitiful, hopeless lives.
