The Book That Changed My Life

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE The book that changed my life was Tropic Of Capricorn by Henry Miller. Wow! This one was monumental, a real game changer. We were in the kitchen of his House Party after work, when my friend John Graham just for laughs, picks up a book and starts reading out loud. Everyone laughed, we were shocked and couldn't believe it. What is incredible was that somebody was crazy enough and not only willing to just try, but had actually managed to get away with this. The quotes mainly consisted of rude and offensive passages from The Land Of Fuck / Interlude section. It was the battle cry of a soul that had had enough, the defiant rage of the isolated and condemned. He didn't belong anymore, just couldn't fit in, The Stranger at odds with the so called civilized world. His soul had died from grave suffering, but was somehow now resurrected. Henceforth he ascended far beyond the sick and tired, and the sick and tired of the sick and tired. He had been born anew. A triumph of the human spirit, a reject, free of the soul crushing system. What made Henry Miller so impressive was his ability to go from the vulgar to the sublime, he wrote exactly the way people actually speak. Non linear. Absurd Narratives. Wild Immoral Tales. Vivid portrayals and graphic depictions of The Common Man. Utilizing the rich vocabulary of an erudite thinker and brilliant philosopher. There were layers of profaneness, tragedy laced with humour, pleasure and anguish, joy and suffering. We all thought it was hilarious, but as he read on it began to dawn on me. There is poetry here, something transformative. And so the more he read the more I began to think, "This Is What I Want To Do..."