From the archives of the UCLA Communications Studies Department. Digitized 2013. The views and ideas expressed in these videos are not necessarily shared by the University of California, or by the UCLA Communication Studies Department.
What a treat to hear my favourite author speak so eloquently and even see him holding a guitar :) Listening to Nicholas Boulton narrating The Alexandria Quartet on audio-book....uuuh. Thank you for posting this archival recording.
Any idea who the man from the audience talking around 18 minutes in to the video is? Did he ever have anything published or go onto anything interesting? He sounds a rather complex and difficult person - intriguing!
I understand that he was abusive and an alcoholic, but his writing is sublime...I have recently read the Alexandria Quartet for the 3rd time, and I cannot leave it...the language is intoxicating
Until "The Alexandria Quartet," I had never read a book that included nymphomania, child rape, homosexuality, lesbianism, cross-dressing, female circumcision, murder, incest, prostitution, and a host of quite despicable characters. And yet, the style of writing was spectacular and the structure and plot were intricate and suspenseful. I did not know what to make of this strange combination. Durrell is a superb writer--but he could have done without Miller's influence.
Yes, he was an alcoholic and known to be abusive and violent when drunk. His mother and brother Gerald were also alcoholics; alcoholism is now understood to have a generic component, which it explains why it often runs in families.
Lawrence Durrell's praise for the mediocrity Henry Miller is shocking. I've read hundreds of pages of Miller's execrable prose and cannot understand how so many ostensibly accomplished authors can stomach his drivel. He had a pathetic preoccupation with the supernatural, among other crap. I cannot imagine what he was like in the flesh. I'd rather read Evelyn Waugh's shopping list than anything Miller ever wrote.
Hard to believe you don't secretly enjoy mediocre "execrable prose" if you continue on reading it for "hundreds of pages." Makes one question whether you're telling the truth, in fact. Maybe you've just read hundreds of pages *about* Henry Miller's writing? But even then, what would be the point of spending so much time on something so distasteful to you? It's no secret that Durrell had his writing career jump-started partly through the support of Miller, who was near 40 when Durrell was in his early 20's. And praise for the older writer would come as a "shock" to very few-he had a well-known and strong admiration for the man as a writer, though not necessarily for the writing itself.
