Prompt: Write about Miller's DNotS like Miller's DNotS
Evaluation
of Richard Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”
by
Kait Zemanski
Every
piece of writing serves a purpose. Man does not just put pen to paper without
reason. However, in Richard Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”, he questions
this very purpose. He questions the validation behind selling the humanities,
that is reading and writing among other arts, as such an important realm of
exercise when these practices appear so irrelevant in today’s world. And so
Miller opens up his essay with the horrific Columbine tale only to jump around
through a series of novels, asking questions and leaving holes for the reader
to additionally ask questions along the way. Miller takes each work and
summarizes it in a fashion so that it tells his story of writing and what has
become of the written word in present day culture.
WHAT’S
THE POINT
We
live in the Information Age and all
the information is telling us is
that
whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever we
are
planning to do will never have any lasting significance.
-Richard Miller, “The Dark Night of the Soul”
Technology
enables exposure to a massive amount of information. Blogs, YouTube, forums,
news articles, and so on, are all resources to which people take in varying
types of media allows for an information overload. With each new source, the
previous becomes less relevant. The mind processes each bit of information,
only to be forgotten as the next idea moves into our consciousness. What one
person writes down plays such an insignificant role anymore because anyone and
everyone write whatever they choose. The filters on true art have disappeared
and the output of work the people attain, as Miller references Martin Amis’s
character Gwyn Barry, seeks to be a crowd- pleaser, devoid of the morals of
humanity, gaining access to the readers hearts because he just “does what every
man would do just because he thought he could get away with it.” (Miller 9) People
read what they want to read, just as “McCandless, (who) surrounded himself with
books that reinforced his own beliefs” (Miller 12). When people want books such
as Gwen Barry’s plot-lacking utopia waste (6) or the sinister works that the
Columbine killers sought out to follow them armed through their school,
preparing to end-all (5). When the humanities enable the darkness of the world,
a world where the “hijacking of a plane and crashing it into the twin towers”
(Miler 1) is a reality, or when the humanities do something potentially even
worse and fail to motivate any sort of reaction at all, when writings are just
a collection of useless information, meant to keep the mind entertained for a
short while, why teach them? Why push reading and writing in schools? What does
that accomplish in a world so focused on what lies next instead of taking some
time to reflect on the art that they just witnessed?
I
see technology play such a large role in my life and those around me. Even when
I am disconcerted by technology, the actual act of escaping it and finding
peace in the world is much harder to do. Our ADD culture, which cannot focus on
any one thing for too long, lacks the ability to meditate over their reading.
Miller brings up these points and many through the compilation of books that he
summarizes. Miller shows how different people read and write, each with their
own purpose and yet each finding such discomfort in the works around them.
QUESTIONS
We no longer live in a
world where human action can be explained.
-
Richard
Miller, “The Dark Night of the Soul”
Richard Miller leaves a great many
questions open ended in his work. Subsequently, the reader asks questions of
his/her own so that when all is said and done, little satisfaction on the
reader’s end. As previously mentioned, each piece of writing serves a purpose
for the author and/or to the reader. So why does Miller take the time to write
this piece and why do we in response read it? What is the purpose behind this
work?
Miller
asks questions, not because he knows the answers, or at least because he wants
to tell us the answers, his answers. Miller asks questions to get the reader to
think. He combines many ideas with conflicting viewpoints in order to make the
reader discontent, slightly confused and thinking illogically. He uses the
author Amis as the identity, which questions the existence of any righteousness
in the world and the point to our existence, when we as individual people are
so insignificant (Miller 10). Then, when all hope in the written world seems
lost, Miller introduces the story of Alexander Supertramp, a man so enraptured
by the books that he reads that he has created a character of himself. Chris
McCandless rebrands himself as Alexander Supertramp not just to escape the
world he resides in but to reside in the world he escapes, that of his books.
McCandless’ story of going out into the wild and disconnecting with reality
shows the extremes of the effects of the written word. Miller reaches his own Socratic concerns in
coming to the conclusion what do we know?
A writer writes what he knows and thinks; however, if he knows nothing what
gives him the validation to write at all? Yet, Miller himself continues to
write. Furthermore, Descartes wrote to please his seniors while Karr wrote to
find some affirmation in her words. Descartes’
entire piece contradicts its message. He shares experiences which and thoughts,
which he disclaims were made up, in order to sway the nonbelievers towards his
side (18). How is something, so trifling as blind faith, be rectified through
stories? Afterwards, the reader dives into Karr’s mind as Miller shares insight
on the memoir of her life, consumed by lies and deceit. Karr tries to find clarity
after living in a web of lies; nevertheless, she ends the story content with
the lie that is her mother’s excuse (24).
Miller,
the author, cannot explain these illogicalities, he only points out that they
are there. By pointing these questions out, he allows the reader to develop
his/her own thoughts on the subjects. Against rationality from the works he
references, Miller still believes in the power of the written word allowing him
write an essay that makes the reader feel something and see through his eyes.
SATISFFACTION
IN DISSATISFACTION
I leave this essay feeling troubled and
relatively mixed up and I can only think that is how I am supposed to feel. If
Miller wanted ease and clarity he probably would not have opened up his essay
with a description of events that continues to put so many at ease. Miller had
a purpose to make the reader question from fronts both without and within.
Miller poses his own dissatisfaction with the writing world through the words
of another, indirectly emulating the influence writing can have, the ability to
enter your mind.
When
the question of the importance of writing comes into play, Miller writes. Not
to say, that Miller knows his actions will amount to anything, Miller writes
with faith that his ideas will be seen and spread. His words will enter a mind
and create a new idea. Even with technology playing a profound role in the
spreading of information, there still lies many questions unanswered that only
faith and realization of the lack of information that we possess can allow for
some comprehensibility.
Sources:
Miller, Richard E. "The Dark Night of the Soul." Ways
of Reading, 9th Edition. Ed. David Bartholomae & Anthony Petrosky.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. Pages 420‒444. Print
I didn't understand very well about his main point
ReplyDelete