Part 1, The Oranges of the Millennium Summary and Analysis

Almost 100 artists of all sorts, a dozen of whom are truly talented, come through Big Sur in Henry Miller's twelve years there, escaping the present and living in peace. Miller finds infatuated fans a constant nuisance. Disillusioned young professional males who become influential artists on the fringes of a vicious society are proof that the system is breaking down. In sparsely-populated Big Sur, neighbors know both how to let one alone and how to lend a hand.

The oranges in Hieronymus Bosch's The Millennium, and indeed all of the animals and plants in it share a magic "super-reality" (pg. 23), shared by Big Sur, a virtual paradise. One must find new ways of looking at things to see paradise undiminished by creation's flaws. No one who has left Big Sur finds what...