May, 1940 Summary and Analysis

4. Anais Nin seems to be having trouble adjusting to life in America, where she observes that "machines seem to have dehumanized people." Americans lack social skills, don't know how to use courtesy to smooth the rough edges of life. People are cruel to one another under the pretense of honesty. Radio voices are "flat and toneless," white people's dancing is "a parody of Negro dances," while beauty is absent and writing in America is "flat and one-dimensional." Politics amounts to each party "hurling low-brow insults and fanatical accusations." Meanwhile, in the background, the killing continues in Europe with 500,000 people killed in just one year. At the invitation of Caresse Crosby, Nin and Henry Miller come to her home to meet two young poets from Des Moines——Lafe Youngand John Dudley. Lafe seems to disappear behind enormous dark glasses, stutters...