emails with JA on Eco, Miller, and writing

I started Henry Miller. Lots of passion. Will cure my Eco. I want to resume my own writing but nothing flows. I will have to wait.

Perhaps I anticipated the cure before I knew of the disease. Miller for Eco. You are right about Eco: an exquisite story about itself. But on so many levels. The lack of humor, of redemptive laughter so central to one story may be the semiotics of Eco himself. It is certainly, in my view, the signal fault of the Catholic Church. For a church preaching and founded around the passion of God, where is the passion of the church? Misplaced , if existent, in keeping man from smiling. The character Baskerville is both its champion and its cheerless victim.

But Miller. There is passion. Life. Unevenness. Humanity and Godhead. How often will dear Henry tumble from the ridge, only to scramble up again? But remember, dearest author, that it is a book, not a home movie constantly running. Like all teller of tales, he edits himself. We do not read every honest moment, just many. You now experience a lack of flow. It will pass if you let it. Write the mundane, choppy episodes of existence, of thought, of anti-thought. You will edit later, the bigger picture will become clearer and cohesive.

Miller knows so many words. You know so many words. I am intimidated. Miller's passionate tone reminds me of Kerouac's On the Road. (I hope Miller doesn't overuse the word "soul", one of the few colorful words I understand.) I do want to pour passion in my writing, but I lack words. I don't want to think about it now. Should I just wait till the spirit moves me again, or I should keep writing a little bit every day? Does writing emails count as writing? These days I don't even write many long emails....