本や美術、映画についての文章と、人物伝、シュルレアリスム的な文章を寄せ集めた本。１９３９年に刊行された。
かかれていることはいつも同じで、文明に服従しないで、人間として生きることを主張する。人は労働のために生きているのではない、とミラーはいう。芸術家として生きることを文明は禁止するが、人間としての自由を得るためには反抗しないといけない。
シュルレアリスムの文章は、輪郭のない印象と図像の積み重ねで、読むのはむずかしい。あまりにも混沌としていると、読者の興味を失ってしまうということがわかった。ミラーのおもしろい部分は、芸術についての主張と、生活についての主張に集中しているので、その部分をしっかり読めば自分は満足した。
"We want plot because our lives are purposeless, action because we have only an insect activity, character development because in turning in upon the mind we have discovered that we do not exist, mystery because the dominant ideology of science has ruled mystery out of our scope and ken. In short, we demand of art a violence and drama because the tension of life has broken down..."
つくりばなしの歴史のなかで、ありとあらゆる暴力と謎とおもしろい展開がつくられてきたことを考えると、いつどこに生まれても生活はくそくだらないもののようだ。消化器官がうごいているだけの状態である。
"...Lawrence writes--Being alive constitutes an aristocracy which there is no getting beyond. He who is most alive, intrinsically, is King, whether men admit it or not... More life! More vivid life! Not more safe cabbages, or meaningless masses of people".
"It means that life itself is struggle, perpetual struggle. This sounds almost banal, and in fact it has become banal, thanks to the frog-like perspective of Darwin and such like. Banal because our struggle has become banal, because our struggle is for food and shelter--not even that, by God, but for work. Men are struggling for the right to work! It sounds almost incredible but that is precisely what it amounts to, the great goal of the civilized man. What an heroic struggle! Well, for my part, I will say that whatever else I may want, I know I don't want work."
"I realized that I was ostracized and I understood quickly enough that this was just, because if one chooses to live his own life in his own way he must pay the penalty."
"Fuck your capitalistic society! Fuck your Communistic society and your Fascist society and all your other societies! Society is made up of individuals. It is the individual who interests me--not the society."
