|
|
 |
A Writers Tour
|
|
|
|
|
|
Big Sur
Jeff Buchanan
05/01/2006
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Photography by Don Williams
|
Carmel and Big Sur figured strongly in the passionate, and sometimes
violent, poetry of Jeffers. Early in his career, his poetry was often changed by
printers who thought the writer had made errors with his punctuation, not
realizing that the poet was following his own dramatic rhythm which went against
the grammatical conventions of the time.
Like Miller, Jeffers was viewed by
the government as a subversive—Miller, because of his audacious and
unconventional writing, and Jeffers, simply because his strong convictions
against war surfaced time and again in his work. Also, like Miller, Jeffers
invoked sex in his writings, using the themes of rape, incest, and adultery to
drive home his strong beliefs that modern man was sliding into a maniacal
self-centeredness.
Jeffers’ house and the adjoining tower both are easily
recognized by their storybook appearance. Given the density of homes in the area
today, it is hard to imagine that when Jeffers began work on his beloved Tor
House, Carmel Point was virtually uninhabited, grazing horses and cows making up
the bulk of the bluff neighborhood. Jeffers’ daily routine was a healthy balance
between intellectual study and physical labor. Mornings were spent writing,
afternoons were devoted to building.
Tor House is filled with a kind of
mystical timelessness and warmth, echoing with whispers of the many souls that
passed through the Jefferses’ lives. Sinclair Lewis, Charles Lindbergh, Martha
Graham, and Charlie Chaplin visited, to name just a few, each leaving behind a
friendly piece of spirit.
Sadly, it was time for us to return home. As we
headed south, retracing our path through Big Sur and past the Ventana Inn, I was
taken back to 1969, when Easy Rider hit America, rattling the establishment with
its counterculture theme on its way to iconic status. I was all of 12 years old.
Although the film contains a plethora of memorable scenes, oddly enough, the
most significant one for me was near the beginning, just after Peter Fonda and
Dennis Hopper had taken possession of their gleaming Harley-Davidsons. Before
embarking on the journey across America, Fonda takes off his watch and, quite
poignantly, tosses it into the dirt. That still stands as my earliest
recollection, my initial grasp of interpreting cinematic symbolism, and forever
imbued the idea of motorcycles with freedom. How appropriate to be in the
timelessness of Big Sur.
Honda Motorcycles | powersports.honda.com
Triumph Motorcycles | www.triumph.co.uk/usa
Henry Miller
Memorial Library | www.henrymiller.org
| 831.667.2574
Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation | www.torhouse.org | 831.624.1813
Ventana
Inn & Spa, Cielo Restaurant | www.ventanainn.com | 831.667.2331
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
