tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967938059414914228.post8497036463197695285..comments2023-10-14T05:17:56.139-04:00Comments on Reviews and Responses: Stephen Millhauser’s “Miracle Polish” (2011)kjmlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11628037024273294401noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967938059414914228.post-63716636631755201312011-11-12T01:37:45.508-05:002011-11-12T01:37:45.508-05:00Hi Aaron,
and thanks for looking in! I think yo...Hi Aaron,<br /> and thanks for looking in! I think you are surely right about the close connection between attitudes and perspectives; I tried to emphasize 'attitude' to highlight the ideational and, therefore, changeable nature of the narrator's "condition." He doesn't have to be harbinger (or witness) of doom, I think. (Isn't he actually different at the beach, if only for a while?) <br /> As to the mysterious salesman, you may be right there too, but I am still holding out for the other possibility: God? or Reality?, or The Nature of Things? Perhaps Millhauser is offering a parable about our choices: Life presents N with the opportunity to experience Love and/or Beauty if he will only "see." It is only N's characterization of the salesman that makes him sly (subtle?) and contemptuous (reproving?): and he is, as we know, unreliable unto clueless. One man's ceiling is another man's floor, however, and I think your take has a lot to offer. So thanks for that, too.<br />Regards,<br />Kevinkjmlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11628037024273294401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-967938059414914228.post-80524809328458330422011-11-12T00:15:16.659-05:002011-11-12T00:15:16.659-05:00Yes, the Everyman; well put. As for the salesman, ...Yes, the Everyman; well put. As for the salesman, the story hints that it's the devil with its closing line: "A touch of slyness, a shadow of contempt, and the beginnings of unbearable hope." I know that I wrote in my response that some of us are born with Miracle Polish eyes, but gifts turn quickly to curses when they keep us at a distance from those we would love. <br /><br />I like your emphasis of attitude; that's a better word for it than what I was using, although since I would define perspective as a symptom/result of one's attitude, we're still speaking of the same fragile human condition.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com