Flavorwire

In Tom Schiller’s 35-minute 1975 documentary, which we spotted over at Open Culture, Henry Miller gives us a tour of the many posters and photographs on the walls of his bathroom — a tour which might as well be of the author’s own head. ”In a way it’s a sort of voyage,” Miller muses of the most important room in the house, “a voyage of ideas. We’re travelling, not around the world, but around my bathroom, which is a little microcosm like the world.” He shows off images representative of the artists, films, architecture and stories that inspire him, photographs of his friends and lovers, and reproductions of his famous paintings, and has a little story to go along with each, whether it be just an amusing tale of a chance meeting or an occasion to wax poetic about the essential unanswerable questions in life. There are also, of course, as many nudes as you might expect. “I put these here expressly for the people who want to be shocked,” Miller shrugs, though we don’t think we would be shocked by much of anything coming from him. Click through to watch the video, and see if you don’t absorb a little wisdom from one of the masters.