Projecting a galactic destiny for man, yet imagining it as a destiny involving the same bureaucratic, political, and sexual follies that flesh has always been heir to, Miller exemplifies the kind of literary artist Keats described as having "Negative Capability"--the quality of mind allowing one to entertain mutually exclusive possibilities without feeling the need to reconcile them. In Miller the rich, optimistic vision of the imaginative technologist coexists with leanings toward Christian orthodoxy regarding man's fallen condition and his consequent imperfectibility.
Born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Miller seems to have had a boyhood that left him with a passion for the coastal waters of his native state. "I was a water baby, still am," he has remarked. At the age of seventeen, however, he left those coastal waters behind to enroll at the University of Tennessee. After studying there from 1940 to 1942, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the latter part of World War II. He flew fifty-three combat missions and received the Air Medal with two oak-leaf clusters. His participation in the 1944 bombing of Cassino and its monastic center will seem fateful to the reader who has encountered in his works more than one fondly described monastery.
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