The theme of the triad which begins with Tropic of Capricorn is the struggle to shape artistic perception into narrative consciousness; to mold and transmute personal experience into the revelation of artistic expression. Before he was able to begin Tropic of Cancer in Paris in 1930, Miller spent a decade in New York City where he gradually learned to refine his energy for creative expression from a maelstrom of physical and emotional currents surging in diverse directions. This story began with Miller's last attempt at regular employment when he took a job as the manager of a Western Union office. His description of the hilarious chaos and numbing cruelty of the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company — his metaphor for modern industrialized America — explains his final alienation from a conventional way of life. This is matched by a kind of alienation from the self as he turns to...