The Singer recounts the life of a young Tradesman who fights his real nature as the Troubadour or Singer who created the universe by his words. The events of the Gospels are collapsed, though John’s ideas of transcendence and the fight between good and evil have a strong influence on this book. Throughout, Miller changes characters’ names to reflect their new roles and new spiritual and emotional levels of consciousness.
The Singer encounters the World Hater multiple times as he travels, singing the Star-Song and healing the minds and bodies of those he encounters—if they wish to change and believe it is possible—including a crippled girl and a prostitute. In a retelling of the Sermon on the Mount, he sings the Hillside Song, which is rejected by his listeners, who want other ways to overcome the Canyon of the Damned, the World Hater’s realm.
