I believe that I've been taking liberties with the interpretation of the end, where Miles gets feedback from his girlfriend about the voluminous novel (seen in two large sections) part of which is about taking care of his dying (I thought it was his father?) parent. Ergo, his further slide into oblivion by taking the wine which has "peaked," and instead of sharing it with someone who would cherish its ripened flavor, he ends up swizzling it in a cheap hamburger joint by himself. Then we see him in the classroom as a student reads a passage of classical literature only to reflect further on the fact his own novel was resoundly rejected (through juxtaposition). However, this feeling begins with the "thoughts of suicide" scene on the beach, where his character states that even if he committed suicide, it still wouldn't help getting his book published. Further, in the recording Miles listens to of his girlfriends criticism, she expresses puzzlement about the plot and the ending in a way that to me reflected my interpretation. To summarize, I believe the point I was trying to make was that while the character in Miles' book (himself) was a weak character, the Miles character in the film is a "great" sympathetic character. The reason Miles novel failed was that he could not recognize that quality about himself which made him appealing to others. (Now I'm confused!)

Being a writer, I extrapolated what I was seeing (and feeling)from the film to fit my argument. My empathy was strictly with Miles (as I'm certain it was intended) from the start. The writer side of me probably prejudiced both my opinion and my hand.