Mauling the late Norman Mailer

Wonder if  Norman Mailer ever stopped looking for the White Negro, ever questioned that his search appeared to be academic not serious--claiming to venerate while  sneering. He wasn't a hip or hep cat.

Deer Park to Barbary Coast, . tough guys don't dance to Hitler's childhood in the Forest. As I look back, I probably shouldn't have made Deer Park my senior high school term paper topic.

I liked some of his writing but always felt the presence of the boulder on his shoulder.

11/27/12

The movie version of tough guys don't dance was mediocre, but it was cool seeing Lawrence Tierney, a 1940's Hollywood tough guy, as the character Dougy. He stole the film.

2/22/13

 The Castle in the Forest, his final novel, which covered Hitler's childhood was amusing and interesting at times, but bordered on being repetitive and overly didactic. It was as if he was on a word count.

6/7/13

 If Mailer were here today, his acid tongue would  be wagging about how a fellow lefty, Barack Obama, has let us down. Maybe he would call him Bush-Lite

10/4/13

One of Mailer's early published works was Advertisements for myself, a title Obama will likely borrow for his autobiography.

11/16/13

I knew that feeling:

“You know,” he laughed easily, “with all the goddam drinkin’ Ah’ve done, Ah still can’t remember the taste of it unless Ah got the bottle right with me.” 
― Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead

12/08/13

Can you envision the responses today to this  section from Mailer's, The White Negro, published in 1957?

Hated from outside and therefore hating himself, the Negro was forced into the position of exploring all those moral wildernesses of civilized life which the Square automatically condemns as delinquent or evil or immature or morbid or self-destructive or corrupt. 

1/11/14

 “You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.” 

10/15/14

Thought this was an amusing Mailer quote:

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.

11/13/14

another smart-ass quip from Mailer's White Negro

 “In such places as Greenwich Village, a ménage-a-trois was completed–the bohemian and the juvenile delinquent came face-to-face with the Negro, and the hipster was a fact of American life. … marijuana was the wedding ring.”

2/7/15

I saw this Mailer quote

Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.

Her photo of a kid with a toy grenade is the likely basis for the quote

3/19/15

Mailer was a well-documented lefty and he said:

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

10/7/16

A generalization from the late Norman Mailer that may have a nugget of validity and a load of crap:

 "What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant"

1/21/17

For some perspective on current political events let's replay the #Buckley #Mailer debates of the early 60's .  Buckley Jr noted in  an obit on Mailer that he  created beautiful metaphors.

9/22/17

#mailer co-founded the #villagevoice which printed it last edition this week.. I had a subscription for a few years in the late 1970s and hardly looked for the paper by the late 80's. My favorite columnist was #nathentoff.

2/17/19

While reading more on the #buckley / #mailer  right/left debates, I came across this nasty comment from #gorevidal on  the Catholic Buckleys.  “the sick Kennedys.” Who knows, maybe he hadn't met Teddy K or Joe Sr at the time.

june 8, 2019

 Whatever your view of #normanMailer, his candor was refreshing: " I always start a book for money. If you're married five times you have to."

august 9

  Something to consider: #williambuckley 's comment on #normanmailer ,his debate partner.  Mailer "epitomized a certain species of macho, adolescent radicalism that helped to inure the wider public to displays of violence, anti-American tirades, and sexual braggadocio."

nov 3,2019

In the early 1950's William Buckley Jr was a CIA agent stationed in Mexico. In 1980 Buckley was seated next to the former president of Mexico who asked him what he had done during his time in Mexico?
Buckley's answer: "I tried to undermine your regime, Mr. President."

July 12, 2020

 "They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened." quote from William Buckley Jr

Since so many folks in 2020 need a history lesson or two, Goldwater lost to LBJ in November 1964.

Feb 15, 2021

I watched some old video clips of an inebriated #jackkerouac and Buckley doing a verbal dance  over  adamite/atomite,  and it reminded me of what a damn shame it was that Jack drank himself to death. I'm uncertain if Mailer and Kerouac ever met.

Oct 22, 2022

"You cannot paint the Mona Lisa by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters."  quote from William F. Buckley, Jr.