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Bump for later saganite, it is unseemly to speak ill of the dead.
Norman Mailer was not worthy of washing John Dos Passos' jockstrap.
I tried to read a couple of his books, but when the plot took a detour into homosexual acts by the protaganist as though it was akin to brushing one’s teeth, I gave up.
Regardless, RIP Norman.
Heh. That’s pretty much what I’ve read. I was quite impressed with “The Naked and the Dead”. I can see why you might call it cynical, with its obsession with “the shoddy motive” and the downbeat point of view, but I didn’t really see it that way. I do think it’s ironic that the movie based on the book reversed almost every incident and outcome to make it into an upbeat story. There is cause for cynicism!
I’ve always had a soft spot for “Of a Fire on the Moon”. This was serialized in Life magazine, or at least portions of it. Mailer by no means identified himself with the Apollo ethos, but he was impressed by it and gave it due respect. Plus, he assumed that it was going to prevail, and struggled to accommodate himself to it in his writing. Little did he realize that it could or would fade as rapidly as it arose, and this book remains as a record of that ascendant mood.
I was always quite impressed that he faithfully recorded the exact “first words” uttered by Aldrin and Armstrong after their landing. These were on a vinyl record insert in National Geographic, but I couldn’t make all of them out, and Mailer was virtually the only printed source for many years. Even NASA materials edit them down. The first words? ... “OK, engine stop. ACA out of detente. Modes control both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm off. 413 is in.” Then came, “We copy you down, Eagle”.
Mailer went off to world war II to print fashionable failure template of WWI on his war experiences. He produced “the naked and the dead”.
His work was akin to liberal reporters going to Iraq to impose the liberal viet nam template on their experiences rather than let their experiences speak for themselves.
RIP. I will remember him fondly for that quote. The two books of his I read, The Naked and the Dead and Armies of the Night I found forgettable. The weakness of his writing is that he was so much of his time. And unnecessarily vulgar, too. But he worked hard, didn't he? I liked that he boxed. His moral vision was a little blurry, but he stuck up for some truths at great expense—okay, while punting on others, but I will pray for him.
Requiescat in pace.
I will not miss him, nor his liberally-inspired ‘hero-worship” by the NY “elites” ...
Perhaps now he will find out what the unnamed rich man discovered in the Lazarous story.
It’s been a very long time since I even tried to read any Mailer. The last one I finished was his about the moon launch. It had enough behind the scenes information about the NASA culture and launch event to finish, but his method of making it all secondary to HIM, (ie-Aquarius) was pathetic. Not Armstrong, not NASA, not the moon itself, the only story he really was telling was Mailer. And wasn’t the world lucky NASA was created to provide him a mirror where he could look at himself.
“Ancient Evenings” I tried to read. I made it through about 60 pages before casting it aside. Gibberish from a man who seemed like he was being paid by the word and intended to cash in.
A pre-People magazine “celebrity”. If he hadn’t been such a celebrity he might actually have lived up to the role he imagined for himself. The books might then have been about the stories, instead of just fuel for his ego. I can’t imagine time will be kind to his work or reputation.
There goes his biggest fan
.
No loss.
“One was called SCUM, the Society for Cutting up Men, where they believed all men were incomplete or aborted females.”
I like blasts from the past like this. You know, this ought to be in every history textbook just to show that it’s not just white males that can be so unremittingly bigoted. And as far as Mailer is concerned, I really hate when people who possess such talent are usually morally lost and so their influence is that much a greater negative to society.
Pity.
Yup,Jack Abbott sure had a lot to give the world of literature.Of course he had trouble taking “no” for an answer...particularly from waiters.
The Pulitzer is as meaningless as the Nobel Peace Prize.
while i dislike mailer on a personal level, i do think he had a formidable
style of writing. executioner’s song is beautifully written, which in some
ways is a shame because the subject of the book, gary gilmore, is scum.
WIFE-OBUCKHEAD