[Pharmboy]

Yes--Jack Henry Abbot was the name of the murderer that Mailer screamed and agitated about and got released from prison early. A few months later a waiter in a NY restaurant did something to him that he did not like and JHA killed him--stabbed him I think. Mailer was unapologetic.

To me, mailer has always seemed like a guy who thought that other people would not think of him as manly because he was a writer, so he had to do all this posturing. Yes, he can write; but so what? X42 was charming, wasn't he? At the end of the day it is character that counts and Mailer lacks same.

[veronica]

Mailer shares with Truman Capote and Gore Vidal a strange attraction to jailbirds and felons.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

You have hit on something here. I always thought that Mailer was probably homosexual, and put on this super-macho image to cover it up, as well as to impress the girly-men (and manly-girls) he lives and works among.

It impresses the Al Hunt types, but he never managed to convince me. Too bad Jack Henry Abbott didn't get Mailer, instead of an innocent bystander! Talk about irony...

[monkey]

To me, mailer has always seemed like a guy who thought that other people would not think of him as manly because he was a writer, so he had to do all this posturing.

Mailer idolized Hemingway, at a time when Hemingway was a literary and celebrity giant. In Advertisements for Myself, Mailer suggested that Hemingway be elected President, because then we would have a real man in charge. ("President Eisenhower was a bit of a woman.")

So he became a 5'3" imitation of Papa, except that he couldn't box, and couldn't write very well (The Executioner's song was O.K.)

Mailer has a shock value publicity approach. It's sad when anyone takes him seriously, as in the Abbot case.