obit: Norman Mailer
November 12th, 2007 | Published in books, history, publishing, reading, writing | 6 Comments
The big news, of course, is that Norman Mailer has died. No tears to shed on my part.
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November 12th, 2007at 5:39 pm(#)
Why no tears?
November 12th, 2007at 5:53 pm(#)
Yes, I’m wondering, too, why no tears. I understand the guy was known for being kind of irascible at times, occasionally a bad drunk, and–if I recall correctly–perhaps a bit of a sexist. But he was also one of the terrific writers of our lifetime. If nothing else, his Lee Harvey Oswald book was something I really was glad to have had available to read.
November 12th, 2007at 6:48 pm(#)
The man was a womanizer, an outspoken anti-feminist, and he even stabbed one of his (many) wives. He also was one of the people who strongly supported the paroling of a criminal who proceeded to murder someone within a few weeks of his parole. (Though of course the murderer and the criminal justice system are primarily to blame.) As a writer, he did what he came to do. As a person, he was lacking. In other words, a good writer does not a good person make.
November 13th, 2007at 2:43 pm(#)
I understand. I’d forgotten about that awful stabbing. I’m not so sure there’s any point in bringing up the con who murdered after Mailer gave him a vote of confidence. But I’ve always thought you had to separate the artist from the art. I mean, Picasso was a rat to women. Ayn Rand was not someone I wanted to know. The list is endless.
November 13th, 2007at 6:11 pm(#)
Norman Mailer… I mourn his passing only because I cannot imagine there will ever be another like him. Like the last T-Rex…
I thought his writing was (mostly) dreadful and his ideas were beyond primitive and offensive in every way. For example, here is what he had to say about abortion:
……
I think when a woman goes through an abortion, even legalized abortion, she goes through hell. There’s no use hoping otherwise. For what is she doing? Sometimes she has to be saying to herself, “You’re killing the memory of a beautiful fuck.†I don’t think abortion is a great strain when the act was some miserable little screech, or some squeak oozed up through the trapdoor, a little rat which got in, a worm who slithered under the threshold. That sort of abortion costs a woman little more than discomfort. Unless there are medical consequences years later.
But if a woman has a great fuck, and then has to abort, it embitters her.
….
That is a perfect example of the level of insight that Mailer had into the human condition.
Read more about him on this blog: http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/rogerkimball/2007/11/10/norman_mailer_a_dissenting_vie.php
November 14th, 2007at 8:08 am(#)
Yup, there was evidence in his writing that he was a shit.