DISQUS

OutOfContext · 2 years ago

I agree absolutely with your take on Executioner's Song, which had a tremendous impact on me as a young man. I read In Cold Blood about the same time and those two books really helped shape my attitude on art and reality. The triangulation of collective reality, the artist's selection of reality and the reader's perception fictionalized my reality and realized my imagination at an impressionable age. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing, but as a relativist, it is the only thing.
Mailer visited my college and I was able to see him in a relatively informal setting. I remember nothing of what was said, but I remember his physical presence: a solid round man, stuffed uncomfortably into a flannel shirt and corduroys and really shabby sneakers. Maybe it's telling that his physicality is all I remember.

Oh and I kind of liked Deer Park...go figure...

Tom Watson · 2 years ago

Funny, for me The Naked and the Dead made a great impression. And though Executioner's Song is a brilliant work, it didn't hit me as much as Capote. I'm not sure any of his subsequent work approached Naked and the Dead, and I suspect he'll be remembered more as a literary lion - the larger than life writer, which is so rare now - than as a great novelist.

The great man, and a wildly prominent New Yorker too, though not "from around here..." Mailer was the writer guy you saw on TV sitting in box seats next to Pearl Bailey or Jackie O at Shea Stadium, circa 1969.

You can't be that kind of man now, unless you have billions.

OutOfContext · 2 years ago

Tom, I must confess to not having read The Naked and the Dead, although I have a lovely hardbound copy on my shelf. Also, I wonder if it's coincidence that Capote and Mailer were such celebrities and produced two fantastic (by my reckoning) docu-novels.
As for being "that kind of man", I think you can, and, in fact, it may be easier. Talent is not even necessary anymore.

Tom Watson · 2 years ago

ooc - possibly, but not that kind of literary man - I mean, you knew Capote and Mailer were writers as well as A-list celebs around town. Nobody touches that these days - the in-crowd is both safer and less literary, less curious.

tina oiticica harris · 2 years ago

I am older, a baby-boomer, bi-cultural, raised in Brazil during my formative years. What I know about Norman Mailer is he was bigger than life, as you described him. His The Naked and the Dead made a dent on many regretful Stalinists in the 70s, the "New Left" older crowd, friends' parents with whom I had lunch, for example. Your piece on Norman Mailer makes me curious about The Naked and the Dead. Vonnegut is from my time. I like him. It's too bad the younger generation lacks info on our recent past so they could make their choices.
Living in Brazil gives one the perspective of more open politics and culture, in a way. On the other hand, I regret not having seen all the events you described.

Dan Leo · 2 years ago

Those was the days when you could turn on even the Mike Douglas show or Merv Griffin and see Mailer or Truman Capote or Gore Vidal. You never knew what these guys were going to say.

Thank God Gore's still with us, although you won't see him invited on the chat shows. Any chance we can get him to blog for Newcritics?