The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing
Page 35
63. I’ve often felt: “Thoughts of a Tough Guy,” interview with Richard Howard, Mail on Sunday Magazine [London] 14 October 1984: 78.
64. A few words: McElroy interview.
65. Research is another matter: McElroy interview.
66. By now, I’m a bit cynical: Marcus interview.
PSYCHOLOGY
1. If I place: First publication.
2. Having, at the age of twenty-five: London Master Class.
3. Some artists: Lennon, “An Author’s Identity.”
4. My case was different: Mills, “Creators on Creating: Norman Mailer.”
5. People who suffer: “Norman and Norris Mailer Seem Letter-Perfect for Roles of Literary Legends Who Lived Large,” interview with Debbie Forman, Cape Cod Times 15 September 2001: B1–B2.
6. I was successful and alienated: Mills, “Creators on Creating: Norman Mailer.”
7. Let me see: “Still Stormin’,” interview with Alastair McKay, The Scotsman: S2 Weekend 22 July 2000: 2–5.
8. Moreover, there’s an irony: “Mailer, Between Lives,” interview with Curt Suplee, Washington Post Style 20 April 1983: B1, B11.
9. On the other hand: First publication.
10. James Jones: Lennon, New England Review.
11. But I kept wanting: Interview with Bill Vitka, “The Source,” CBS Radio, October 1984.
12. I’ve always been fascinated: “The Old Man and the Novel,” interview with Scott Spencer, The New York Times Magazine 22 September 1991: 28–31, 40, 42, 47.
13. Since good novelists: “Norman Mailer Face-to-Face,” interview with Dan Treisman and Robin Davis, Isis: Oxford University Magazine November–December 1984: 8–9.
14. If you start: “Norman Mailer Face-to-Face,” interview with Anthony R. Cannela, Hartford Courant 6 December 1998: B1, B3.
15. I’ve virtually said: London Master Class.
16. The energy I put: Mills interview.
17. City life produces: “Mailer: Tough Guy at Ease in P’town,” interview with Peter E. Howard, Cape Cod Times 12 August 1984: 1, 12–13.
18. In the world: “Existential Aesthetics: An Interview with Norman Mailer,” with Laura Adams, Partisan Review 42 (summer 1975) 197–214; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer and, in part, The Time of Our Time.
19. You also have to learn: Lee interview.
20. I think Hemingway: “Mailer on Mailer: An Interview,” with Matthew Grace and Steve Roday, New Orleans Review 3.3 (1973): 229–34.
21. Hemingway’s death: Solomon interview.
22. All the same: “Some Children of the Goddess.”
23. Few good writers: “Norman Mailer,” interview with Charles Ruas, Conversations with American Writers (New York: Random House, 1985) 18–36.
24. One of the hardest: “Mailer’s Alpha and Omega,” interview with Toby Thompson, Vanity Fair October 1991: 150–62.
25. The literary world: Mills interview.
26. A writer, no matter: “Some Children of the Goddess.”
27. When it comes: Suffolk Master Class.
28. It may be that part: “Twelfth Round: An Interview with Norman Mailer,” with Robert Begiebing, Harvard Magazine 85 (March–April 1983): 40–50; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
29. Only another writer: “A Conversation with Norman Mailer,” with Barry H. Leeds, Connecticut Review 10 (spring 1988): 1–15; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
30. Writing can also be: Kakutani interview.
31. There is always fear: Begiebing interview.
32. I’m always a little: Lennon, “An Author’s Identity.”
33. Usually, on an average: Grace and Roday interview.
34. When I’m writing: Diehl interview.
35. Today, most of my ideas: Kakutani interview.
36. I can sit: Shainberg interview.
37. On the other hand: Suffolk Master Class.
38. If you believe: Suffolk Master Class.
39. Another word on gender: Suffolk Master Class.
40. The narcissist suffers: “Narcissism,” Pieces and Pontifications 106–14; rpt: from Genius and Lust: A Journey Through the Major Writings of Henry Miller (New York: Grove, 1976).
41. A corollary of narcissism: First publication.
42. Paul Krassner: Do you think: “An Impolite Interview with Norman Mailer,” with Paul Krassner, The Realist no. 40 (December 1962): 1, 13–23, 10; rpt: Advertisements for Myself.
43. In the course: Shainberg interview.
44. Part of the art: Suffolk Master Class.
45. I’ve found that I can’t: Mills interview.
46. Sometimes, the only way: Solomon interview.
47. I’ve always had the feeling: Begiebing interview.
48. Over the years: Suffolk Master Class.
49. The rule in capsule: Ledger interview.
PHILOSOPHY
1. Since the primitive had senses: “Norman Mailer on Science and Art,” interview with David Young, Antaeus nos. 13/14 (spring–summer 1974): 334–45; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications.
2. Primitive man had to see: Abbott interview.
3. The artist seeks: Young interview.
4. While the physicist: Young interview.
5. An equation sign: Young interview.
6. I’ve long had the notion: “Norman Mailer Talks to Melvyn Bragg About the Bizarre Business of Writing a Hypothetical Life of Marilyn Monroe,” interview with Melvyn Bragg, Listener 20 December 1973: 847–50; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
7. J. Michael Lennon: Many of your characters: Lennon, “Literary Ambitions.”
8. Back to Kierkegaard: Adams interview.
9. The moment you moralize: Medwick, “Style Is Character.”
10. I’ve used this example: Lennon, “An Author’s Identity.”
11. I may not be a good: Lennon, “An Author’s Identity.”
12. Readers often have: Suffolk Master Class.
13. I’ve always been drawn: Suffolk Master Class.
14. Borges has a magical: Lennon, “An Author’s Identity.”
15. Paranoia? It is either: “Frank Crowther: Norman Mailer, Part II,” interview with Frank Crowther, Changes no. 86 (January 1974): 25–26.
16. There is a famous: “Writers and Boxers,” interview with J. Michael Lennon, Pieces and Pontifications 158–62.
17. The twentieth-century artist: Ruas interview.
18. In line with Picasso: Ruas interview.
19. We tell ourselves: “Mailer Admits Someone’s Better,” interview with Brian Peterson, Grand Forks [North Dakota] Herald 22 March 1985: A1, A8.
20. The great economists: First publication.
21. Obviously, Freud: Lennon, “Literary Ambitions.”
22. Back in 1959: Begiebing interview.
23. You cannot have: Vitka interview.
24. I don’t like to say: Schroeder interview.
25. I feel that the final purpose: “Hip Hell and the Navigator: An Interview with Norman Mailer,” with Richard G. Stern and Robert F. Lucid, Western Review 23 (winter 1959): 101–9; rpt: Advertisements for Myself and The Time of Our Time.
26. The logic of reincarnation: “Mailer on Marriage and Women,” interview with Buzz Farbar, Viva October 1973: 74–76, 144–52; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications and, in part, The Time of Our Time.
27. Speaking at the MacDowell: Preface, Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960–1972 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976) vii–xii.
28. I’m right and I’m wrong: Begiebing interview.
29. Yes, it is no ordinary: Adams interview.
30. When we read Proust: “A Murderer’s Tale: Norman Mailer Talking to Melvyn Bragg,” with Melvyn Bragg, Listener 15 November 1979: 660–62; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
31. I go back again: Shainberg interview.
32. Writers aren’t taken seriously: “I Ask the Questions (Such As: What’s an Old Warhorse like You Doing Drinking Iced Tea?)” interview with Dermot Purgavie, Mail on Sunday [London] 24 Sept
ember 1995: 3.
33. If I could give: Crowther interview.
34. The reader will be aware: Marcus interview.
35. I’ve never felt close: Shainberg interview.
36. In parallel, the essence: Shainberg interview.
37. I can see some reasonably: De Grazia interview.
38. You can tell a lot: Crowther interview.
39. One can say that if Picasso: “Mailer on Mailer,” interview with Michael Mailer, Time Out [New York] 11–18 October 1995: 20–21, 23.
40. A great many artists: Michael Mailer interview.
41. I’ve always felt: Mallory interview.
42. Which opens a useful: First publication.
43. But now that: First publication.
44. Abraham Lincoln: First publication.
45. “Merit envies success: First publication.
46. One good reason: First publication.
47. Example: “The whole problem: First publication.
48. “Rudeness is the weak man’s: First publication.
PART II
GENRE
1. Genre, as used here: First publication.
2. Certain human relations: Farbar interview.
3. Centuries from now: Preface, Some Honorable Men.
4. I began my forays: Preface, Some Honorable Men.
5. The excerpt that follows: First publication.
6. Remember the old joke: “Ten Thousand Words a Minute,” Esquire February 1963: 109–20; rpt: The Presidential Papers (New York: Putnam, 1963) 213–67, and, in part, The Time of Our Time.
7. The problem of going out: McElroy interview.
8. During sports events: Solomon interview.
9. Almost always a reporter: Baises, Harvey, Merrill, Nuwer, and Wilborn interview.
10. One of the elements: Solomon interview.
11. On the other hand: Attanasio interview.
12. In a novel: Isaacs interview.
13. It is painful: “A Harlot High and Low: Reconnoitering Through the Secret Government,” New York 16 August 1976: 22–32, 35–38, 43–46; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications and The Time of Our Time.
14. A novelist ought: Suffolk Master Class.
15. Larry Schiller: Shainberg interview.
16. Already there have been: “Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots,” Esquire November 1977: 125–48; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications.
17. The making of my first: “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, It’s Norman Mailer,” interview with Vincent Canby, The New York Times 27 October 1968: Sec. 2, 15; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
18. Movies are more likely: “Dance of a Tough Guy,” interview with Michael Ventura, L.A. Weekly 18–24 September 1987: 14–19; rpt: Conversations with Norman Mailer.
19. Time is your money: Ventura interview.
20. All this is easy: First publication.
21. Perhaps a thousand: “A Course in Film-Making,” New American Review no. 12 (August 1971): 200–241; rpt: Existential Errands (Boston: Little, Brown, 1972).
22. The first time: “Norman Mailer on Love, Sex, God, and the Devil,” interview with Cathleen Medwick, Vogue December 1980: 268–69, 322; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications.
23. To pay one’s $5: “A Transit to Narcissus,” rev. of Last Tango in Paris, dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, The New York Review of Books 17 May 1973: 3–10; rpt: Existential Errands.
24. I may as well confess: First publication.
25. Many a fiction writer: First publication.
26. Sometimes, it is as if: Foreword, Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult, by Peter Levenda (1995; New York: Continuum, 2002) 1–4.
27. Why Are We in Vietnam? is the only: Preface, Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967; New York: Berkley, 1977) vii–x; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications.
28. The unconscious can lead: Kennedy interview.
29. The story is: “The Hazards and Sources of Writing.”
30. Famous plant-man: The Faith of Graffiti, documented by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar, Prepared by Lawrence Schiller, Text by Norman Mailer (New York: Praeger, 1974); rpt: The Time of Our Time.
31. The act of writing: “The Hazards and Sources of Writing.”
32. The novel has: “Playboy Interview: Norman Mailer,” with Paul Carroll, Playboy January 1968: 69–84; rpt: Pieces and Pontifications.
33. For six and a half: The Faith of Graffiti.
34. Years ago: The Faith of Graffiti.
GIANTS
1. Somewhere around the turn: Shainberg interview. The Chekhov-Tolstoy anecdote is derived from John Ford Noonan’s play Talking Things Over with Chekhov (New York: Samuel French, 1991).
2. Is there a sweeter: “Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100,” The New York Times Book Review 9 December 1984: 1, 36–37; rpt: The Time of Our Time.
3. J. Michael Lennon: I don’t think: Lennon, “Literary Ambitions.”
4. Hemingway’s style: Kakutani interview.
5. I guess I would say: Attanasio interview.
6. What characterizes every book: Preface, Papa: A Personal Memoir, by Gregory Hemingway, M.D. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976) xi–xiii.
7. The cruelest criticism: “Miller and Hemingway,” Pieces and Pontifications 86–93; rpt: from Genius and Lust.
8. His work embraced: “Miller and Hemingway.”
9. Not until this last: [D. H. Lawrence], The Prisoner of Sex (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971) 133–60; rpt: The Time of Our Time.
10. Name any great novel: Grobel interview.
11. James Jones and I: “Author to Author: Norman Mailer Talks to Jay McInerney,” interview with Jay McInerney, Providence Phoenix 10 November 1995: Sec. 1, 10–11, 15.
12. Capote wrote: Interview with George Plimpton, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, by George Plimpton (New York: Random House, 1997) 238–40.
13. All the same: Mallory interview.
14. Kurt Vonnegut: “The Hazards and Sources of Writing.”
15. Reading Toni Morrison: London Master Class.
16. Picasso had: McInerney interview.
17. It’s the guys: “Talking with David Frost,” PBS, 24 January 1992.
18. Back in school: “Some Children of the Goddess.”
19. I haven’t looked: London Master Class.
20. Since writing the above: First publication.
21. Good writing is not: “Modes and Mutations: Quick Comments on the Modern American Novel,” Commentary March 1966: 37–40; rpt: as “The Argument Reinvigorated” in Cannibals and Christians.
22. If this prodigiously: First publication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in 1923 in Long Branch, NJ, and raised in Brooklyn, NORMAN MAILER was one of the most influential writers of the second half of the twentieth century and a leading public intellectual for nearly sixty years. He is the author of more than thirty books. The Castle in the Forest, his last novel, was his eleventh New York Times bestseller. His first novel, The Naked and the Dead, has never gone out of print. His 1968 nonfiction narrative, The Armies of the Night, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He won a second Pulitzer for The Executioner’s Song and is the only person to have won Pulitzers in both fiction and nonfiction. Five of his books were nominated for National Book Awards, and he won a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in 2005. Mr. Mailer died in 2007 in New York City.
By Norman Mailer
The Naked and the Dead
Barbary Shore
The Deer Park
Advertisements for Myself
Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters)
The Presidential Papers
An American Dream
Cannibals and Christians
Why Are We in Vietnam?
The Deer Park—A Play
The Armies of the Night
Miami and the Siege of Chicago
Of a Fire on the Moon
The Pris
oner of Sex
Maidstone
Existential Errands
St. George and the Godfather
Marilyn
The Faith of Graffiti
The Fight
Genius and Lust
The Executioner’s Song
Of Women and Their Elegance
Pieces and Pontifications
Ancient Evenings
Tough Guys Don’t Dance
Harlot’s Ghost
Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery
Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man
The Gospel According to the Son
The Time of Our Time
The Spooky Art
Why Are We at War?
Modest Gifts
The Castle in the Forest
On God (with J. Michael Lennon)
Mind of an Outlaw