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Norman and I would go back and forth over more than ''Evenings'' — the strong pulp inventions and cadences of ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'', the Chaucerian variety and vigor, as well as truncation, of ''Harlot’s Ghost'', the epically extended acuity of ''Oswald’s Tale''. | Norman and I would go back and forth over more than ''Evenings'' — the strong pulp inventions and cadences of ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'', the Chaucerian variety and vigor, as well as truncation, of ''Harlot’s Ghost'', the epically extended acuity of ''Oswald’s Tale''. | ||
However, this year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of ''Ancient Evenings''. Moreover, ''Ancient Evenings'' can stand in amply for the genius of Mailer. In particular, it stands in as the poetics — the DNA — to much of Mailer’s work, even at its most ostensibly realistic. (Osiris, dispersed in fourteen pieces by Set, is a cogent icon for the fragmented O’Shaugnessey of much of ''Deer Park'' and of the fragmented Mailer of the early pages of ''The Armies of the Night''; young Meni, mind visitor and traveler extraordinary, realizes all of Rojack and Gilmore’s intimations of telepathic powers; Menenhetet’s ascendances from Pharaonic abuse to heroic, magical and amorous potency, recapitulates principle elements of increasingly long arcs of Hearn, Croft, O’Shaugnessey, Rojack, and Gilmore agonistes). Further, a tribute to ''Evenings'', with its high place in Norris’s heart and mind, and several splendid Queens, stands in well for a tribute to Norris Mailer as well. | However, this year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of ''Ancient Evenings''. Moreover, ''Ancient Evenings'' can stand in amply for the genius of Mailer. In particular, it stands in as the poetics — the DNA — to much of Mailer’s work, even at its most ostensibly realistic. (Osiris, dispersed in fourteen pieces by Set, is a cogent icon for the fragmented O’Shaugnessey of much of ''Deer Park'' and of the fragmented Mailer of the early pages of ''The Armies of the Night''; young Meni, mind visitor and traveler extraordinary, realizes all of Rojack and Gilmore’s intimations of telepathic powers; Menenhetet’s ascendances from Pharaonic abuse to heroic, magical and amorous potency, recapitulates principle elements of increasingly long arcs of Hearn, Croft, O’Shaugnessey, Rojack, and Gilmore ''agonistes''). Further, a tribute to ''Evenings'', with its high place in Norris’s heart and mind, and several splendid Queens, stands in well for a tribute to Norris Mailer as well. | ||
Accordingly, I wrap up with a simple toast — To ''Ancient Evenings'', a mere quarter century young this year for all its lives and centuries to come! | Accordingly, I wrap up with a simple toast — To ''Ancient Evenings'', a mere quarter century young this year for all its lives and centuries to come! |