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Talk:The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010

2025-04-18T15:39:25Z

DBond007: /* Article Assignments, Vol. 4 */

===Article Assignments, Vol. 4===
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{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! Author !! Article !! Editor !! Status
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself|Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway Revisited|Hemingway Revisited]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Lennon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway to Mailer — A Delayed Response to The Deer Park|Hemingway to Mailer]] || [[User:Hobbitonya]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hemingway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Ernest, and Greg|Norman, Ernest, and Greg]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Begiebing || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman: A Dialogue in Two Acts|Ernest and Norman]] || [[User:DSánchez]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Bufithis & Curnutt || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway|A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway]] || [[User:Grlucas]] [[User:DBond007]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Meredith || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/The American Civil War in The Naked and the Dead and Across the River and Into the Trees|The American Civil War]] || [[User:KaraCroissant]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Shuman || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman vs. Ernest: Influence and Identity|Norman vs. Ernest]] || [[User:MSeleb]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Lowenburg || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hooking Off the Jab: Norman Mailer, Ernest Hemingway and Boxing|Hooking Off the Jab]] || [[User:ASpeed]] [[User:DBond007]]|| {{cross}}
|-
| Cirino || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer's The Fight: Hemingway, Bullfighting, and the Lovely Metaphysics of Boxing|Norman Mailer's ''The Fight'']] || [[User:TWietstruk]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Boddy || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing]] || [[User:JBrown]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Leeds || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer|Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer]] || [[User:CVinson]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Plath || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Jive-Ass Aficionado: Why Are We in Vietnam? and Hemingway's Moral Code|Jive-Ass Aficionado]] || [[User:ADear]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Cappell || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway's Jewish Progeny: Roth and Goldstein in ''The Naked and the Dead''|Hemingway's Jewish Progeny]] || [[User:THarris]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Peppard || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”|Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”]] || [[User:KWatson]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Kaufmann || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)|Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)]] || [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Justice || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation]] || [[User:APKnight25]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Josephs || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"|Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"]] || [[User:KForeman]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hays || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Battles for Regard, Writerly and Otherwise|Battles for Regard]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gladstein || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman|Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Batchelor || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls|Looking at the Past]] || [[User:DBond007]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Robinson || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Naked and the Dead|Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures]] ||[[User:Priley1984]] [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Sanders || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing|Death, Art, and the Disturbing]] || [[User:JBawlson]] [[User:CVinson]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Stoneback || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/"Oohh Normie — You're Sooo Hemingway": Mailer Memories and Encounters|Mailer Memories and Encounters]] || [[User:Tbara4554]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Jacomo || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Sparring with Norman|Sparing with Norman]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gordon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Encounters with Mailer|Encounters with Mailer]] || [[User:Priley1984]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Vince || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer|Rumors of Grace]] || [[User:Sherrilledwards]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Apple || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Sinclair || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: An Expected Encounter in an Unexpected Place|An Expected Encounter]] || [[User:Wverna]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Klavan || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/On Reading Mailer Too Young|On Reading Mailer Too Young]] || [[User:Essence903m]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Miele || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat|What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat]] || [[User:TBorel]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Vernon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches|Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hooker || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics|From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hinton || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Advertisements for Others: The Blurbs of Norman Mailer|Advertisements for Others]] || [[User:NrmMGA5108]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hicks || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway|''Harlot’s Ghost'', ''Bildungsroman'', Masculinity and Hemingway]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mercer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead|Automatons and the Atomic Abyss]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Westaway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/“A Noble Pursuit”: The Armies of the Night as Outside Agitator|“A Noble Pursuit”]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Fox || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|}

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hooking Off the Jab: Norman Mailer, Ernest Hemingway and Boxing

2025-04-18T15:35:05Z

DBond007: Added approx. 25 footnotes. Added two sources to the Works Cited Page. Did space revisions

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{{MR04}} 
{{byline |last=Lowenberg |first=Bill |abstract=Boxing was an essential element of the identity of both Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway, although writing about boxing comprised only a fraction of their immense bodies of work. Given Mailer's penchant for mixing it up both in and out of the ring, in physical as well as literary scraps, hooking off the jab seems an apt point of departure for a brief commentary on his best-known written pieces on the sport. Boxing also played a central role in Ernest Hemingway's persona. He, too, wrote about it, socialized with boxers and-to a much greater degree than Mailer-fancied himself as an accomplished fighter. Part II of this essay provides commentary on Hemingway as a boxer and Part III offers a fantasy ring match between the two would-be heavyweight literary champions, based on a passage from Mailer's book, ''The Fight''. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04low }}
{{dc|dc=N|orman Mailer once published a boxing piece entitled}} “The Best Move Lies Very Close to the Worst.” In it, he explained how some strategies in boxing, like some in chess, simultaneously offer the greatest rewards as well as the greatest risks. Given Mailer’s penchant for mixing it up both in and out of the ring, in physical as well as literary scraps, hooking off the jab seems an apt point of departure for a brief commentary on his best-known written pieces on the sport. Boxing also played a central role in Ernest Hemingway’s persona. He also wrote about it, socialized with boxers and—to a much greater degree than Mailer—fancied himself as an accomplished fighter. Part II of this essay provides commentary on Hemingway as a boxer. The final section offers a fantasy ring match between the two would-be heavyweight literary champions, based on a passage from Mailer’s book, ''The Fight''. Two recent essays, which further explore the topic of boxing as it relates to Mailer’s career were published in the Fall 2008 Memorial Issue of ''The Mailer Review'': “He Was a Fighter,” by Barry Leeds, and “Fighters and Writers,” by
John Rodwan.

== I. Mailer on Boxing ==
The expression “hooking off the jab” refers to an advanced-but-risky technique
in boxing which, when properly executed, can be an effective offensive
weapon. The boxer first throws a left jab, followed immediately by a left
hook. Because the hook approaches the opponent’s head from an angle,
rather than straight-on like a jab, there is the chance the hook will be {{pg|105|106}} outside of his field of vision distracting the recipient with its sting, especially if the jab lands solidly. The hook is a power punch and according to some trainers the most dangerous punch in boxing. Along with not being easy to see, when properly thrown it conveys a considerable amount of the thrower’s weight, distilled into the diameter of his fist. All of this takes place in much less time than it has taken to describe. The caveat for hooking off the jab is the fighter throwing it leaves himself open to a right-hand counter, if not properly executed. My trainer, the venerable Earnee Butler, would demonstrate the consequence by gently planting his fist into the opposite palm, as if catching a softball. Butler, who taught Larry Holmes how to box, would then point to the canvas and declare, “End of fight.”

Mailer’s unprecedented writing on boxing took similar risks in that he
wove oblique story angles and quirky digressions into his delivery. While he
did not risk being knocked out by a right-hand counterpunch, as a writer he
risked its literary equivalent, the reader who snaps the book closed and never
returns. Mailer’s unorthodox approach to writing about boxing works much
more often than not. Unlike the after-effects of a ring knockout that often
leave the victim with no memory of what has happened, Mailer’s accounts
provide readers long-lasting visual, sensory, and emotional images.

From the early 1960s on, following the publication of his seminal essay,
“Ten Thousand Words A Minute,” boxing emerged and endured as a central
facet of Mailer’s persona. Even though his writing about boxing comprised
only a fraction of Mailer’s immense body of work, when he died in November
2007, many of the headlines from across the United States and around
the world referenced boxing. “Norman Mailer was a True Heavyweight,” declared
Bill Gallo in the ''New York Daily News''. “Two-fisted Mailer Finally
Counted Out,” announced the ''Irish Times''. “Stormin’ Norman Loses Last
Fight,” stated the London ''Sunday Mail''.

Mailer was introduced to boxing in the early 1950s by Al Morales, the father of his second wife, Adele. Morales had been a professional lightweight in his younger years and he often sparred with his son-in-law, teaching him the fundamentals of the sport. Morales who worked in the printing department at the New York Daily News, later in life became a friend of News boxing writer and cartoonist Bill Gallo. He reported to Gallo that Mailer “was a pretty willing scrapper,” who “no matter how many jabs he took on the snoot, keeps coming.”{{sfn|Gallo|2007}} This description is confirmed by Sal Cetrano, a friend of Mailer’s who often boxed with him in the 1970s in the {{pg|106|107}} Gramercy Gym in New York City. Cetrano described Norman as a game but-not-gifted boxer who did not shy away from receiving a punch in order to deliver one.

By the late 1950s, Mailer had attended a number of prize fights in New
York City and had done considerable reading on the history of the sport and
the lives of its champions. One of his sources was Englishman Pierce Egan’s
Boxiana. Published in five volumes between 1813 and 1828, the massive work
included biographical sketches of fighters, round-by-round descriptions of
key fights, and ringside observations about the spectators. Similar observations
subsequently appear in Mailer’s writing about boxing. His study of the
sport during the 1950s nourished Mailer’s growing interest in existential philosophy
and his exploration of the place of violence in modern life. Along
with his new knowledge, his social circle expanded beyond literary friends
to include people in and around boxing. This led to some of Mailer’s most
important writing.{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=124}}Mailer’s essay, “Ten Thousand Words A Minute,” describes the first Liston-
Patterson heavyweight championship match held in Chicago in 1961, as
well as the death of welterweight champion Benny Paret following a savage
beating by Emile Griffith. A brief excerpt from that account provides an example
of the way Mailer combined visual and auditory details with his interpretive
comments to build a scene which will endure in the mind of the
reader:
And Paret? Paret died on his feet. As he took those eighteen
punches something happened to everyone who was in psychic
range of the event. Some part of his death reached out to us. One
felt it hover in the air. He was still standing in the ropes, trapped
as he had been before as he gave some little half-smile of regret, as
if he were saying, ‘I didn’t know I was going to die just yet,’ and
then, his head leaning back but still erect, his death came to
breathe about him. He began to pass away. As he passed, so his
limbs descended beneath him, and he sank slowly to the floor. He
went down more slowly than any fighter had ever gone down,
he went down like a large ship which turns on end and slides second
by second into its grave. As he went down, the sound of Griffith’s
punches echoed in the mind like a heavy ax in the distance
chopping into a wet log. (466)
“Ten Thousand Words A Minute,” also includes Mailer’s personal impressions,
misadventures, and fantasies. A landmark essay, it not only demonstrates Mailer’s chops as a boxing writer, it provides the stylistic template for his later, longer boxing pieces. Of these, the two best known are King of the Hill, which describes the first Ali-Frazier fight, held at Madison Square Garden in 1971, and The Fight, a book-length account of the epic Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle,” held in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974.While the two later and longer pieces are better-known, if they had never been published, “Ten Thousand Words A Minute,” stands on its own as a classic boxing
essay and an indicator of Mailer’s emerging, highly personal,
idiosyncratic style of reportage. This approach served as a model for many
of the New Journalists of the Sixties and beyond. What may be most remarkable
about the piece is that it was written in four weeks in late 1962,
only twenty-two months after Mailer had stabbed Adele, spent seventeen
days in Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward, and was thought by close
friends to be “in worse shape than he had been in before the stabbing.”{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=188}}The illogical associations Mailer suggests in “Ten Thousand Words
A Minute” come across with a manic clarity suggesting the essay could only
have been written by someone careening in and out of control. Mailer’s behavior
of that period seems to confirm that was the case. Even more remarkable
than this single achievement is that he recovered from the
condition and went on in the succeeding four-plus decades to produce a
huge body of work.
Following the motifs established in “Ten Thousand Words A Minute,” in
both King of the Hill and The Fight, Mailer takes the side of Muhammad Ali,
around whom he spins a socio-political-mystical web combining factual reportage
and fantasy. Numerous passages echo scenes in “Ten Thousand
Words A Minute”: Mailer claims at times to believe his own actions may
somehow mystically influence the outcome of the fight. In one of The Fight’s most memorable scenes, Mailer describes himself scaling around a partition dividing the balcony of his seventh-floor hotel room from the adjacent balcony. It is the middle of the night, he is drunk— he takes the risk to show symbolic support for underdog Muhammad Ali (The Fight 124). The succinctly and dramatically described incident will
make the reader’s palms sweat when Norman—as he refers to himself in the
text—relates how both sides of the partition had to be squeezed to avoid tumbling backward and down. As exciting as the account is the stunt was not witnessed by anyone, nor is the report supported by internal evidence in the text. An objective reader may fairly ask whether the description could have been fictional. The point is largely moot, as this and similar anecdotes in all three of Mailer’s major boxing pieces make for
compelling reading and demonstrate fine examples of his stylistic technique.
While Mailer’s pure boxing writing has received universal accolades with his description of events in the ring and his analysis of fighters’ strategy, it is
not without an occasional shortcoming. At times it reveals the lack of a comprehensive
understanding of strategy and technique which a veteran fighter or trainer would possess. In spite of the claim by Mailer’s close friend and former light heavyweight champion Jose Torres that Mailer “could even be
a champion of the Golden Gloves” (Mills 381), by Mailer’s own admission,
his personal skill level in the ring and the abilities of his sparring partners in
the Gramercy Gym were limited to the fundamentals. Of his workouts there
he wrote, “Some of us ventured into combinations, but never too far”
(Mailer, “The Best Move” 61). Mailer’s incomplete “body knowledge” may
have placed limitations on his ability to interpret what he saw taking place
in the ring when observing a match.
An example of Mailer’s limited experience as a boxer is reflected in his
account in The Fight of the intense first round of the Ali-Foreman battle in
Zaire. While illuminating, it is also reductive. In the chapter entitled “Right
Hand Leads,” Mailer attributes Ali’s advantage in the opening round to his
effective use of right-hand lead punches. While the unorthodox strategy was
a key element of Ali’s success, a careful analysis of the round shows that Ali was able to land the punches which caught Foreman by surprise due to subtle lateral movement, which Mailer never notes. By gliding around the perimeter of the ring and then reversing direction, Ali induced Foreman to “open up” his stance, leaving himself vulnerable to Ali’s right. Equally important, Foreman had been expecting Ali to rely on his trademark left jab, the greatest in the history of the sport.
Boxing as a creative endeavor shares something with other art forms such
as writing, photography, and music, in that sometimes what is not shown directly can be more effective than stating the obvious. Ali hinted and his reputation almost guaranteed that he would come out jabbing. Foreman could not afford to ignore the jab and Ali capitalized on Foreman’s anticipation by occasionally leading with his right hand. The surprise strategy earned Ali the early psychological and tactical advantage,
eventually resulting in an eighth-round knockout of the seemingly invincible
Foreman.
To Mailer’s credit, according to archivist and biographer J. Michael
Lennon, there is no evidence Mailer used anything other than his ringside
observations and notes to write his boxing accounts.He apparently did not
have the luxury of reviewing film or tape of the matches. Given the methods
Mailer used to write his boxing pieces, his descriptions of the Ali-Foreman
fight and others are remarkable works of reportage and analysis. The
minor deficiency noted in Mailer’s analysis above, relating to Ali’s lateral
movement, becomes evident only upon repeated viewings of the first round
in Zaire. On the whole, the comment in the British newspaper, The
Guardian, is true: “probably no one has written better about boxing than
Mailer has.”
II. HEMINGWAY AS BOXER
Whether Ernest Hemingway was, as he might have put it, “any good” as a
boxer depends in large part upon the personal relationship the source had
with Hemingway. To some, he was the uncrowned heavyweight champion.
To others, he was fake. It is impossible, of course, to make an objective assessment
without motion picture evidence and, apparently, none exists. The
brief accounts that follow are not all-inclusive but are offered to show the
range of opinions that will come to the attention of anyone seeking a definitive
answer on the subject.
Eyewitness accounts of Hemingway boxing vary greatly and many are
provided by observers who had little or no boxing experience either as spectators
or participants. Many storytellers clearly had reasons to compliment
Hemingway. Max Perkins, editor to both Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald,
once told Morely Callaghan—a central figure in the Hemingway boxing
myth—that Hemingway had knocked out the middleweight champion of
France with one punch. He had not. This was prior to Callaghan lacing on
the gloves in the summer of 1929 and stepping into the ring with Hemingway
at the American Club in Paris. As soon as Callaghan did, he realized
Hemingway was not a real boxer. Fitzgerald, too, figures prominently in the
Callaghan story, which will be related shortly.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=124}}
Another anecdote from that period, by painter and writer Wyndam Lewis,
is typical of the uninformed accounts. Like Hemingway, Lewis was an ambitious
young writer and a member of the expatriate social circle living in young writer and a member of the expatriate social circle living in Paris in the 1920s. Other members of the group included Joan Miró, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. Lewis became a significant enough figure in Hemingway’s life to be mentioned in A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s memoir of the Paris years written in the late 1950s. In his own writing, Lewis describes what he witnessed one day while visiting the studio of another expatriate, his friend, poet Ezra Pound.
A splendidly built young man, stripped to the waist, and with a
torso of dazzling white, was standing not far from me. He was
tall, handsome and serene, and was repelling with his boxing
gloves—I thought without undue exertion—a hectic assault of
Ezra’s. After a final swing at the dazzling solar plexus (parried effortlessly
by the trousered statue) Pound fell back upon the settee.
The young man was Hemingway. (“Hemingway in Paris”)
From this glowing, almost awe-stricken account, we see that Hemingway
apparently made short work of Pound. However, Ezra Pound has never been
on any boxing writer’s list of “Authors Who Could Have Been a Contender.”
A more accurate title for the list might be “Writers Who Wanted Others to
Believe They Could Have Been a Contender.” Hemingway and Mailer both
belong at the top of this list and their quest to wear the championship belt
deserves additional inquiry beyond this essay.
Mailer was by far the more modest of the two writers in terms of promoting
his own boxing talent. “Never made a cent from it,” he once replied
to an overenthusiastic interviewer who tried to puff up his boxing achievements
(Mailer, “Living a Literary Life”). Mailer may have also done more
actual boxing than Hemingway, though never in any sanctioned amateur or
professional venue. Mailer’s son, Michael, did compete in several Golden
Gloves tournaments and other amateur boxing competitions.
The idea of any writer on the level of Hemingway or Mailer having what
it takes to excel in the professional boxing ring is as absurd as the idea of any
heavyweight champion winning the Pulitzer Prize or the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Gene Tunney and Muhammad Ali are two champions who immediately come to mind as “thinking men’s fighters.” Both studied the style of their opponents and adjusted their strategy accordingly—especially Ali— most brilliantly in his against-the-odds triumph over George Foreman in Zaire. While Ali and Tunney displayed remarkable intelligence in the ring, Ali’s literary output was limited to his sometimes-clever but otherwise childlike poetry. Tunney is given credit for authoring three books: Boxing and
Training, A Man Must Fight, and Arms for Living, although it is unknown
whether they were ghostwritten, as is the case with many books by athletes
(Belfiore).
Tunney, who was the heavyweight champion from 1926 to 1928, actually
did box—briefly—with Hemingway. According to Tunney’s son, some years
after retirement the former heavyweight champion visited the author at his
estate in Cuba. Hemingway cajoled him into sparring, bare-fisted, in
the living room. Through a combination of clumsiness, ineptitude, and alcohol, Hemingway struck Tunney with a low blow, and it hurt. Tunney answered with a punch that would have knocked out and possibly killed Hemingway had Tunney not stopped it just short of the author’s face. “Don’t you ever do that again,” the champion warned, peering down the length of his arm into Hemingway’s eyes. The two remained friends, but in later years when Tunney returned to the finca, Hemingway never again asked
him to spar (Plimpton 65).
Tunney’s most famous nemesis, Jack Dempsey, wisely avoided putting on
the gloves with Hemingway—much to Hemingway’s benefit. During the
Roaring Twenties, for publicity purposes, celebrities such as Douglas Fairbanks
and Al Jolson often sparred a friendly round or two with the heavyweight
champion. The affairs usually ended in smiles, but not always.
Fairbanks apparently adhered to the social contract in his encounter with
the champ. Jolson, though, made the mistake of throwing a hard punch at
Dempsey and for his foolishness was knocked cold as the champion’s trained
reflexes automatically responded with a short effective counterpunch.
Afterward, Dempsey was extremely embarrassed and apologetic. The incident
made him reconsider boxing with amateurs. It may, in fact, have prevented
Hemingway from sustaining a serious injury. In Roger Kahn’s
biography, A Flame of Pure Fire, Dempsey recalls,
“There were a lot of Americans in Paris and I sparred with a couple,
just to be obliging,” Dempsey said. “But there was one fellow
I wouldn’t mix it with. That was Ernest Hemingway. He was
about twenty-five or so and in good shape, and I was getting so
I could read people, or anyway men, pretty well. I had this sense
that Hemingway, who really thought he could box, would come
out of the corner like a madman. To stop him, I would have to
hurt him badly. I didn’t want to do that to Hemingway. That’s
why I never sparred with him.” (qtd. in Gertz)
The most widely-told account of Hemingway in the boxing ring revolves
around his June 1929 Paris sparring match with his friend, fellow writer
Morely Callaghan. F. Scott Fitzgerald served as timekeeper. Several versions
of the story exist. The main details are consistent in both Carlos Baker’s
biography of Hemingway and Morely Callaghan’s memoir, That Summer in
Paris, from which the following summary has been written.
Hemingway and Fitzgerald picked up Callaghan at his apartment on the
way to the American Club, where Hemingway and Callaghan had sparred
several times previously. According to Callaghan, the afternoon began in a
relaxed attitude: before departing, Hemingway lounged for a time at the
apartment, reading a copy of the New York Times Book Review he spotted on
a table. Friction between Hemingway and Fitzgerald over the negative influence
Zelda Fitzgerald was having on Scott had been a source of conflict
between the two men for some time, but on this day Callaghan describes
them as very chummy.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=211}}
Once at the club, Callaghan claims standard three-minute rounds were
agreed upon, along with a one minute rest period between rounds. Fitzgerald
was given the watch and the first round passed uneventfully, save for
Callaghan scoring easily on his bigger, yet slower opponent. Callaghan, four
inches shorter and forty pounds lighter, had trained for a year with good
collegiate boxers, and was able to hit Hemingway almost at will.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=212}}
The second round continued as the first, with Callaghan landing
consistently, drawing a little blood from Hemingway’s nose and mouth.
According to Callaghan, because the two had sparred numerous times,
what was happening was of no surprise or consequence to either of them.
During the second round according to Callaghan and Baker, Hemingway, possibly embarrassed at his poor showing in front of Fitzgerald, made a careless lunge forward without protecting himself. Callaghan dropped him onto his back with a shot to the jaw.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=213}}As Hemingway picked himself up from the canvas, Fitzgerald is reported to have cried, “Oh my God, I let the round go four minutes!” Hemingway
responded, “All right Scott. If you want to see me getting the shit knocked out of me, just say so. Only don’t say you made a mistake.”{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=214}}
It was only then that Callaghan realized the degree of tension that had been building between the other two writers. Fitzgerald immediately believed Hemingway thought he had let the round go on deliberately. In reality,
as happens to many people who observe boxing up close for the first
time, Fitzgerald may simply have been mesmerized by the action and forgot
to keep time. Hemingway then left the ring to wash the blood off his face and by the time he returned appeared to have regained his composure.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=214}}
Callaghan’s version of subsequent events involves one more round of boxing, followed by Hemingway administering a good-natured boxing lesson to a bystander. Afterward, the men all adjourned to the Falstaff for drinks.
Callaghan remembers the three of them discussing his novel-in-progress in
a very professional and friendly way. Hemingway seemed in good spirits, but
as a result of this incident his friendship with Callaghan essentially ended.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=219}}
Hemingway’s version of the afternoon differs. In his letter to Maxwell
Perkins of August 28, a little more than a month after the match, he writes that he had drunk “several bottles of white Burgundy” at lunch and also “had a couple of whiskeys enroute” to the sparring session. Rounds were set at one minute, with two minutes rest, “on account of my condition.” He admits to Perkins that Callaghan “cut my mouth and mushed up my face in general.”
He credits Callaghan with being a good boxer, who, luckily, “can’t hit hard, if he could he would have killed me” (Hemingway, Selected Letters 302).While never admitting to being knocked to the canvas, Hemingway does concede,
“I slipped and went down once.” He later notes that in the last five rounds he had sweated the alcohol out of his system and came back to out-point or
at least hold his own “with someone who had been beating me all over the
place” (303).
Complicating matters and contributing to Fitzgerald’s upset, Paris journalist Pierre Loving had secretly sent an embellished account of the incident to the Denver Post. The Post story was subsequently reported by Isabel Patterson in the November 24 edition of the New York Herald Tribune. In this version, following an argument at the Café Dome, “Callaghan knocked Hemingway
out cold” (Meyers 163). Callaghan saw the story and immediately
wrote to Patterson, receiving assurance a correction would be printed. Then,just prior to the publication of his letter, Callaghan received a cable that was sent
collect and read: “HAVE SEEN STORY IN HERALD TRIBUNE. ERNEST AND I AWAIT YOUR CORRECTION. SCOTT FITZGERALD.” {{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=243}}
Hemingway initially attributed the story to Callaghan and was infuriated.
He pressured Fitzgerald into sending the cable. Hemingway later found out
that Loving and not Callaghan was the source. He cabled Loving, “Understand
you saw Morley Callaghan knock me cold answer Guaranty Trust
Paris." He received no answer (318).
The incident continued to trouble Fitzgerald. Hemingway wrote to him
about it at length in December of 1929, assuring Fitzgerald he had no ill feelings.
Hemingway repeatedly expressed his belief in Fitzgerald as a man and
writer and in their friendship, writing, “I know you are the soul of honor. I
mean that” (312). Referring to the long round of the previous summer, Hemingway
writes,
Besides if you had let the round go on deliberately—which I know
you did not—I would have not been sore. I knew when it had
gone by the time agreed. It is something that is done habitually
at amateur bouts often. When two boys are really socking each
other around the time keeper gives them an extra ten, fifteen or
thirty seconds, sometimes even a minute to see how things
come out. You seemed so upset that I thought you had done this
and regretted it. But the minute you said you had not I believed
you implicitly . . . You as I say are a man of the greatest honor.
(313)
Callaghan, while exonerated as the originator of the false story, fell forever
out of Hemingway’s circle of friends. According to Callaghan, in February of
1930,Hemingway wrote him a friendly letter stating he felt quite certain that
wearing small gloves he could knock Callaghan out in about five two minute
rounds. Callahan relates, “This belief of his however, wasn’t to be
taken as the unfriendly gesture of a man who was still sore.” Hemingway
qualified the remark as saying he knew he would have to absorb a lot of punishment.
He did want Callaghan to agree that he could knock him out. Callaghan wrote back a “good-humored” letter stating that while he had no objections to Hemingway thinking he could knock him out, since he had never been knocked out it was hard for him to imagine. He never heard from Hemingway again.{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=251}}
In subsequent letters to others, Hemingway makes several derisive references
to Callaghan. In 1930, while recovering from a broken arm in Billings
Montana, Hemingway writes to Archibald MacLeish that the surgeon used
kangaroo tendons to tie the bone together, “which ought to help me land
awfully hard on the jaw of Morely Callaghan some day” (Hemingway, Selected
Letters 329). In 1936, writing to poet and critic Ivan Kashkin, Hemingway
remarks that his story “Up in Michigan” had been “re-written by Morely
Callaghan many times in saleable terms” (430).
Writing to Fitzgerald’s biographer Arthur Mizener in 1951, Hemingway
recounts the match that took place twenty-two years earlier. He describes
the first round as going thirteen minutes, an obvious spoof, and recalls at
the end of the round saying to Scott, “You son of a bitch . . . Did you like
what you let happen to your best friend for eight full minutes when all you
had to do was be honest and call time?” He goes on to repeat that he is pretty
sure he could have knocked Callaghan out. “But I did not want to knock
him out,” he writes. “He boxed well He was a promising [sic] writer; and I
liked him” (Hemingway, Selected Letters 716–17). Regardless of the exact details
of the June afternoon in Paris in 1929, those few minutes made an indelible
mark on the lives of all three writers.
Many other stories of Hemingway as boxer have emerged over the years:
his backyard matches with all comers in Key West; his standing offer of $250
to any man on the island of Bimini who could last four rounds in the ring
with him; his claim to novelist and critic Josephine Herbst, among others,
that “My writing is nothing, My boxing is everything.”{{sfn|Callaghan|1963|p=122}} Such
stories—whether true or not—achieved an effect when repeated over the
years to fellow writers and people in publishing who knew nothing about
boxing.
In 1949,Malcolm Cowley, whom Hemingway had deemed “the best critic
working in America” (Baker 464), opened a feature on Hemingway in Life
with the following sentence: “Having ‘liberated’ Paris, set records in boxing,
hunting, fishing, and matrimony, and written the most influential novels of
his time, Ernest Hemingway is finishing a new book and trying to be everybody’s
father.” It is a glorious, eye-catching opening sentence, as long as
the reader does not stop too long to think critically about it. At least Cowley
was gracious enough when referring to Paris to place “liberated” within
quotation marks. As for boxing, the reader might legitimately ask exactly to
which “records” Cowley refers. Not only did Hemingway never set any boxing
records, like Norman Mailer, he never fought in a sanctioned amateur or
professional bout. In other words, Hemingway never had a real fight with a
real fighter.
In addition to associating with many fighters, Hemingway also had a close
relationship with a veteran boxing trainer, George Brown. Based in New
York, Brown was a respected figure in boxing circles. He also reluctantly advised
author George Plimpton in his 1959 tongue-in-cheek challenge of light heavyweight
champion Archie Moore. Plimpton was a friend to both Hemingway and Mailer, but unlike them he harbored no illusions about his fistic talents. Brown, who often sparred with Hemingway, told Plimpton that Papa was a dirty fighter and that Plimpton should not “even fool with him.”
In his 1977 book, Shadow Box, Plimpton provides an entertaining account of
how he talked his way out of just such an encounter at Hemingway’s house
in Cuba. He also tells of the night Hemingway and Mailer almost met, but
did not (Plimpton 74–75). Hemingway visited Brown’s gym to box whenever he passed through New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. A.E. Hotchner, in his memoir Papa
Hemingway, provides the following anecdote, told in Hemingway’s own
words:
“Any time I was in New York I used to work out at George
Brown’s Gym,” he recalled. “I was working out there one time
with George when The New Yorker asked if they could send over
St. Clair McKelway to do a ‘Talk of the Town’ on Hemingway the
Boxer. Well, George and I talked it over and decided McKelway
ought to have some good authentic color for his piece. At the entrance
to George’s place there was a big photo blowup of an Abe
Atell fight, two faces like raw liver, so bloody you couldn’t see the
features. When McKelway shows up I say, ‘See those guys, Mr.
McKelway? They weren’t really trying.’
Then George and I start to work out in the ring. George kept
calling out, ‘Maurice!’ (The ring boy was named Morris.) ‘Maurice!
Mr. Hemingway wants to toughen his feet.’ (I didn’t own
boxing shoes, so boxed in my stocking feet.) ‘Bring down some
pebbles from the roof.’ Morris got some pebbles and sprinkled
them around the ring. McKelway took notes. We boxed a little,
then George yelled, ‘Maurice! Strew some broken glass.’McKelway
is writing a mile a minute. ‘Mr. Brown’ Morris says, ‘we aint’
got no broken glass.’ ‘Then break some,’ George says. Finally we
belted each other a few times for show. McKelway was very impressed.
Don’t know if The New Yorker ever published the piece.”
(Hotchner 92)
The author and the trainer became close friends. While visiting Hemingway
at his home in Cuba, in September of 1955, Brown served as one of three
witnesses when Hemingway hand wrote and signed his last will and testament.
Brown had been brought in to work with Hemingway in an attempt
to help deliver him through one of his increasingly frequent periods of depression.
Brown was one of the few men to whom Hemingway would entrust
his care (Baker 531).
At some time in the 1950s or early 1960s,Hemingway inscribed a 1935 first
edition of Boxing in Art and Literature to Brown, writing “For George from
his pal Ernie.” The anthology includes Hemingway’s most famous boxing
story, “Fifty Grand.” Currently the book is for sale by rare book dealer
Charles Agvent of Mertztown, Pennsylvania, for $20,000 (Agvent).
Brown’s attention and unwavering loyalty earned him the role of confidant
and caretaker in the final years of Hemingway’s life. In 1961,whenHemingway
was released from his second stay at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Minnesota, Mary Hemingway summoned George in New York City. Hemingway
had received a series of electroconvulsive treatments for his depression
and delusions and his doctors believed he was improving. Just prior to
discharge,Hemingway wrote an encouraging, articulate, and tender note to
his doctor’s nine-year-old son,who was hospitalized with a heart condition.
The writing seems to originate from a clear and caring mind, as evidenced
from the opening line: “Dear Fritz, I was terribly sorry to hear this morning
in a note from your father that you were laid up in Denver for a few days
more and sped off this note to tell you how much I hope you’ll be feeling
better” (Baker 562).
Mary Hemingway knew otherwise. She had witnessed her husband’s manipulative
behavior many times and knew that Ernest was nowhere near recovery.
He was, in fact, in grave danger. She telephoned Brown in New York
City and he immediately flew to Rochester to drive Ernest and Mary back to
Ketchum, Idaho. Throughout the five-day, 1700-mile drive, Hemingway suffered
from paranoid delusions. He believed the state police were going to
arrest him for having alcohol in the car. He was frightened as to where they
would spend each night. During what must have been a very tense journey,
Brown was instrumental in helping to calm Hemingway’s fears. Finally, they
arrived home in Ketchum. It was a Friday. That Sunday morning, arising at
dawn, before everyone else in the house, Hemingway shot himself in the
front hallway. Brown served as a pallbearer at the funeral (Baker 563).
What did Mailer, who both admired Hemingway and sought to challenge
him as the figurative “Heavyweight Champion of Literature,” think of Hemingway
as a boxer? In “Boxing with Hemingway,” an essay also published
under the title “Punching Papa,”Mailer reveals his impressions. The opening
of the essay leaves no doubt that Mailer immediately understood Hemingway
was a boxing poser. He recounts the naïve Fitzgerald telling Morely
Callaghan prior to the big fall-out that “while Hemingway was probably not
good enough to be heavyweight champion, he was undoubtedly as good as
Young Stribling, the light-heavyweight champion. ‘Look Scott,’ said
Callaghan, ‘Ernest is an amateur. I’m an amateur. All this talk is ridiculous’”
(Mailer, “Boxing” 3).
Mailer’s commentary on the Callaghan story then takes an interesting
turn. Rather than disparaging Hemingway’s bravado and self-mythologizing,
Mailer delivers an insight revealing an empathetic and plausible explanation
for Hemingway’s behavior. Mailer writes, “It is not likely that Hemingway was a brave
man who sought danger for the sake of the sensations it provided him. What is more likely the truth of his long odyssey is that he struggled with his cowardice and against a secret lust to suicide all his life, that his inner life was a nightmare, and he spent his nights wrestling with the gods.” At this point, the reader might think Mailer is poised to deliver the knockout punch. Instead, he concisely articulates the foundation for his immense respect for Hemingway by writing, “There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by
an act of will. It is the merit of Callaghan’s long anecdote that the second
condition is suggested to be Hemingway’s own” (Mailer, “Boxing” 4).
III. THE FIGHT REVISITED
For literati interested in Mailer’s personal boxing prowess and endeavors, an
obvious question would be how would Norman have fared in the ring
against his chief role model Ernie Hemingway? Let us, in the spirit of Mailer’s
mind, allow our imaginations to take over, making sure, as Mark Twain once
warned, to not let the facts stand in the way of a good story.
The Mailer-Hemingway match would be held at the old smoke-filled
Madison Square Garden. On the morning of the weigh-in, the principles
and their entourages arrive in full force, some swaggering, some staggering
from the previous night’s final training session. Mailer’s at Sugar Ray
Robinson’s bar in Harlem and Hemingway’s at Jack Dempsey’s watering hole
in Manhattan. During the traditional stare-down before stepping onto the
scale, Hemingway condescendingly growls, “Keep your chin down Sonny
Boy. Try not to lead with it like you usually do.” Mailer, undaunted, stares up
at his six-inch taller rival and responds, “Not only can you not hook off the
jab; you can’t even hook off a participle.” In keeping with tradition, both
fighters have to be briefly restrained by their seconds, and cooler heads soon
prevail.
Like Ali in Zaire, Mailer has been tagged a three-to-one underdog by odds
makers. An ugly rumor has been circulating whose source is attributed to the
Hemingway camp, that Mailer being behind on his alimony payments has, like
the protagonist in Hemingway’s classic boxing story Fifty Grand, bet fifty
thousand dollars on himself—to lose.
On the night of the fight, in Hemingway’s corner we find Stanley Ketchel,
the former world champion Ernie admired, chief second A.E. Hotchner, with
Maxwell Perkins serving as cut man. In Mailer’s corner we find
trainer and strategist, the former light heavyweight champion Jose Torres.
Also there, holding the spit bucket and sponge, in tuxedos with towels slung
around their necks, providing what might best be described as moral imperative
and motivation, are George Plimpton, William F. Buckley, Jr., and
Gore Vidal. Zack Clayton, who refereed the Ali-Foreman match Mailer wrote
about in The Fight, is the third man in the ring.
The following account borrows heavily from Mailer’s description of the
Ali-Foreman fight, in which the specter of Hemingway loomed large: one
morning at three a.m., after doing roadwork with Ali along the banks of the
Zaire River, Mailer fantasized about being eaten by the descendants of what
he called “Hemingway’s lions.” What better way to resolve the literary grudge
match than to transpose the writers into the principals of Mailer’s account
of the first round of the “Rumble in the Jungle”?
The bell! Through a long unheard sigh of collective release, Mailer
charged across the ring. He looked as big and determined as Hemingway, so
he held himself as if he posed the true threat. They collided without
meeting, their bodies still five feet apart. Each veered backward like similar
magnetic poles repelling one another forcibly. Then Mailer came forward
again, Hemingway came forward, they circled, they feinted, they moved in
an electric ring, Mailer threw the first punch, a tentative left. It came up
short. Then he drove a lightning-strong right straight as a pole into the
stunned center of Hemingway’s head, the unmistakable thwomp of a high powered
punch. A cry went up. Whatever else happened, Papa had been hit.
No opponent had cracked Ernie this hard in years and no sparring partner
had dared to (Mailer, The Fight 177–78).
The course of subsequent rounds and the outcome of the match are left
to the imagination of the reader. Hopefully the action will be resumed this
evening in a local bar, with friends over drinks, ending in a late-night split
decision or, possibly, a draw.

Agvent, Charles. “Boxing In Art and Literature.” Advertisement. Charles Agvent Rare Books & Autographs. Charles Agvent, 2010.Web. 5 June 2010.
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner’s, 1969. Print.
Belfiore, Michael. “Gene Tunney Biography.” Gene Tunney Biography. Jrank.org, n.d. Web. 5 June
2010.
Cetrano, Sal. Telephone interview. 25 May 2007.
Duggin, Keith. “Two-Fisted Mailer Finally Counted Out.” The Irish Times 17 Nov. 2007: 12. Lexis-
Nexis Academic. Web. 6 May 2009.
“Gene Tunney—Undefeated Until the End.” Famous Sports Stars. Sports.jrank.org, n.d. Web. 1 June 2010.
Gertz, Stephen J. “Ernest Hemingway: Down for the Count.” Book Patrol. Ed. Michael Lieberman.
Michael Lieberman, n.d.Web. 5 June 2010.
Hemingway, Ernest. Selected Letters 1917–1961. Ed. Carlos Baker. New York: Scribner’s, 1981. Print.
“Hemingway in Paris—Boxing.”New York Times. New York Times, 6 July 1961.Web. 5 June 2010.
Hotchner, Aaron Edward. Papa Hemingway. New York: Random House, 1966. Print.
Kahn, Roger. A Flame of Pure Fire. San Diego: Harcourt, 2000. Print.
b i l l l o w e n b u r g • 121
Lennon,Michael. “Mailer Boxing Notes.”Message to the author. 10 Aug. 2009. E-mail.
Mailer, Norman. “The Best Move Lies Very Close to theWorst.” Esquire Oct. 1993: 60+. Print.
“Boxing with Hemingway.” The Time of Our Time. New York: Random House, 1998. 3–4.
Print. Rpt. of “Punching Papa: A Review of That Summer in Paris.” Cannibals and Christians.
New York: Dial, 1966. 156–9.
The Fight. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975. Print.
“Living a Literary Life.” Academy of Achievement. Academy of Achievement, 12 June 2004.
Web. 25 Mar. 2009.
“Ten Thousand Words A Minute.” The Presidential Papers. New York: Putnam, 1963. 213–67. Rpt. in
The Time Of Our Time. By Norman Mailer. New York: Random House, 1998. 456–69. Print.
The Time Of Our Time. New York: Random House, 1998. Print.
Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row, 1985. Print.
Mills, Hilary.Mailer: A Biography. New York: Empire, 1982. Print.
Plimpton, George. Shadow Box. New York: Lyons & Burford, 1977. Print.
Syed, Matthew. “Heavyweight King of Ring Craft.” The London Times 13 Nov. 2007: 69. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 6 May 2009.
Walker, Bruce. “Stormin’ Norman Loses Last Fight.” Sunday Mail [London] 11 Nov. 2007: n. pag. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 7 May 2009.

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== Works Cited ==
{{Refbegin|indent=1|20em}}
* {{cite book |last=Callaghan |first=Morely |date=1963 |title=That Summer in Paris. |location=New York |publisher=Coward-McCann |ref=harv }}
* {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Mary V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer. |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |ref=harv }}
* {{cite news |last=Gallo |first=Bill |date={{date|November 19, 2007}} |title=Norman Mailer was a True Heavyweight |url= |work=New York Daily News |location= |page= |access-date= |ref=harv }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:}}
[[Category:2010 Vol. 4 (MR)]]

Talk:The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010

2025-04-18T14:44:57Z

DBond007: /* Article Assignments, Vol. 4 */

===Article Assignments, Vol. 4===
You will need to request an article and user name for {{PM}}. You may click the link to your article below to begin your edits. Status indicators: {{tick}} = complete (ready for final edits and banner removal); {{yellow tick}} = in process; {{cross}} = not started.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! Author !! Article !! Editor !! Status
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself|Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway Revisited|Hemingway Revisited]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Lennon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway to Mailer — A Delayed Response to The Deer Park|Hemingway to Mailer]] || [[User:Hobbitonya]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hemingway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Ernest, and Greg|Norman, Ernest, and Greg]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Begiebing || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman: A Dialogue in Two Acts|Ernest and Norman]] || [[User:DSánchez]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Bufithis & Curnutt || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway|A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway]] || [[User:Grlucas]] [[User:DBond007]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Meredith || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/The American Civil War in The Naked and the Dead and Across the River and Into the Trees|The American Civil War]] || [[User:KaraCroissant]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Shuman || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman vs. Ernest: Influence and Identity|Norman vs. Ernest]] || [[User:MSeleb]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Lowenburg || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hooking Off the Jab: Norman Mailer, Ernest Hemingway and Boxing|Hooking Off the Jab]] || [[User:ASpeed]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Cirino || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer's The Fight: Hemingway, Bullfighting, and the Lovely Metaphysics of Boxing|Norman Mailer's ''The Fight'']] || [[User:TWietstruk]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Boddy || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing]] || [[User:JBrown]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Leeds || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer|Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer]] || [[User:CVinson]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Plath || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Jive-Ass Aficionado: Why Are We in Vietnam? and Hemingway's Moral Code|Jive-Ass Aficionado]] || [[User:ADear]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Cappell || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway's Jewish Progeny: Roth and Goldstein in ''The Naked and the Dead''|Hemingway's Jewish Progeny]] || [[User:THarris]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Peppard || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”|Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”]] || [[User:KWatson]] [[User:DBond007]]|| {{tick}}
|-
| Kaufmann || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)|Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)]] || [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Justice || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation]] || [[User:APKnight25]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Josephs || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"|Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"]] || [[User:KForeman]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hays || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Battles for Regard, Writerly and Otherwise|Battles for Regard]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gladstein || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman|Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Batchelor || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls|Looking at the Past]] || [[User:DBond007]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Robinson || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Naked and the Dead|Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures]] ||[[User:Priley1984]] [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Sanders || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing|Death, Art, and the Disturbing]] || [[User:JBawlson]] [[User:CVinson]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Stoneback || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/"Oohh Normie — You're Sooo Hemingway": Mailer Memories and Encounters|Mailer Memories and Encounters]] || [[User:Tbara4554]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Jacomo || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Sparring with Norman|Sparing with Norman]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gordon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Encounters with Mailer|Encounters with Mailer]] || [[User:Priley1984]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Vince || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer|Rumors of Grace]] || [[User:Sherrilledwards]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Apple || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Sinclair || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: An Expected Encounter in an Unexpected Place|An Expected Encounter]] || [[User:Wverna]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Klavan || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/On Reading Mailer Too Young|On Reading Mailer Too Young]] || [[User:Essence903m]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Miele || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat|What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat]] || [[User:TBorel]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Vernon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches|Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hooker || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics|From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hinton || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Advertisements for Others: The Blurbs of Norman Mailer|Advertisements for Others]] || [[User:NrmMGA5108]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hicks || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway|''Harlot’s Ghost'', ''Bildungsroman'', Masculinity and Hemingway]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mercer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead|Automatons and the Atomic Abyss]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Westaway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/“A Noble Pursuit”: The Armies of the Night as Outside Agitator|“A Noble Pursuit”]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Fox || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|}

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-18T14:37:22Z

DBond007: /* Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review */

{{Talk header}}
[[/Archive 202504/]]

== Final edits ==
Hello, my article is complete: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Ernest_and_Norman_(Exit_Music)|Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)]]
:{{Reply to|Flowersbloom}} great, thank you. I made some corrections. Please be sure to sign your talk page posts. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Good evening, Dr. Lucas. Below is the link to my edited article:
https://projectmailer.net/pm/User:ASpeed/sandbox
:{{Reply to|ASpeed}} great. Let me know when it’s finished and posted, and I’l have a look. It appears as if you still have a bit of work to do. Please be sure to sign your talk page posts. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Good evening, @[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]. I have completed most of my Remediation Articles, but I still show issues for the one named, "[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman,_Papa,_and_the_Autoerotic_Construction_of_Woman|Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman]].

Based on the latest updates, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Battles_for_Regard,_Writerly_and_Otherwise|Battles for Regard, Writerly and Otherwise]] looks good with exception of including a '''category'''.
:{{Reply to|ALedezma}} this one is good. I made some corrections before removing the banner, mostly in your sources. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

May you let me know if there is anything I can do on my end to resolve the issues with the first [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman,_Papa,_and_the_Autoerotic_Construction_of_Woman|article]]?

[[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 21:47, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|ALedezma}} looking very good, but some sources missing page numbers. Please see to those. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

:::Thank you @[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] . I will review those and respond when complete. [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 22:47, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::::@[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]. Thank you for your feedback. A review of article additions was made for source pages. [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 20:22, 11 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::{{Reply to| ALedezma}} ok, looking good. I made some corrections. There's one final thing to do: no footnotes should appear in the notes section; use {{tl|harvtxt}} instead; I did one to show you how to use the template. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:39, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::@[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] Changes were done to footnote sources. Thank you! [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 19:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas I finished my remediation article https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer%27s_The_Fight:_Hemingway,_Bullfighting,_and_the_Lovely_Metaphysics_of_Boxing&action=edit [[User:TWietstruk|TWietstruk]] ([[User talk:TWietstruk|talk]]) 19:44, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| TWietstruk}} good work so far, but there is more to do: placement of footnotes (eliminate spaces around them and punctuation always goes ''before'' the footnote.); proofread for typos; fix all red errors at the bottom (most of these are from errors in sourcing); works cited entries should be bulleted list and eliminate space between entries. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:05, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Final edit and no errors with some help from @NRMMGA5108, @JKilchenmann. Please mark me as complete. On to help someone else with the things I've learned
https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer%27s_The_Fight:_Hemingway,_Bullfighting,_and_the_Lovely_Metaphysics_of_Boxing&action=edit [[User:TWietstruk|TWietstruk]] ([[User talk:TWietstruk|talk]]) 17:52, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas I have finished my assigned remediation article: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Jive-Ass_Aficionado:_Why_Are_We_in_Vietnam%3F_and_Hemingway%27s_Moral_Code#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHemingway2003-24
Username ADear.
:{{Reply to|ADear}} thank you. I have marked this as complete. Please be sure you sign your talk page posts correctly. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:05, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I have finished remediating my assigned article. Please review it at your earliest convenience. The link is here: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer's_Mythmaking_in_An_American_Dream_and_“The_White_Negro”|Norman Mailer's Mythmaking in An American Dream and “The White Negro”]]—[[User:Erhernandez|Erhernandez]] ([[User talk:Erhernandez|talk]]) 08:52, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Erhernandez}} well done! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. I removed your banner after making a few corrections. Please have a look over it and move on to the next thing. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:06, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I transferred and edited my article. Can you look at it and remove the banner? Here's the link: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Authorship_and_Alienation_in_Death_in_the_Afternoon_and_Advertisements_for_Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself]] ( [[User:APKnight25|APKnight25]] ([[User talk:APKnight25|talk]]) 13:02, 28 March 2025 (EDT) )
:{{Reply to| APKnight25}} looking good! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. Next, eliminate all "fang" quotes in the article and add “real quotation marks.” Your sources should be a bulleted list. And there should be no space before a citation. You’re almost finished! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:21, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Reinventing the Wheel" Mailer Article for Review ==

Dr. Lucas,

My [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Reinventing_a_New_Wheel:_The_Films_of_Norman_Mailer|article]] is ready for review.

Thank you!
[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 15:29, 29 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|TPoole}} great! Could you include a link to it? Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:07, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
::OK, I [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Reinventing a New Wheel: The Films of Norman Mailer|found it]]. Looking really good. Great work. There are some citation issues that need to be seen to. The two red categories at the bottom should not be there; they will go away when the citations errors are corrected. Eliminate any quotation mark "fangs" in the text and replace them with “real quotation marks.” Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:14, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:::@Grlucas, what are the citation issues? Which ones need correcting? [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 17:31, 31 March 2025 (EDT)
::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} When you click your citations, they should jump to the works cited entry they correspond to. Several of yours do not, indicated by the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” at the bottom. You also have a "CS1 maint: Unrecognized language" error that will likely be cleared up when you fix the citation issues. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:55, 1 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::@Grlucas, I have tried correcting the sfn codes in my citations. I was able to get the 2 web citations to link correctly. But for some reason, I cannot get the Mailer 1967 film Wild 90 citation to link to the reference list. Please advise. [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 20:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} OK, all fixed and published. Thanks. Please move on to another remediation. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:46, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of: "Contradictory Syntheses: Norman Mailer’s Left Conservatism and the Problematic of 'Totalitarianism'" ==

Dr. Lucas

I finished the remediation of the following article:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Contradictory_Syntheses:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Left_Conservatism_and_the_Problematic_of_%E2%80%9CTotalitarianism%E2%80%9D

It is ready for your review. Thank you.
[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 19:04, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} looks great. I made some tweaks to the references and some throughout, like changing ' and " to real apostrophes and quotation marks. A bit more clean-up, but you might want to check over it again. I removed the under-construction banner. Well one. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:32, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edit ==

Thank you for your comments on my remediation of
"[[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself.]]"

I've eliminated the "fang quotes" and changed them to “real quotation marks.” This was a very fascinating tip that taught me something new. It's something I've never noticed before but now always will.

I also put my sources in a bulleted list and removed the space before the citations. I think I'm all set now.
:{{Reply to|APKnight25}} great work! Please help other editors to complete the volume. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:34, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer'' ==

[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]

Hi Dr. Lucas,

I believe I have done everything for the Remediation of my article. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

I will also link the article below:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Firearms_in_the_Works_of_Hemingway_and_Mailer

Thank you,
Caitlin Vinson
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} great work so far. Your references must use templates, please. Blockquotes must also be done correctly. No spaces or line breaks before or after the {{tl|pg}} template. Footnote placement is also off (punctuation goes before the footnote; no spaces before or after the footnote). I will add the abstract and url. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:30, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe there have been some updates made to the project. I believe I have also updated the works cited section to show correct templates. Please let me know if there is anything further that I need to do. Thank you, Caitlin.
::{{reply to| CVinson}} please sign your talk page posts correctly. Thanks. You still need to do some work on the sources. Use the <code>|author-mask=1</code> in your template for repeated author names. Also, you must eliminate the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” message at the bottom. No spaces or returns before or after the {{tl|pg}} call, as I already mentioned above. No parenthetical citations should be left, either; those should all be remediated to footnotes. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:50, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} I have updated the sources and updated the in-text citations. I am still having trouble with the "Harv and Sfn no-target errors." I have not been successful in fixing this error and have tried multiple ways to fix it. —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 8:18, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

::::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I see that I still have a red X for my remediation assignment. Is there something else I am still missing? —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:35, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::{{reply to| CVinson}} sorry, I'm just getting back to it. There are quite a few punctuation errors. Some left out and others appear after the {{tl|sfn}}. I'm trying to correct those I see, but you should have a look, too. Page is designated as <code>p=</code> in {{tl|sfn}}, not <code>pg=</code>; and a span of pages needs <code>pp=</code>. Again, I have tried to correct these. I removed the banner, but please have another look through. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:01, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norman Mailer Today'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up my remediation article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Norman Mailer Today|Norman Mailer Today]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 18:20, 3 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Kamyers}} Great work! Please help your fellow editors finish the volume, or pick something to work on in [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010|Volume 4]]. Thanks, and well done. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:00, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of “The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’” ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished my remediation of Jennifer Yirinec's article: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”|The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.”]] Thank you for your assistance with the article. It is ready for its final review! [[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 10:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} a stellar job. Well done. I removed the banner, so you can move on to another article. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:12, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediations ==
Dr. Lucas, I have begun work on the tributes for volume 5. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Grace Notes|Grace Notes]] by Stephen Borkowski is ready for its final review.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 12:58, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} Well done! Banner removed, url added. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:18, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

==Oohh Normie Final Edits==
Hi Dr. Lucas, I have finished my article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/"Oohh_Normie_—_You're_Sooo_Hemingway":_Mailer_Memories_and_Encounters|Oohh Normie, You're Sooo Hemingway]]. Please let me know if there is anything I need to fix. [[User:Tbara4554|Tbara4554]] ([[User talk:Tbara4554|talk]]) 20:01, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Tbara4554}} thank you. I made some corrections and removed the banner. You might want to have another look over it. Please move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:53, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review. Thanks.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Harlot%27s_Ghost,_Bildungsroman,_Masculinity_and_Hemingway

[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 21:22, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} excellent. Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:39, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== I am done with this ==

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Situating_Hemingway:_Mailer,_Style,_Ethics
:Received. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:29, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Review PM Article ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Hemingway_to_Mailer_—_A_Delayed_Response_to_The_Deer_Park|here]] is my remediated article, ready for review![[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 12:21, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} great work. I have removed the banner, so you are good to move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:20, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have finished my remedidation project and I am ready for it to be reviewed. '''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]

Thanks,

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 13:04, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work so far. Please remove wikilinks. Change ' and " to typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. And all red errors at the bottom of the page need to be taken care of. These are likely all from coding errors in your sources. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:24, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have removed the wikilinks, changed to the correct typographic style and updated my sources.
'''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe] Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:55, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

[I forgot to fill out the summary box. I am adding my summary]
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you're getting there! It looks great. You must eliminate all the red errors at the bottom. These appear when there are errors in your citations. Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:15, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

@{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything I can think of and I still have harv and sfn no-target errors and harv and sfn multiple-target errors and cs1 uses editors parameter. Do I not include the editor? [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 16:03, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have managed to get rid of two of the red target errors. I am still working on finding the harv sfn multiple target error. Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 20:37, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything i can think of to remove the last red error flag. I had to turn it in. I don't know that else I can do in this situation. I was given citation that did not follow any of the given formats. [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:45, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} all parenthetical citations must be remediated to {{tl|sfn}}; none of yours are. Get these done, then we can worry about the errors. (Some notes on sources: any generic <code><nowiki>{{citation}}</nowiki></code> will not be correct. I see you have a book review by Marshall that has no source (I tried to find the original and cannot; this is a weird citation; I'll continue to look for it). There's also one that looks like a film that should use the [[w:Template:Cite AV media|<code>Cite AV media</code> template]].) Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:16, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Submission ==

Hello!
Here's my remediated article; [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Devil's_Party:_Reading_and_Wreaking_Vengeance_in_The_Castle_in_the_Forest|The Devil's Party: Reading and Wreaking Vengeance in ''The Castle in the Forest'']].
Thanks! Please let me know if there's anything I can review or correct.
[[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 13:23, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} nice work! Banner removed, so please move on to something else in the volume. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Vol. 4: Rumors of Grace article remediated ==

I believe I have completed remediation of ''[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Rumors_of_Grace:_God-Language_in_Hemingway_and_Mailer|Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer]]'', vol. 4. I was having last-minute trouble with sfn errors for sources without authors, but Justin Kilchenmann helped me out, so I think they are fixed.
:{{Reply to|Sherrilledwards}} You have done a remarkable job—a real Herculean effort! Footnotes should not go in any notes. See those I changed; the others should be changed in the same way. I have done some, but the others have to be fixed, I'm afraid. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}}I believe I have completed these fixes, so the article is again ready for review. [[User:Sherrilledwards|Sherrilledwards]] ([[User talk:Sherrilledwards|talk]]) 15:49, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:::{{Reply to| Sherrilledwards}} truly exceptional work—a model remediation! Marked as complete. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:30, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Inside Norman Mailer ==

Hi Dr. Lucas - I have finished remediating the article, [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]]. Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments. Thank you! [[User:Chelsey.brantley|Chelsey.brantley]] ([[User talk:Chelsey.brantley|talk]]) 18:09, 7 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Chelsey.brantley}} good work! Please help with another article from volume 4. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:36, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed: Norman Mailer: Playboy Magazine ==

I hope I am doing this is right. I have finished remediating my article about Norman Mailer and its in my designated sandbox [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer:_Playboy_Magazine_Heavyweight here.]
If there are any last minute edits, let me know. I got the last of the errors removed yesterday. And I believe we are on the same page with leaving the in-line citations for ''Playboy'' to be as is, since the author didn't put them down in the works cited. [[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)Nina Mizner
:{{Reply to|NrmMGA5108}} looking good! So, the parenthetical citations still in the article, I'm assuming, are there because of those missing sources? Please check your page numbers; some seem to be off. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:04, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} I found the page number error and its corrected, and yes all the parenthetical citations should be referencing issues of the ''playboy'' magazine, which were not listed in the works cited. --[[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:54, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| NrmMGA5108}} it looks great. I removed the banner! Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:29, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Remediation From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity? ==

Greeting Dr. Lucas,

I have made the adjustment that you mentioned.

I also made additional edits to my short footnotes and noticed that my citations did not link to my references - which has been fixed.

I have tested all of my citations, and they all work.

Here is my article by Alexander Hicks, ''From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity?''

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/From_Here_to_Eternity_and_The_Naked_and_the_Dead:_Premiere_to_Eternity%3F

Have a great day.
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} Please always sign your talk page posts. Several “quoted items” in the article appear as ‘quoted items’; these must be corrected, please. No spaces or returns should surround {{tl|pg}} calls. Multiple page numbers should look like this <code><nowiki>{{sfn|Moretti|1996|pp=11-14}}</nowiki></code>; note the double <code>pp</code>. There seem to be many typos. I corrected some for you, but you must see to the rest. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:16, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Greetings,

Are these the only additional corrections that need to be made? This is different from what you mentioned before.

I just want to be sure that I have hit everything.

Also can you verify what other typos you are seeing, I have ran through this twice.

If something is spelt a certain way, for example "Soljer", I have left it that way. Since it is mentioned like that in the article.
—[[User:THarrell|THarrell]] ([[User talk:THarrell|talk]]) 06:49, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Greetings,

I have gone through and fixed all of the short footnotes.

I have gone line by line with a ruler to look at any typos, and fixed the words that I found that had a dash in them/needed to be lowercased.

I have also fixed the quotations.

—[[User:THarrell|THarrell]] ([[User talk:THarrell|talk]]) 12:31, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} much better. Periods go inside quotations marks; I think I fixed these, but please check. Also, there are no spaces before footnotes; again, I did a find/replace, but you should check. Also, check that all titles of novels are italicized (if it's italicized in the PDF, then it has to be italicized in the remediation, including abbreviations, like ''Naked''); I fixed a couple. Also, no extra spaces; there should only be a single blank space between paragraphs. There are quite a few little details that needed (need?) fixing. I removed the banner, but please check my work. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:41, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for “Footnote to Death in the Afternoon” ==

Greetings Dr. Lucus,

My article is ready for your review. Thank you.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%9CFootnote_to_Death_in_the_Afternoon%E2%80%9D)
:{{Reply to| KForeman}} it's coming along. Please ''always'' sign your talk page posts. Right up top, there are errors. Please use the real {{tl|pg}}, like all the other articles. Citations need to be fixed. All parenthetical citations must be converted. You still have quite a bit of work to do. All red sections need to be seen to and corrected. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

=Remediation of "Cluster Seeds and the Mailer Legacy"=
Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have completed the remediation of [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Cluster_Seeds_and_the_Mailer_Legacy&oldid=18200| my article], and it is ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 11:32, 8 April 2025 (EDT)@ADavis
:{{Reply to| ADavis}} got it. I think I check it yesterday and removed the banner then. Please move on to another piece. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediating Article: Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing Volume 4. ==

Hello Dr. Lucas,

I have completed remediating my article. Here is the link [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|The Mailer Review: Volume 4: Mailer, Hemingway, Boxing (2010)]] [[User:JBrown|JBrown]] ([[User talk:JBrown|talk]]) 13:01, 8 April 2025 (EDT)JBrown
:{{Reply to|JBrown}} a good start, but all parenthetical citations need to be footnotes. Also, check your headers. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norris Church Mailer'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up remediating the article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 13:42, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Kamyers}} awesome work! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review ==

Dr. Lucas, I have completed my assigned remediation article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Looking_at_the_Past:_Nostalgia_as_Technique_in_The_Naked_and_the_Dead_and_For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls|Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. Please review at your convenience. I enjoyed working on this assignment. I look forward to your suggestions and feedback. All the best, Danielle (DBond007)
:{{Reply to| DBond007}} ok, good work. Please remove all the external links. Links to Wikipedia are not necessary, but if used, they need to be done correctly. There should be no spaces before {{tl|sfn}}. May sure all your ' and " are actually typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. Remove any superfluous spaces and line breaks; these mess up the formatting. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Thank you. I will get started on these revisions immediately. Thanks for the feedback and your time. :)[[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 11:30, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}} I have completed all the requested revisions and ready for review round 2. Thank you again![[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 12:10, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:::{{Reply to|DBond007}} looking better! There are still items to be seen to, like titles on novels and magazines need to appear like they do in the original: if it's italicized in the PDF, it must be italicized on the web. I added the epigram for you and corrected that pesky citation. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:41, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}}I have completed edits. I went through and took out quotes around The Time Machine, except for one instance that the author uses them. All my other titles seem to correspond to the original article. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you for the epigram and the pesky citation correction. Best, [[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 15:25, 17 April 2025 (EDT)
:::{{Reply to|DBond007}} received, and good work. I had to clean up the sources a bit, so you might want to have a look. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:42, 18 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}}I went back and reviewed some of the other articles marked complete to compare and look for remaining revisions. I made one change on Works Cited and also added the page numbers to correspond to the pdf. Let's try this again. Again, I *believe I am finished with this article. Best,[[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 10:36, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed the remediation assignment ==

Good evening Dr. Lucas,

I hope I am doing this right. Here is the link for my completed Remediation article: [http://The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Encounters_with_Mailer Encounters with Mailer].

I look forward to reading your feedback.

All the best,

Patrick Riley
:{{Reply to|Priley1984}} thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:40, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project Submission: An Expected Encounter in an Unexpected Place ==

Link:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer:_An_Expected_Encounter_in_an_Unexpected_Place

Winnie Verna
:{{Reply to|Wverna}} received, thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:51, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== E.Mosley ==

Good evening, @Grlucas. I have completed my Remediation Articles[[https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/On_Reading_Mailer_Too_Young]]. The article I had was " On Reading Mailer Too Young Volume 4, 2010
:{{Reply to| Essence903m}} thank you. I had to fix and clean-up quite a bit. Your saves also do not include summaries. When you move on to your next article, please be more careful and follow the instructions. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:12, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Kynndra Watson ==

Good Evening, @grlucas. i have completed my Remediation articles: Volume 5: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Making_Masculinity_and_Unmaking_Jewishness:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Voice_in_Wild_90_and_Beyond_the_Law and Volume 4: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer,_Hemingway,_and_the_%E2%80%9CReds%E2%80%9D.

Thank you.
:{{Reply to| KWatson}} thank you, and this is a good start, but there are still many items that need to be cleaned up, like footnote indications (They go after punctuation), citation errors (all the red errors at the bottom need to be seen to), extra spaces and ALL CAPS need to be removed. Please see other completed articles for models. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:18, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/What Would Be the Fun of That?|"What Would Be the Fun of That?"]] by Peter Alson.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:33, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} awesome! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:21, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== “Remembering Norris Church” Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Remembering Norris Church|“Remembering Norris Church”]] by John Bowers.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 16:17, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} and again, excellent! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:22, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== “The Norris I Knew” Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/The Norris I Knew|“The Norris I Knew”]] by Christopher Busa.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:04, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} rockin’! 👍🏼 —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:24, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Norris Mailer" Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Norris Mailer|"Norris Mailer"]] by Nancy Collins.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:35, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} thanks again. You’re tearing it up. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:32, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Rise Above It" Tribute Remediation ==

Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Rise Above It|"Rise Above It"]] by David Ebershoff—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 11:12, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} excellent. Many thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:15, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Additional Articles ==

Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have remediated [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Tributes_to_Norris_Church_Mailer/A_View_Through_the_Prism&oldid=18744|"A View Through the Prism"], [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Tributes_to_Norris_Church_Mailer/Lip_Liner|"Lip Liner"], and [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Living_Room_Show#|"The Living Room Show"] in Volume 5. They are ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 12:31, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|ADavis}} great work. Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:26, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Submission notification sent 29 March ==

@grlucas

Dr. Lucas - I sent a Talk Page notification that I had completed the page I remediated on 29 March. The table indicates I haven't done anything yet. I sent it from the Talk Page from the article site. I don't see a response from that notification, but I had received one from you earlier in the process.
I don't understand what happened.

[[User:LogansPop22|LogansPop22]] ([[User talk:LogansPop22|talk]]) 14:54, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|LogansPop22}} sorry if I missed that. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Hemingway and Women at the Front: Blowing Bridges in The Fifth Column, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Other Works|this article]], right? It's looking great, though all the parenthetical citations must be converted to footnotes using {{tl|sfn}} and some of the author names in your notes should use {{tl|harvtxt}}. I added the "citations" section for you. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Making Masculinity and Unmaking Jewishness: Norman Mailer’s Voice in Wild 90 and Beyond the Law ==

@Grlucas, I have made some additional edits to this [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Making_Masculinity_and_Unmaking_Jewishness:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Voice_in_Wild_90_and_Beyond_the_Law article] in Volume 5 by correcting most of the citations. There are 2 that still do not work, but I think that is because the sources are incomplete.

[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 21:16, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| TPoole}} Looking really good, and this is a complicated one. A couple of things: no spaces or line breaks before or after {{tl|pg}}; I removed the spaces before {{tl|sfn}}, but you might want to check them; there are some typos, like missing spaces before some parentheses; no footnotes should appear in the notes section: use {{tl|harvtxt}} instead. And all the red errors at the bottom need to be cleared up. Great work so far! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:00, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Red Error-Gone ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}I have deleted all the sfn's and the red error is gone. I don't know why I didn't think about this days ago.

[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe|Gladstein-Monroe]]

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 23:07, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} getting closer. A few things: you should use <code>|author-mask=1</code> for repeated author names in your works cited; all parenthetical citations need to be replaced with footnotes using {{tl|sfn}}; must punctuation in your sources need to be removed as the templates do that for you; and you need to use {{tl|harvtxt}} for citations in your endnotes. Also, letters and films have their own templates. I did a couple of these for you as examples. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:14, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Remembering Norris" Tribute Remediation ==

Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Remembering Norris|"Remembering Norris"]] by Margo Howard.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:20, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} excellent! Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Norman Mailer: From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review:
https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer:_From_Orgone_Accumulator_to_Cancer_Protection_for_Schizophrenics

I was unable to find the correct format for the first works cited entry under Mailer. It is a reprint of a magazine article. Thank you. [[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 16:28, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} you are a master remediator! Thank you for going above and beyond. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:44, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

==Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Trust & Sparring with Norman==
Dr. Lucas, these were some of the smaller ones, so I went ahead and knocked them out. They are ready for review: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Sparring with Norman|Sparring with Norman]], [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Trust|Trust]], and [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls|Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 10:27, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Kamyers}} all excellent—above and beyond! Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:56, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing'' ==

Hi everyone,
I am currently helping with the article, [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Death,_Art,_and_the_Disturbing:_Hemingway_and_Mailer_and_the_Art_of_Writing Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing]. It still has a good bit to go, if anyone wants to help out.
—[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 5:17 PM, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} thanks! I added the author info. I'm not sure many will see your request; you might want to post it on the forum. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:56, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Thank you for adding the author information and I have posted the request in the forum. Thank you! —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:CVinson|talk]]) 6:53 PM, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Mimi and Mercer ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have corrected the Mimi Gladstein [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Piling On: Norman Mailer’s Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]] and removed all the red errors. I also have finishe the Erin Mercer article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead]], except the ''The Naked and the Dead'' in the display title. An error occured.
[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 19:26, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work. There should be no footnotes in the endnotes, please. Since this is the only thing to correct, I have removed the banner, but please let me know when you made that final correction. Thanks! (I will respond about your second article shortly.) —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:59, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} your second article looks good. Could you use the [[w:Template:Cite interview|Template:Cite interview]] for interviews. I did one for you. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 16:33, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Through the Lens of the Beatniks Remediation ==

Hello, Dr. Lucas! I've completed the remediation of [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Through_the_Lens_of_the_Beatniks:_Norman_Mailer_and_Modern_American_Man’s_Quest_for_Self-Realization#CITEREFNaked1992|Through the Lens of the Beatniks]]. I wasn't able to get the letter citations exactly how I thought they should be. If there's anything I'm missing, please let me know! Thanks! [[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 10:09, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} got it! It looks great. I made some format changes, but you did a great job! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 15:58, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Finish Mimi ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}

I have made the final edit to Mimi and removed the footnotes from the endnotes. [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe]] [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 15:50, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you removed all the citations. Only '''footnotes''' need to be removed, but citations need to stay. I did the first note for you (now erased, but you can see it in the history) so you could see how it was done. You can also see [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer|this one]]. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 16:52, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed? All You Need is Glove ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe the book review, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/All_You_Need_is_Glove|All You Need is Glove]] is done and ready for review! [[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 19:10, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} awesome work! Banner removed, and many thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harv and Sfn no-target ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I changed the citations in the article to interview and I tried a few things to get rid of the Harv and Sfn no-target with little luck. [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Automatons_and_the_Atomic_Abyss:_The_Naked_and_the_Dead]]
[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:04, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} this was because your interviews had no dates. Most are from Lennon's book, published in 1988. I added the dates to the citations, but the sfn footnotes need to be fixed to correspond with those. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:24, 16 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} OK, between your fixes and my little tweaks, this one is finished! Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:50, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

== Erros fixed ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have fixed all citation errors in both articles and added the harvtxt. Atomic Abyss still has the Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls error.
[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Automatons_and_the_Atomic_Abyss:_The_Naked_and_the_Dead]]
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} see above. These still need fixing. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe]]
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} this one looks great! Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 08:23, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

== completed: Advertisements for Others ==

Thanks to some classmates helping with the finishing touches, my second article should be ready. [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Advertisements_for_Others:_The_Blurbs_of_Norman_Mailer|Advertisements for Others.]]
--[[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 19:24, 17 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to| NrmMGA5108}} received, and thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:15, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

== Two Poems Vol 4 Ready? ==

Hi Dr. Lucas! I think these two poems are ready for review: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/The Boxer in the Park|The Boxer in the Park]] and Norman Mailer and [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer_and_Ernest_Hemingway_Do_Not_Box_in_Heaven|Ernest Hemingway Do Not Box in Heaven]]. The second on says the display title is wrong, but again, I don't know what I am missing there. Thank you![[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 09:05, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

== A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway ==

Hey,

I see that [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway|A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway]] is missing text. Can you email me a copy or link it as a reply, so I can remediate this article. [[User:APKnight25|APKnight25]] ([[User talk:APKnight25|talk]]) 09:44, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-18T14:34:05Z

DBond007: Added page numbers to the digital work to correspond with the pdf. Looked over and made final revisions to Works Cited.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{MR04}}
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions, but most often implies a simplistic, romantic look at the past. Nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews, while also discovering ways to maneuver within society. From this viewpoint, nostalgia can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past. Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique to add additional interpretive layers to their fiction. These authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{cquote|A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.|author=Norman Mailer{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} }}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely{{pg|303|304}}associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia{{pg|304|305}}seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

==Mailer Enters “The Time Machine”==
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by ''Time'' magazine,
''The Naked and the Dead'' launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|War|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|War|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise The Time Machine, Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, The Time Machine pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting{{pg|305|306}}to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of The Time Machine essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.{{pg|306|307}}

==Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway==
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}{{pg|307|308}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without{{pg|308|309}}overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views The Time Machine sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow, age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway{{pg|309|310}}and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite news |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date={{date|June 3, 1951}} |title=Talk with Norman Mailer |url=https://static01.nyt.com/packages/html/books/mailer-talk1951.pdf |work=The New York Times |edition=late |location=sec 7:20 |page= |access-date=2025-04-18 |ref=harv }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=72–83 |ref=harv }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. |location=New York |publisher=Scribner's |ref=harv }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |ref=harv }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s ''The Naked and the Dead'' | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=426–429 |ref=harv }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |ref=harv }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway |journal=Journal of American Studies |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=103–122 |ref=harv }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. |location=New York |publisher=Berghahn Books |ref=harv }}
* {{cite magazine |author= |date={{date|1948-05-10}} |title=War & No Peace. Rev. of ''The Naked and The Dead'', by Norman Mailer |url=https://normanmailer.us/war-no-peace-8ab28be074b2 |magazine=Time |pages= |access-date=2025-04-12 |ref={{SfnRef|War|1948}} }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

Talk:The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010

2025-04-17T20:28:24Z

DBond007: /* Article Assignments, Vol. 4 */

===Article Assignments, Vol. 4===
You will need to request an article and user name for {{PM}}. You may click the link to your article below to begin your edits. Status indicators: {{tick}} = complete (ready for final edits and banner removal); {{yellow tick}} = in process; {{cross}} = not started.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! Author !! Article !! Editor !! Status
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself|Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for Myself]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mailer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway Revisited|Hemingway Revisited]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Lennon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway to Mailer — A Delayed Response to The Deer Park|Hemingway to Mailer]] || [[User:Hobbitonya]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hemingway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Ernest, and Greg|Norman, Ernest, and Greg]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Begiebing || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman: A Dialogue in Two Acts|Ernest and Norman]] || [[User:DSánchez]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Bufithis & Curnutt || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway|A Dialogue Essay on Mailer and Hemingway]] || [[User:Grlucas]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Meredith || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/The American Civil War in The Naked and the Dead and Across the River and Into the Trees|The American Civil War]] || [[User:KaraCroissant]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Shuman || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman vs. Ernest: Influence and Identity|Norman vs. Ernest]] || [[User:MSeleb]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Lowenburg || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hooking Off the Jab: Norman Mailer, Ernest Hemingway and Boxing|Hooking Off the Jab]] || [[User:ASpeed]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Cirino || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer's The Fight: Hemingway, Bullfighting, and the Lovely Metaphysics of Boxing|Norman Mailer's ''The Fight'']] || [[User:TWietstruk]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Boddy || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing]] || [[User:JBrown]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Leeds || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer|Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer]] || [[User:CVinson]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Plath || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Jive-Ass Aficionado: Why Are We in Vietnam? and Hemingway's Moral Code|Jive-Ass Aficionado]] || [[User:ADear]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Cappell || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Hemingway's Jewish Progeny: Roth and Goldstein in ''The Naked and the Dead''|Hemingway's Jewish Progeny]] || [[User:THarris]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Peppard || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”|Mailer, Hemingway, and the “Reds”]] || [[User:KWatson]] [[User:DBond007]]|| {{cross}}
|-
| Kaufmann || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)|Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)]] || [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Justice || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation]] || [[User:APKnight25]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Josephs || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"|Mailer's "Footnote to Death in the Afternoon"]] || [[User:KForeman]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hays || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Battles for Regard, Writerly and Otherwise|Battles for Regard]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gladstein || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman|Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman]] || [[User:ALedezma]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Batchelor || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls|Looking at the Past]] || [[User:DBond007]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Robinson || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures of Across the River and Into the Trees and The Naked and the Dead|Effects of Trauma on the Narrative Structures]] ||[[User:Priley1984]] [[User:Flowersbloom]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Sanders || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing|Death, Art, and the Disturbing]] || [[User:JBawlson]] [[User:CVinson]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Stoneback || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/"Oohh Normie — You're Sooo Hemingway": Mailer Memories and Encounters|Mailer Memories and Encounters]] || [[User:Tbara4554]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Jacomo || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Sparring with Norman|Sparing with Norman]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Gordon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Encounters with Mailer|Encounters with Mailer]] || [[User:Priley1984]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Vince || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer|Rumors of Grace]] || [[User:Sherrilledwards]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Apple || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Sinclair || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: An Expected Encounter in an Unexpected Place|An Expected Encounter]] || [[User:Wverna]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Klavan || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/On Reading Mailer Too Young|On Reading Mailer Too Young]] || [[User:Essence903m]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Miele || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat|What Norman Mailer Taught Me about Combat]] || [[User:TBorel]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Vernon || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches|Style, Politics, and Hemingway's Spanish Civil War Dispatches]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hooker || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norman Mailer: From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics|From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Hinton || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Advertisements for Others: The Blurbs of Norman Mailer|Advertisements for Others]] || [[User:NrmMGA5108]] || {{cross}}
|-
| Hicks || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway|''Harlot’s Ghost'', ''Bildungsroman'', Masculinity and Hemingway]] || [[User:JKilchenmann]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Mercer || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead|Automatons and the Atomic Abyss]] || [[User:MerAtticus]] || {{tick}}
|-
| Westaway || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/“A Noble Pursuit”: The Armies of the Night as Outside Agitator|“A Noble Pursuit”]] || [[User:Chelsey.brantley]] || {{yellow tick}}
|-
| Fox || [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]] || [[User:Kamyers]] || {{tick}}
|}

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-17T19:25:42Z

DBond007: /* Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review */

{{Talk header}}
[[/Archive 202504/]]

== Final edits ==
Hello, my article is complete: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Ernest_and_Norman_(Exit_Music)|Ernest and Norman (Exit Music)]]
:{{Reply to|Flowersbloom}} great, thank you. I made some corrections. Please be sure to sign your talk page posts. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Good evening, Dr. Lucas. Below is the link to my edited article:
https://projectmailer.net/pm/User:ASpeed/sandbox
:{{Reply to|ASpeed}} great. Let me know when it’s finished and posted, and I’l have a look. It appears as if you still have a bit of work to do. Please be sure to sign your talk page posts. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Good evening, @[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]. I have completed most of my Remediation Articles, but I still show issues for the one named, "[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman,_Papa,_and_the_Autoerotic_Construction_of_Woman|Norman, Papa, and the Autoerotic Construction of Woman]].

Based on the latest updates, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Battles_for_Regard,_Writerly_and_Otherwise|Battles for Regard, Writerly and Otherwise]] looks good with exception of including a '''category'''.
:{{Reply to|ALedezma}} this one is good. I made some corrections before removing the banner, mostly in your sources. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

May you let me know if there is anything I can do on my end to resolve the issues with the first [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman,_Papa,_and_the_Autoerotic_Construction_of_Woman|article]]?

[[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 21:47, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|ALedezma}} looking very good, but some sources missing page numbers. Please see to those. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

:::Thank you @[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] . I will review those and respond when complete. [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 22:47, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::::@[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]. Thank you for your feedback. A review of article additions was made for source pages. [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 20:22, 11 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::{{Reply to| ALedezma}} ok, looking good. I made some corrections. There's one final thing to do: no footnotes should appear in the notes section; use {{tl|harvtxt}} instead; I did one to show you how to use the template. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:39, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::@[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] Changes were done to footnote sources. Thank you! [[User:ALedezma|ALedezma]] ([[User talk:ALedezma|talk]]) 19:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas I finished my remediation article https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer%27s_The_Fight:_Hemingway,_Bullfighting,_and_the_Lovely_Metaphysics_of_Boxing&action=edit [[User:TWietstruk|TWietstruk]] ([[User talk:TWietstruk|talk]]) 19:44, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| TWietstruk}} good work so far, but there is more to do: placement of footnotes (eliminate spaces around them and punctuation always goes ''before'' the footnote.); proofread for typos; fix all red errors at the bottom (most of these are from errors in sourcing); works cited entries should be bulleted list and eliminate space between entries. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:05, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Final edit and no errors with some help from @NRMMGA5108, @JKilchenmann. Please mark me as complete. On to help someone else with the things I've learned
https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer%27s_The_Fight:_Hemingway,_Bullfighting,_and_the_Lovely_Metaphysics_of_Boxing&action=edit [[User:TWietstruk|TWietstruk]] ([[User talk:TWietstruk|talk]]) 17:52, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas I have finished my assigned remediation article: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Jive-Ass_Aficionado:_Why_Are_We_in_Vietnam%3F_and_Hemingway%27s_Moral_Code#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHemingway2003-24
Username ADear.
:{{Reply to|ADear}} thank you. I have marked this as complete. Please be sure you sign your talk page posts correctly. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:05, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I have finished remediating my assigned article. Please review it at your earliest convenience. The link is here: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer's_Mythmaking_in_An_American_Dream_and_“The_White_Negro”|Norman Mailer's Mythmaking in An American Dream and “The White Negro”]]—[[User:Erhernandez|Erhernandez]] ([[User talk:Erhernandez|talk]]) 08:52, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Erhernandez}} well done! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. I removed your banner after making a few corrections. Please have a look over it and move on to the next thing. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:06, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I transferred and edited my article. Can you look at it and remove the banner? Here's the link: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Authorship_and_Alienation_in_Death_in_the_Afternoon_and_Advertisements_for_Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself]] ( [[User:APKnight25|APKnight25]] ([[User talk:APKnight25|talk]]) 13:02, 28 March 2025 (EDT) )
:{{Reply to| APKnight25}} looking good! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. Next, eliminate all "fang" quotes in the article and add “real quotation marks.” Your sources should be a bulleted list. And there should be no space before a citation. You’re almost finished! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:21, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Reinventing the Wheel" Mailer Article for Review ==

Dr. Lucas,

My [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Reinventing_a_New_Wheel:_The_Films_of_Norman_Mailer|article]] is ready for review.

Thank you!
[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 15:29, 29 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|TPoole}} great! Could you include a link to it? Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:07, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
::OK, I [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Reinventing a New Wheel: The Films of Norman Mailer|found it]]. Looking really good. Great work. There are some citation issues that need to be seen to. The two red categories at the bottom should not be there; they will go away when the citations errors are corrected. Eliminate any quotation mark "fangs" in the text and replace them with “real quotation marks.” Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:14, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:::@Grlucas, what are the citation issues? Which ones need correcting? [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 17:31, 31 March 2025 (EDT)
::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} When you click your citations, they should jump to the works cited entry they correspond to. Several of yours do not, indicated by the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” at the bottom. You also have a "CS1 maint: Unrecognized language" error that will likely be cleared up when you fix the citation issues. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:55, 1 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::@Grlucas, I have tried correcting the sfn codes in my citations. I was able to get the 2 web citations to link correctly. But for some reason, I cannot get the Mailer 1967 film Wild 90 citation to link to the reference list. Please advise. [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 20:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} OK, all fixed and published. Thanks. Please move on to another remediation. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:46, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of: "Contradictory Syntheses: Norman Mailer’s Left Conservatism and the Problematic of 'Totalitarianism'" ==

Dr. Lucas

I finished the remediation of the following article:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Contradictory_Syntheses:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Left_Conservatism_and_the_Problematic_of_%E2%80%9CTotalitarianism%E2%80%9D

It is ready for your review. Thank you.
[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 19:04, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} looks great. I made some tweaks to the references and some throughout, like changing ' and " to real apostrophes and quotation marks. A bit more clean-up, but you might want to check over it again. I removed the under-construction banner. Well one. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:32, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edit ==

Thank you for your comments on my remediation of
"[[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself.]]"

I've eliminated the "fang quotes" and changed them to “real quotation marks.” This was a very fascinating tip that taught me something new. It's something I've never noticed before but now always will.

I also put my sources in a bulleted list and removed the space before the citations. I think I'm all set now.
:{{Reply to|APKnight25}} great work! Please help other editors to complete the volume. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:34, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer'' ==

[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]

Hi Dr. Lucas,

I believe I have done everything for the Remediation of my article. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

I will also link the article below:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Firearms_in_the_Works_of_Hemingway_and_Mailer

Thank you,
Caitlin Vinson
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} great work so far. Your references must use templates, please. Blockquotes must also be done correctly. No spaces or line breaks before or after the {{tl|pg}} template. Footnote placement is also off (punctuation goes before the footnote; no spaces before or after the footnote). I will add the abstract and url. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:30, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe there have been some updates made to the project. I believe I have also updated the works cited section to show correct templates. Please let me know if there is anything further that I need to do. Thank you, Caitlin.
::{{reply to| CVinson}} please sign your talk page posts correctly. Thanks. You still need to do some work on the sources. Use the <code>|author-mask=1</code> in your template for repeated author names. Also, you must eliminate the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” message at the bottom. No spaces or returns before or after the {{tl|pg}} call, as I already mentioned above. No parenthetical citations should be left, either; those should all be remediated to footnotes. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:50, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} I have updated the sources and updated the in-text citations. I am still having trouble with the "Harv and Sfn no-target errors." I have not been successful in fixing this error and have tried multiple ways to fix it. —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 8:18, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

::::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I see that I still have a red X for my remediation assignment. Is there something else I am still missing? —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:35, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::{{reply to| CVinson}} sorry, I'm just getting back to it. There are quite a few punctuation errors. Some left out and others appear after the {{tl|sfn}}. I'm trying to correct those I see, but you should have a look, too. Page is designated as <code>p=</code> in {{tl|sfn}}, not <code>pg=</code>; and a span of pages needs <code>pp=</code>. Again, I have tried to correct these. I removed the banner, but please have another look through. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:01, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norman Mailer Today'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up my remediation article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Norman Mailer Today|Norman Mailer Today]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 18:20, 3 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Kamyers}} Great work! Please help your fellow editors finish the volume, or pick something to work on in [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010|Volume 4]]. Thanks, and well done. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:00, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of “The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’” ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished my remediation of Jennifer Yirinec's article: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”|The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.”]] Thank you for your assistance with the article. It is ready for its final review! [[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 10:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} a stellar job. Well done. I removed the banner, so you can move on to another article. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:12, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediations ==
Dr. Lucas, I have begun work on the tributes for volume 5. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Grace Notes|Grace Notes]] by Stephen Borkowski is ready for its final review.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 12:58, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} Well done! Banner removed, url added. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:18, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

==Oohh Normie Final Edits==
Hi Dr. Lucas, I have finished my article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/"Oohh_Normie_—_You're_Sooo_Hemingway":_Mailer_Memories_and_Encounters|Oohh Normie, You're Sooo Hemingway]]. Please let me know if there is anything I need to fix. [[User:Tbara4554|Tbara4554]] ([[User talk:Tbara4554|talk]]) 20:01, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Tbara4554}} thank you. I made some corrections and removed the banner. You might want to have another look over it. Please move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:53, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review. Thanks.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Harlot%27s_Ghost,_Bildungsroman,_Masculinity_and_Hemingway

[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 21:22, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} excellent. Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:39, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== I am done with this ==

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Situating_Hemingway:_Mailer,_Style,_Ethics
:Received. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:29, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Review PM Article ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Hemingway_to_Mailer_—_A_Delayed_Response_to_The_Deer_Park|here]] is my remediated article, ready for review![[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 12:21, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} great work. I have removed the banner, so you are good to move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:20, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have finished my remedidation project and I am ready for it to be reviewed. '''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]

Thanks,

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 13:04, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work so far. Please remove wikilinks. Change ' and " to typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. And all red errors at the bottom of the page need to be taken care of. These are likely all from coding errors in your sources. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:24, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have removed the wikilinks, changed to the correct typographic style and updated my sources.
'''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe] Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:55, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

[I forgot to fill out the summary box. I am adding my summary]
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you're getting there! It looks great. You must eliminate all the red errors at the bottom. These appear when there are errors in your citations. Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:15, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

@{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything I can think of and I still have harv and sfn no-target errors and harv and sfn multiple-target errors and cs1 uses editors parameter. Do I not include the editor? [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 16:03, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have managed to get rid of two of the red target errors. I am still working on finding the harv sfn multiple target error. Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 20:37, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything i can think of to remove the last red error flag. I had to turn it in. I don't know that else I can do in this situation. I was given citation that did not follow any of the given formats. [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:45, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} all parenthetical citations must be remediated to {{tl|sfn}}; none of yours are. Get these done, then we can worry about the errors. (Some notes on sources: any generic <code><nowiki>{{citation}}</nowiki></code> will not be correct. I see you have a book review by Marshall that has no source (I tried to find the original and cannot; this is a weird citation; I'll continue to look for it). There's also one that looks like a film that should use the [[w:Template:Cite AV media|<code>Cite AV media</code> template]].) Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:16, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Submission ==

Hello!
Here's my remediated article; [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Devil's_Party:_Reading_and_Wreaking_Vengeance_in_The_Castle_in_the_Forest|The Devil's Party: Reading and Wreaking Vengeance in ''The Castle in the Forest'']].
Thanks! Please let me know if there's anything I can review or correct.
[[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 13:23, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} nice work! Banner removed, so please move on to something else in the volume. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Vol. 4: Rumors of Grace article remediated ==

I believe I have completed remediation of ''[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Rumors_of_Grace:_God-Language_in_Hemingway_and_Mailer|Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer]]'', vol. 4. I was having last-minute trouble with sfn errors for sources without authors, but Justin Kilchenmann helped me out, so I think they are fixed.
:{{Reply to|Sherrilledwards}} You have done a remarkable job—a real Herculean effort! Footnotes should not go in any notes. See those I changed; the others should be changed in the same way. I have done some, but the others have to be fixed, I'm afraid. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}}I believe I have completed these fixes, so the article is again ready for review. [[User:Sherrilledwards|Sherrilledwards]] ([[User talk:Sherrilledwards|talk]]) 15:49, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:::{{Reply to| Sherrilledwards}} truly exceptional work—a model remediation! Marked as complete. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:30, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Inside Norman Mailer ==

Hi Dr. Lucas - I have finished remediating the article, [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]]. Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments. Thank you! [[User:Chelsey.brantley|Chelsey.brantley]] ([[User talk:Chelsey.brantley|talk]]) 18:09, 7 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Chelsey.brantley}} good work! Please help with another article from volume 4. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:36, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed: Norman Mailer: Playboy Magazine ==

I hope I am doing this is right. I have finished remediating my article about Norman Mailer and its in my designated sandbox [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer:_Playboy_Magazine_Heavyweight here.]
If there are any last minute edits, let me know. I got the last of the errors removed yesterday. And I believe we are on the same page with leaving the in-line citations for ''Playboy'' to be as is, since the author didn't put them down in the works cited. [[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)Nina Mizner
:{{Reply to|NrmMGA5108}} looking good! So, the parenthetical citations still in the article, I'm assuming, are there because of those missing sources? Please check your page numbers; some seem to be off. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:04, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} I found the page number error and its corrected, and yes all the parenthetical citations should be referencing issues of the ''playboy'' magazine, which were not listed in the works cited. --[[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:54, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| NrmMGA5108}} it looks great. I removed the banner! Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 13:29, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Remediation From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity? ==

Greeting Dr. Lucas,

I have made the adjustment that you mentioned.

I also made additional edits to my short footnotes and noticed that my citations did not link to my references - which has been fixed.

I have tested all of my citations, and they all work.

Here is my article by Alexander Hicks, ''From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity?''

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/From_Here_to_Eternity_and_The_Naked_and_the_Dead:_Premiere_to_Eternity%3F

Have a great day.
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} Please always sign your talk page posts. Several “quoted items” in the article appear as ‘quoted items’; these must be corrected, please. No spaces or returns should surround {{tl|pg}} calls. Multiple page numbers should look like this <code><nowiki>{{sfn|Moretti|1996|pp=11-14}}</nowiki></code>; note the double <code>pp</code>. There seem to be many typos. I corrected some for you, but you must see to the rest. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:16, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Greetings,

Are these the only additional corrections that need to be made? This is different from what you mentioned before.

I just want to be sure that I have hit everything.

Also can you verify what other typos you are seeing, I have ran through this twice.

If something is spelt a certain way, for example "Soljer", I have left it that way. Since it is mentioned like that in the article.
—[[User:THarrell|THarrell]] ([[User talk:THarrell|talk]]) 06:49, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Greetings,

I have gone through and fixed all of the short footnotes.

I have gone line by line with a ruler to look at any typos, and fixed the words that I found that had a dash in them/needed to be lowercased.

I have also fixed the quotations.

—[[User:THarrell|THarrell]] ([[User talk:THarrell|talk]]) 12:31, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} much better. Periods go inside quotations marks; I think I fixed these, but please check. Also, there are no spaces before footnotes; again, I did a find/replace, but you should check. Also, check that all titles of novels are italicized (if it's italicized in the PDF, then it has to be italicized in the remediation, including abbreviations, like ''Naked''); I fixed a couple. Also, no extra spaces; there should only be a single blank space between paragraphs. There are quite a few little details that needed (need?) fixing. I removed the banner, but please check my work. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 12:41, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for “Footnote to Death in the Afternoon” ==

Greetings Dr. Lucus,

My article is ready for your review. Thank you.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%9CFootnote_to_Death_in_the_Afternoon%E2%80%9D)
:{{Reply to| KForeman}} it's coming along. Please ''always'' sign your talk page posts. Right up top, there are errors. Please use the real {{tl|pg}}, like all the other articles. Citations need to be fixed. All parenthetical citations must be converted. You still have quite a bit of work to do. All red sections need to be seen to and corrected. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

=Remediation of "Cluster Seeds and the Mailer Legacy"=
Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have completed the remediation of [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Cluster_Seeds_and_the_Mailer_Legacy&oldid=18200| my article], and it is ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 11:32, 8 April 2025 (EDT)@ADavis
:{{Reply to| ADavis}} got it. I think I check it yesterday and removed the banner then. Please move on to another piece. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediating Article: Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing Volume 4. ==

Hello Dr. Lucas,

I have completed remediating my article. Here is the link [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|The Mailer Review: Volume 4: Mailer, Hemingway, Boxing (2010)]] [[User:JBrown|JBrown]] ([[User talk:JBrown|talk]]) 13:01, 8 April 2025 (EDT)JBrown
:{{Reply to|JBrown}} a good start, but all parenthetical citations need to be footnotes. Also, check your headers. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norris Church Mailer'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up remediating the article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 13:42, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Kamyers}} awesome work! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review ==

Dr. Lucas, I have completed my assigned remediation article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Looking_at_the_Past:_Nostalgia_as_Technique_in_The_Naked_and_the_Dead_and_For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls|Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. Please review at your convenience. I enjoyed working on this assignment. I look forward to your suggestions and feedback. All the best, Danielle (DBond007)
:{{Reply to| DBond007}} ok, good work. Please remove all the external links. Links to Wikipedia are not necessary, but if used, they need to be done correctly. There should be no spaces before {{tl|sfn}}. May sure all your ' and " are actually typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. Remove any superfluous spaces and line breaks; these mess up the formatting. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 17:29, 8 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}} Thank you. I will get started on these revisions immediately. Thanks for the feedback and your time. :)[[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 11:30, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}} I have completed all the requested revisions and ready for review round 2. Thank you again![[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 12:10, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:::{{Reply to|DBond007}} looking better! There are still items to be seen to, like titles on novels and magazines need to appear like they do in the original: if it's italicized in the PDF, it must be italicized on the web. I added the epigram for you and corrected that pesky citation. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:41, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| Grlucas}}I have completed edits. I went through and took out quotes around The Time Machine, except for one instance that the author uses them. All my other titles seem to correspond to the original article. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you for the epigram and the pesky citation correction. Best, [[User:DBond007|DBond007]] ([[User talk:DBond007|talk]]) 15:25, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed the remediation assignment ==

Good evening Dr. Lucas,

I hope I am doing this right. Here is the link for my completed Remediation article: [http://The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Encounters_with_Mailer Encounters with Mailer].

I look forward to reading your feedback.

All the best,

Patrick Riley
:{{Reply to|Priley1984}} thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:40, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project Submission: An Expected Encounter in an Unexpected Place ==

Link:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer:_An_Expected_Encounter_in_an_Unexpected_Place

Winnie Verna
:{{Reply to|Wverna}} received, thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:51, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== E.Mosley ==

Good evening, @Grlucas. I have completed my Remediation Articles[[https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/On_Reading_Mailer_Too_Young]]. The article I had was " On Reading Mailer Too Young Volume 4, 2010
:{{Reply to| Essence903m}} thank you. I had to fix and clean-up quite a bit. Your saves also do not include summaries. When you move on to your next article, please be more careful and follow the instructions. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:12, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Kynndra Watson ==

Good Evening, @grlucas. i have completed my Remediation articles: Volume 5: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Making_Masculinity_and_Unmaking_Jewishness:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Voice_in_Wild_90_and_Beyond_the_Law and Volume 4: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer,_Hemingway,_and_the_%E2%80%9CReds%E2%80%9D.

Thank you.
:{{Reply to| KWatson}} thank you, and this is a good start, but there are still many items that need to be cleaned up, like footnote indications (They go after punctuation), citation errors (all the red errors at the bottom need to be seen to), extra spaces and ALL CAPS need to be removed. Please see other completed articles for models. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:18, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/What Would Be the Fun of That?|"What Would Be the Fun of That?"]] by Peter Alson.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:33, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} awesome! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:21, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== “Remembering Norris Church” Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Remembering Norris Church|“Remembering Norris Church”]] by John Bowers.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 16:17, 9 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} and again, excellent! Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:22, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== “The Norris I Knew” Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/The Norris I Knew|“The Norris I Knew”]] by Christopher Busa.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:04, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} rockin’! 👍🏼 —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:24, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Norris Mailer" Tribute Remediation ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Norris Mailer|"Norris Mailer"]] by Nancy Collins.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:35, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} thanks again. You’re tearing it up. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:32, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Rise Above It" Tribute Remediation ==

Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Rise Above It|"Rise Above It"]] by David Ebershoff—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 11:12, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} excellent. Many thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:15, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Additional Articles ==

Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have remediated [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Tributes_to_Norris_Church_Mailer/A_View_Through_the_Prism&oldid=18744|"A View Through the Prism"], [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Tributes_to_Norris_Church_Mailer/Lip_Liner|"Lip Liner"], and [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Living_Room_Show#|"The Living Room Show"] in Volume 5. They are ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 12:31, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|ADavis}} great work. Thank you! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:26, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Submission notification sent 29 March ==

@grlucas

Dr. Lucas - I sent a Talk Page notification that I had completed the page I remediated on 29 March. The table indicates I haven't done anything yet. I sent it from the Talk Page from the article site. I don't see a response from that notification, but I had received one from you earlier in the process.
I don't understand what happened.

[[User:LogansPop22|LogansPop22]] ([[User talk:LogansPop22|talk]]) 14:54, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|LogansPop22}} sorry if I missed that. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Hemingway and Women at the Front: Blowing Bridges in The Fifth Column, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Other Works|this article]], right? It's looking great, though all the parenthetical citations must be converted to footnotes using {{tl|sfn}} and some of the author names in your notes should use {{tl|harvtxt}}. I added the "citations" section for you. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Making Masculinity and Unmaking Jewishness: Norman Mailer’s Voice in Wild 90 and Beyond the Law ==

@Grlucas, I have made some additional edits to this [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Making_Masculinity_and_Unmaking_Jewishness:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Voice_in_Wild_90_and_Beyond_the_Law article] in Volume 5 by correcting most of the citations. There are 2 that still do not work, but I think that is because the sources are incomplete.

[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 21:16, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| TPoole}} Looking really good, and this is a complicated one. A couple of things: no spaces or line breaks before or after {{tl|pg}}; I removed the spaces before {{tl|sfn}}, but you might want to check them; there are some typos, like missing spaces before some parentheses; no footnotes should appear in the notes section: use {{tl|harvtxt}} instead. And all the red errors at the bottom need to be cleared up. Great work so far! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:00, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== Red Error-Gone ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}I have deleted all the sfn's and the red error is gone. I don't know why I didn't think about this days ago.

[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe|Gladstein-Monroe]]

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 23:07, 10 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} getting closer. A few things: you should use <code>|author-mask=1</code> for repeated author names in your works cited; all parenthetical citations need to be replaced with footnotes using {{tl|sfn}}; must punctuation in your sources need to be removed as the templates do that for you; and you need to use {{tl|harvtxt}} for citations in your endnotes. Also, letters and films have their own templates. I did a couple of these for you as examples. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:14, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

== "Remembering Norris" Tribute Remediation ==

Dr. Lucas, I have finished [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Remembering Norris|"Remembering Norris"]] by Margo Howard.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 09:20, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JHadaway}} excellent! Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Norman Mailer: From Orgone Accumulator to Cancer Protection for Schizophrenics ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review:
https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Norman_Mailer:_From_Orgone_Accumulator_to_Cancer_Protection_for_Schizophrenics

I was unable to find the correct format for the first works cited entry under Mailer. It is a reprint of a magazine article. Thank you. [[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 16:28, 12 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} you are a master remediator! Thank you for going above and beyond. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:44, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

==Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls, Trust & Sparring with Norman==
Dr. Lucas, these were some of the smaller ones, so I went ahead and knocked them out. They are ready for review: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Sparring with Norman|Sparring with Norman]], [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Trust|Trust]], and [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls|Tolls of War: Mailerian Sub-Texts in For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 10:27, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Kamyers}} all excellent—above and beyond! Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:56, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing'' ==

Hi everyone,
I am currently helping with the article, [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Death,_Art,_and_the_Disturbing:_Hemingway_and_Mailer_and_the_Art_of_Writing Death, Art, and the Disturbing: Hemingway and Mailer and the Art of Writing]. It still has a good bit to go, if anyone wants to help out.
—[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 5:17 PM, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} thanks! I added the author info. I'm not sure many will see your request; you might want to post it on the forum. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:56, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Thank you for adding the author information and I have posted the request in the forum. Thank you! —[[User:CVinson|CVinson]] ([[User talk:CVinson|talk]]) 6:53 PM, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Mimi and Mercer ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have corrected the Mimi Gladstein [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Piling On: Norman Mailer’s Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]] and removed all the red errors. I also have finishe the Erin Mercer article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead]], except the ''The Naked and the Dead'' in the display title. An error occured.
[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 19:26, 13 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work. There should be no footnotes in the endnotes, please. Since this is the only thing to correct, I have removed the banner, but please let me know when you made that final correction. Thanks! (I will respond about your second article shortly.) —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 14:59, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} your second article looks good. Could you use the [[w:Template:Cite interview|Template:Cite interview]] for interviews. I did one for you. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 16:33, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Through the Lens of the Beatniks Remediation ==

Hello, Dr. Lucas! I've completed the remediation of [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Through_the_Lens_of_the_Beatniks:_Norman_Mailer_and_Modern_American_Man’s_Quest_for_Self-Realization#CITEREFNaked1992|Through the Lens of the Beatniks]]. I wasn't able to get the letter citations exactly how I thought they should be. If there's anything I'm missing, please let me know! Thanks! [[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 10:09, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} got it! It looks great. I made some format changes, but you did a great job! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 15:58, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Finish Mimi ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}

I have made the final edit to Mimi and removed the footnotes from the endnotes. [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe]] [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 15:50, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you removed all the citations. Only '''footnotes''' need to be removed, but citations need to stay. I did the first note for you (now erased, but you can see it in the history) so you could see how it was done. You can also see [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer|this one]]. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 16:52, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed? All You Need is Glove ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe the book review, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/All_You_Need_is_Glove|All You Need is Glove]] is done and ready for review! [[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 19:10, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} awesome work! Banner removed, and many thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harv and Sfn no-target ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I changed the citations in the article to interview and I tried a few things to get rid of the Harv and Sfn no-target with little luck. [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Automatons_and_the_Atomic_Abyss:_The_Naked_and_the_Dead]]
[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:04, 14 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} this was because your interviews had no dates. Most are from Lennon's book, published in 1988. I added the dates to the citations, but the sfn footnotes need to be fixed to correspond with those. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:24, 16 April 2025 (EDT)
::{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} OK, between your fixes and my little tweaks, this one is finished! Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:50, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

== Erros fixed ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have fixed all citation errors in both articles and added the harvtxt. Atomic Abyss still has the Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls error.
[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Automatons_and_the_Atomic_Abyss:_The_Naked_and_the_Dead]]
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} see above. These still need fixing. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe]]
:{{Reply to|MerAtticus}} this one looks great! Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:35, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 08:23, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-17T19:11:27Z

DBond007: Removed quotes from around The Time Machine to match original article.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{Working}}
{{MR04}}
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions, but most often implies a simplistic, romantic look at the past. Nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews, while also discovering ways to maneuver within society. From this viewpoint, nostalgia can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past. Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique to add additional interpretive layers to their fiction. These authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{cquote|A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.|author=Norman Mailer{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} }}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

==Mailer Enters “The Time Machine”==
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by ''Time'' magazine,
''The Naked and the Dead'' launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|War|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|War|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise The Time Machine, Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, The Time Machine pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of The Time Machine essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

==Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway==
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views
The Time Machine sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite magazine |author= |date={{date|1948-05-10}} |title=War & No Peace. ''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer |url=https://normanmailer.us/war-no-peace-8ab28be074b2 |magazine=Time |pages= |access-date=2025-04-12 |ref={{SfnRef|War|1948}} }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-10T17:49:31Z

DBond007: Last update on quotation marks in subheading

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of nostalgia as technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters “The Time Machine”=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise “The Time Machine,” Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, “The Time Machine” pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of “The Time Machine” essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views
“The Time Machine” sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-10T17:47:45Z

DBond007:

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of nostalgia as technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise “The Time Machine,” Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, “The Time Machine” pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of “The Time Machine” essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views
“The Time Machine” sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-10T17:45:32Z

DBond007: Removed two remaining hyperlinks.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of nostalgia as technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise “The Time Machine,” Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, “The Time Machine” pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of “The Time Machine” essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views
“The Time Machine” sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-10T16:10:42Z

DBond007: /* Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review */

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-10T16:09:11Z

DBond007: Removed extra spacing throughout content. Updated all "'s to be typographical quotations.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia nostalgia] as technique in ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' and ''[[w:For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=http://prmlr.us/mr04bat}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: “A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simple-minded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to “the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across mediums, from blockbuster films, such as ''Forrest Gump'' or ''Titanic,'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “We cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological relationship to time.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically, that it strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history meaningful on a personal and collective level.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}} Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise “The Time Machine,” Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life. From this viewpoint, “The Time Machine” pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of “The Time Machine” essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei.{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.”{{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration. In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.”{{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit, and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when “[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.”{{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us,”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views
“The Time Machine” sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|15em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|20em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}
{{Refend}}

{{Review}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-10T15:30:39Z

DBond007: /* Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review */

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-08T20:17:47Z

DBond007: /* Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review */ new section

{{Talk header}}
[[/Archive 202504/]]

== Final edits ==

Dr. Lucas I have finished my assigned remediation article: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Jive-Ass_Aficionado:_Why_Are_We_in_Vietnam%3F_and_Hemingway%27s_Moral_Code#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHemingway2003-24
Username ADear.

Dr. Lucas, I have finished remediating my assigned article. Please review it at your earliest convenience. The link is here: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer's_Mythmaking_in_An_American_Dream_and_“The_White_Negro”|Norman Mailer's Mythmaking in An American Dream and “The White Negro”]]—[[User:Erhernandez|Erhernandez]] ([[User talk:Erhernandez|talk]]) 08:52, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Erhernandez}} well done! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. I removed your banner after making a few corrections. Please have a look over it and move on to the next thing. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:06, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I transferred and edited my article. Can you look at it and remove the banner? Here's the link: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Authorship_and_Alienation_in_Death_in_the_Afternoon_and_Advertisements_for_Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself]] ( [[User:APKnight25|APKnight25]] ([[User talk:APKnight25|talk]]) 13:02, 28 March 2025 (EDT) )
:{{Reply to| APKnight25}} looking good! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. Next, eliminate all "fang" quotes in the article and add “real quotation marks.” Your sources should be a bulleted list. And there should be no space before a citation. You’re almost finished! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:21, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Reinventing the Wheel" Mailer Article for Review ==

Dr. Lucas,

My [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Reinventing_a_New_Wheel:_The_Films_of_Norman_Mailer|article]] is ready for review.

Thank you!
[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 15:29, 29 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|TPoole}} great! Could you include a link to it? Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:07, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
::OK, I [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Reinventing a New Wheel: The Films of Norman Mailer|found it]]. Looking really good. Great work. There are some citation issues that need to be seen to. The two red categories at the bottom should not be there; they will go away when the citations errors are corrected. Eliminate any quotation mark "fangs" in the text and replace them with “real quotation marks.” Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:14, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:::@Grlucas, what are the citation issues? Which ones need correcting? [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 17:31, 31 March 2025 (EDT)
::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} When you click your citations, they should jump to the works cited entry they correspond to. Several of yours do not, indicated by the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” at the bottom. You also have a "CS1 maint: Unrecognized language" error that will likely be cleared up when you fix the citation issues. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:55, 1 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::@Grlucas, I have tried correcting the sfn codes in my citations. I was able to get the 2 web citations to link correctly. But for some reason, I cannot get the Mailer 1967 film Wild 90 citation to link to the reference list. Please advise. [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 20:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} OK, all fixed and published. Thanks. Please move on to another remediation. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:46, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of: "Contradictory Syntheses: Norman Mailer’s Left Conservatism and the Problematic of 'Totalitarianism'" ==

Dr. Lucas

I finished the remediation of the following article:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Contradictory_Syntheses:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Left_Conservatism_and_the_Problematic_of_%E2%80%9CTotalitarianism%E2%80%9D

It is ready for your review. Thank you.
[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 19:04, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} looks great. I made some tweaks to the references and some throughout, like changing ' and " to real apostrophes and quotation marks. A bit more clean-up, but you might want to check over it again. I removed the under-construction banner. Well one. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:32, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edit ==

Thank you for your comments on my remediation of
"[[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself.]]"

I've eliminated the "fang quotes" and changed them to “real quotation marks.” This was a very fascinating tip that taught me something new. It's something I've never noticed before but now always will.

I also put my sources in a bulleted list and removed the space before the citations. I think I'm all set now.
:{{Reply to|APKnight25}} great work! Please help other editors to complete the volume. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:34, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer'' ==

[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]

Hi Dr. Lucas,

I believe I have done everything for the Remediation of my article. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

I will also link the article below:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Firearms_in_the_Works_of_Hemingway_and_Mailer

Thank you,
Caitlin Vinson
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} great work so far. Your references must use templates, please. Blockquotes must also be done correctly. No spaces or line breaks before or after the {{tl|pg}} template. Footnote placement is also off (punctuation goes before the footnote; no spaces before or after the footnote). I will add the abstract and url. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:30, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe there have been some updates made to the project. I believe I have also updated the works cited section to show correct templates. Please let me know if there is anything further that I need to do. Thank you, Caitlin.
::{{reply to| CVinson}} please sign your talk page posts correctly. Thanks. You still need to do some work on the sources. Use the <code>|author-mask=1</code> in your template for repeated author names. Also, you must eliminate the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” message at the bottom. No spaces or returns before or after the {{tl|pg}} call, as I already mentioned above. No parenthetical citations should be left, either; those should all be remediated to footnotes. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:50, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norman Mailer Today'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up my remediation article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Norman Mailer Today|Norman Mailer Today]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 18:20, 3 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Kamyers}} Great work! Please help your fellow editors finish the volume, or pick something to work on in [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010|Volume 4]]. Thanks, and well done. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:00, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of “The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’” ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished my remediation of Jennifer Yirinec's article: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”|The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.”]] Thank you for your assistance with the article. It is ready for its final review! [[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 10:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} a stellar job. Well done. I removed the banner, so you can move on to another article. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:12, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediations ==
Dr. Lucas, I have begun work on the tributes for volume 5. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Grace Notes|Grace Notes]] by Stephen Borkowski is ready for its final review.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 12:58, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} Well done! Banner removed, url added. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:18, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

==Oohh Normie Final Edits==
Hi Dr. Lucas, I have finished my article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/"Oohh_Normie_—_You're_Sooo_Hemingway":_Mailer_Memories_and_Encounters|Oohh Normie, You're Sooo Hemingway]]. Please let me know if there is anything I need to fix. [[User:Tbara4554|Tbara4554]] ([[User talk:Tbara4554|talk]]) 20:01, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Tbara4554}} thank you. I made some corrections and removed the banner. You might want to have another look over it. Please move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:53, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review. Thanks.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Harlot%27s_Ghost,_Bildungsroman,_Masculinity_and_Hemingway

[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 21:22, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} excellent. Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:39, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== I am done with this ==

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Situating_Hemingway:_Mailer,_Style,_Ethics
:Received. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:29, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Review PM Article ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Hemingway_to_Mailer_—_A_Delayed_Response_to_The_Deer_Park|here]] is my remediated article, ready for review![[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 12:21, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} great work. I have removed the banner, so you are good to move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:20, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have finished my remedidation project and I am ready for it to be reviewed. '''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]

Thanks,

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 13:04, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work so far. Please remove wikilinks. Change ' and " to typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. And all red errors at the bottom of the page need to be taken care of. These are likely all from coding errors in your sources. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:24, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have removed the wikilinks, changed to the correct typographic style and updated my sources.
'''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe] Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:55, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

[I forgot to fill out the summary box. I am adding my summary]
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you're getting there! It looks great. You must eliminate all the red errors at the bottom. These appear when there are errors in your citations. Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:15, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

@{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything I can think of and I still have harv and sfn no-target errors and harv and sfn multiple-target errors and cs1 uses editors parameter. Do I not include the editor? [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 16:03, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Submission ==

Hello!
Here's my remediated article; [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Devil's_Party:_Reading_and_Wreaking_Vengeance_in_The_Castle_in_the_Forest|The Devil's Party: Reading and Wreaking Vengeance in ''The Castle in the Forest'']].
Thanks! Please let me know if there's anything I can review or correct.
[[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 13:23, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} nice work! Banner removed, so please move on to something else in the volume. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Vol. 4: Rumors of Grace article remediated ==

I believe I have completed remediation of ''[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Rumors_of_Grace:_God-Language_in_Hemingway_and_Mailer|Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer]]'', vol. 4. I was having last-minute trouble with sfn errors for sources without authors, but Justin Kilchenmann helped me out, so I think they are fixed.
:{{Reply to|Sherrilledwards}} You have done a remarkable job—a real Herculean effort! Footnotes should not go in any notes. See those I changed; the others should be changed in the same way. I have done some, but the others have to be fixed, I'm afraid. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Inside Norman Mailer ==

Hi Dr. Lucas - I have finished remediating the article, [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]]. Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments. Thank you! [[User:Chelsey.brantley|Chelsey.brantley]] ([[User talk:Chelsey.brantley|talk]]) 18:09, 7 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Chelsey.brantley}} good work! Please help with another article from volume 4. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:36, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed: Norman Mailer: Playboy Magazine ==

I hope I am doing this is right. I have finished remediating my article about Norman Mailer and its in my designated sandbox [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer:_Playboy_Magazine_Heavyweight here.]
If there are any last minute edits, let me know. I got the last of the errors removed yesterday. And I believe we are on the same page with leaving the in-line citations for ''Playboy'' to be as is, since the author didn't put them down in the works cited. [[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)Nina Mizner
:{{Reply to|NrmMGA5108}} looking good! So, the parenthetical citations still in the article, I'm assuming, are there because of those missing sources? Please check your page numbers; some seem to be off. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:04, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Remediation From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity? ==

Greeting Dr. Lucas,

I have made the adjustment that you mentioned.

I also made additional edits to my short footnotes and noticed that my citations did not link to my references - which has been fixed.

I have tested all of my citations, and they all work.

Here is my article by Alexander Hicks, ''From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity?''

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/From_Here_to_Eternity_and_The_Naked_and_the_Dead:_Premiere_to_Eternity%3F

Have a great day.
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} Please always sign your talk page posts. Several “quoted items” in the article appear as ‘quoted items’; these must be corrected, please. No spaces or returns should surround {{tl|pg}} calls. Multiple page numbers should look like this <code><nowiki>{{sfn|Moretti|1996|pp=11-14}}</nowiki></code>; note the double <code>pp</code>. There seem to be many typos. I corrected some for you, but you must see to the rest. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:16, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for “Footnote to Death in the Afternoon” ==

Greetings Dr. Lucus,

My article is ready for your review. Thank you.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%9CFootnote_to_Death_in_the_Afternoon%E2%80%9D)
:{{Reply to| KForeman}} it's coming along. Please ''always'' sign your talk page posts. Right up top, there are errors. Please use the real {{tl|pg}}, like all the other articles. Citations need to be fixed. All parenthetical citations must be converted. You still have quite a bit of work to do. All red sections need to be seen to and corrected. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

=Remediation of "Cluster Seeds and the Mailer Legacy"=
Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have completed the remediation of [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Cluster_Seeds_and_the_Mailer_Legacy&oldid=18200| my article], and it is ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 11:32, 8 April 2025 (EDT)@ADavis

== Remediating Article: Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing Volume 4. ==

Hello Dr. Lucas,

I have completed remediating my article. Here is the link [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|The Mailer Review: Volume 4: Mailer, Hemingway, Boxing (2010)]] [[User:JBrown|JBrown]] ([[User talk:JBrown|talk]]) 13:01, 8 April 2025 (EDT)JBrown

== Remediation for ''Norris Church Mailer'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up remediating the article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 13:42, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edits Completed and Ready for Review ==

Dr. Lucas, I have completed my assigned remediation article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Looking_at_the_Past:_Nostalgia_as_Technique_in_The_Naked_and_the_Dead_and_For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls|Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. Please review at your convenience. I enjoyed working on this assignment. I look forward to your suggestions and feedback. All the best, Danielle (DBond007)

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-08T20:16:02Z

DBond007: /* Final edits */

User talk:Grlucas

2025-04-08T20:14:22Z

DBond007: /* Final edits */

{{Talk header}}
[[/Archive 202504/]]

== Final edits ==
Dr. Lucas, I have completed my assigned remediation article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Looking_at_the_Past:_Nostalgia_as_Technique_in_The_Naked_and_the_Dead_and_For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls|Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls]]. Please review at your convenience. I enjoyed working on this assignment. I look forward to your suggestions and feedback. All the best, Danielle (DBond007)

Dr. Lucas I have finished my assigned remediation article: https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Jive-Ass_Aficionado:_Why_Are_We_in_Vietnam%3F_and_Hemingway%27s_Moral_Code#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHemingway2003-24
Username ADear.

Dr. Lucas, I have finished remediating my assigned article. Please review it at your earliest convenience. The link is here: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer's_Mythmaking_in_An_American_Dream_and_“The_White_Negro”|Norman Mailer's Mythmaking in An American Dream and “The White Negro”]]—[[User:Erhernandez|Erhernandez]] ([[User talk:Erhernandez|talk]]) 08:52, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Erhernandez}} well done! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. I removed your banner after making a few corrections. Please have a look over it and move on to the next thing. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:06, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

Dr. Lucas, I transferred and edited my article. Can you look at it and remove the banner? Here's the link: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Authorship_and_Alienation_in_Death_in_the_Afternoon_and_Advertisements_for_Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself]] ( [[User:APKnight25|APKnight25]] ([[User talk:APKnight25|talk]]) 13:02, 28 March 2025 (EDT) )
:{{Reply to| APKnight25}} looking good! A couple of things: never bury your talk page post. Put it at the bottom, preferably in its own section by clicking "Add topic" on the top-right. Next, eliminate all "fang" quotes in the article and add “real quotation marks.” Your sources should be a bulleted list. And there should be no space before a citation. You’re almost finished! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:21, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Reinventing the Wheel" Mailer Article for Review ==

Dr. Lucas,

My [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Reinventing_a_New_Wheel:_The_Films_of_Norman_Mailer|article]] is ready for review.

Thank you!
[[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 15:29, 29 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|TPoole}} great! Could you include a link to it? Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:07, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
::OK, I [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Reinventing a New Wheel: The Films of Norman Mailer|found it]]. Looking really good. Great work. There are some citation issues that need to be seen to. The two red categories at the bottom should not be there; they will go away when the citations errors are corrected. Eliminate any quotation mark "fangs" in the text and replace them with “real quotation marks.” Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 11:14, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:::@Grlucas, what are the citation issues? Which ones need correcting? [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 17:31, 31 March 2025 (EDT)
::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} When you click your citations, they should jump to the works cited entry they correspond to. Several of yours do not, indicated by the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” at the bottom. You also have a "CS1 maint: Unrecognized language" error that will likely be cleared up when you fix the citation issues. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:55, 1 April 2025 (EDT)
:::::@Grlucas, I have tried correcting the sfn codes in my citations. I was able to get the 2 web citations to link correctly. But for some reason, I cannot get the Mailer 1967 film Wild 90 citation to link to the reference list. Please advise. [[User:TPoole|TPoole]] ([[User talk:TPoole|talk]]) 20:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
::::::{{Reply to| TPoole}} OK, all fixed and published. Thanks. Please move on to another remediation. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:46, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of: "Contradictory Syntheses: Norman Mailer’s Left Conservatism and the Problematic of 'Totalitarianism'" ==

Dr. Lucas

I finished the remediation of the following article:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Contradictory_Syntheses:_Norman_Mailer%E2%80%99s_Left_Conservatism_and_the_Problematic_of_%E2%80%9CTotalitarianism%E2%80%9D

It is ready for your review. Thank you.
[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 19:04, 30 March 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} looks great. I made some tweaks to the references and some throughout, like changing ' and " to real apostrophes and quotation marks. A bit more clean-up, but you might want to check over it again. I removed the under-construction banner. Well one. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 21:32, 30 March 2025 (EDT)

== Final Edit ==

Thank you for your comments on my remediation of
"[[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself|Authorship and Alienation in Death in the Afternoon and Advertisements for Myself.]]"

I've eliminated the "fang quotes" and changed them to “real quotation marks.” This was a very fascinating tip that taught me something new. It's something I've never noticed before but now always will.

I also put my sources in a bulleted list and removed the space before the citations. I think I'm all set now.
:{{Reply to|APKnight25}} great work! Please help other editors to complete the volume. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:34, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Firearms in the Works of Hemingway and Mailer'' ==

[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]]

Hi Dr. Lucas,

I believe I have done everything for the Remediation of my article. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do.

I will also link the article below:

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Firearms_in_the_Works_of_Hemingway_and_Mailer

Thank you,
Caitlin Vinson
:{{Reply to|CVinson}} great work so far. Your references must use templates, please. Blockquotes must also be done correctly. No spaces or line breaks before or after the {{tl|pg}} template. Footnote placement is also off (punctuation goes before the footnote; no spaces before or after the footnote). I will add the abstract and url. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:30, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

:{{Reply to|Grlucas}} Hi Dr. Lucas, I believe there have been some updates made to the project. I believe I have also updated the works cited section to show correct templates. Please let me know if there is anything further that I need to do. Thank you, Caitlin.
::{{reply to| CVinson}} please sign your talk page posts correctly. Thanks. You still need to do some work on the sources. Use the <code>|author-mask=1</code> in your template for repeated author names. Also, you must eliminate the red “Harv and Sfn no-target errors” message at the bottom. No spaces or returns before or after the {{tl|pg}} call, as I already mentioned above. No parenthetical citations should be left, either; those should all be remediated to footnotes. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:50, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for ''Norman Mailer Today'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up my remediation article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Norman Mailer Today|Norman Mailer Today]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 18:20, 3 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Kamyers}} Great work! Please help your fellow editors finish the volume, or pick something to work on in [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010|Volume 4]]. Thanks, and well done. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:00, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of “The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s ‘Hills Like White Elephants’” ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished my remediation of Jennifer Yirinec's article: [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”|The Conception of Irreversibility: Hannah Arendt and Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.”]] Thank you for your assistance with the article. It is ready for its final review! [[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 10:24, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} a stellar job. Well done. I removed the banner, so you can move on to another article. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:12, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

== Tribute Remediations ==
Dr. Lucas, I have begun work on the tributes for volume 5. [[The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Tributes to Norris Church Mailer/Grace Notes|Grace Notes]] by Stephen Borkowski is ready for its final review.—[[User:JHadaway|JHadaway]] ([[User talk:JHadaway|talk]]) 12:58, 4 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|JHadaway}} Well done! Banner removed, url added. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 08:18, 5 April 2025 (EDT)

==Oohh Normie Final Edits==
Hi Dr. Lucas, I have finished my article: [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/"Oohh_Normie_—_You're_Sooo_Hemingway":_Mailer_Memories_and_Encounters|Oohh Normie, You're Sooo Hemingway]]. Please let me know if there is anything I need to fix. [[User:Tbara4554|Tbara4554]] ([[User talk:Tbara4554|talk]]) 20:01, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{reply to|Tbara4554}} thank you. I made some corrections and removed the banner. You might want to have another look over it. Please move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:53, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Harlot's Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway ==

Dr. Lucas,

The following article is ready for your review. Thanks.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Harlot%27s_Ghost,_Bildungsroman,_Masculinity_and_Hemingway

[[User:JKilchenmann|JKilchenmann]] ([[User talk:JKilchenmann|talk]]) 21:22, 5 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| JKilchenmann}} excellent. Thank you. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:39, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== I am done with this ==

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Situating_Hemingway:_Mailer,_Style,_Ethics
:Received. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:29, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

== Final Review PM Article ==

Hi Dr. Lucas, [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Hemingway_to_Mailer_—_A_Delayed_Response_to_The_Deer_Park|here]] is my remediated article, ready for review![[User:Hobbitonya|Hobbitonya]] ([[User talk:Hobbitonya|talk]]) 12:21, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Hobbitonya}} great work. I have removed the banner, so you are good to move on to something else. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:20, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Project ==

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have finished my remedidation project and I am ready for it to be reviewed. '''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe]

Thanks,

[[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 13:04, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} good work so far. Please remove wikilinks. Change ' and " to typographical apostrophes and quotation marks. And all red errors at the bottom of the page need to be taken care of. These are likely all from coding errors in your sources. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:24, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

{{reply to|Grlucas}}
I have removed the wikilinks, changed to the correct typographic style and updated my sources.
'''Article link''': [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Piling_On:_Norman_Mailer’s_Utilization_of_Marilyn_Monroe#Works_Cited|Piling On: Norman Mailer's Utilization of Marilyn Monroe] Thanks, [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 21:55, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

[I forgot to fill out the summary box. I am adding my summary]
:{{Reply to| MerAtticus}} you're getting there! It looks great. You must eliminate all the red errors at the bottom. These appear when there are errors in your citations. Let me know if you need help. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:15, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

@{{reply to|Grlucas}} I have tried everything I can think of and I still have harv and sfn no-target errors and harv and sfn multiple-target errors and cs1 uses editors parameter. Do I not include the editor? [[User:MerAtticus|MerAtticus]] ([[User talk:MerAtticus|talk]]) 16:03, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation Submission ==

Hello!
Here's my remediated article; [[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/The_Devil's_Party:_Reading_and_Wreaking_Vengeance_in_The_Castle_in_the_Forest|The Devil's Party: Reading and Wreaking Vengeance in ''The Castle in the Forest'']].
Thanks! Please let me know if there's anything I can review or correct.
[[User:Maggiemrogers|Maggiemrogers]] ([[User talk:Maggiemrogers|talk]]) 13:23, 6 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to| Maggiemrogers}} nice work! Banner removed, so please move on to something else in the volume. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 07:39, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

== Vol. 4: Rumors of Grace article remediated ==

I believe I have completed remediation of ''[[The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Rumors_of_Grace:_God-Language_in_Hemingway_and_Mailer|Rumors of Grace: God-Language in Hemingway and Mailer]]'', vol. 4. I was having last-minute trouble with sfn errors for sources without authors, but Justin Kilchenmann helped me out, so I think they are fixed.
:{{Reply to|Sherrilledwards}} You have done a remarkable job—a real Herculean effort! Footnotes should not go in any notes. See those I changed; the others should be changed in the same way. I have done some, but the others have to be fixed, I'm afraid. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation of "Inside Norman Mailer ==

Hi Dr. Lucas - I have finished remediating the article, [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Inside Norman Mailer|Inside Norman Mailer]]. Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments. Thank you! [[User:Chelsey.brantley|Chelsey.brantley]] ([[User talk:Chelsey.brantley|talk]]) 18:09, 7 April 2025 (EDT)
:{{Reply to|Chelsey.brantley}} good work! Please help with another article from volume 4. Thanks! —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 09:36, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed: Norman Mailer: Playboy Magazine ==

I hope I am doing this is right. I have finished remediating my article about Norman Mailer and its in my designated sandbox [https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Norman_Mailer:_Playboy_Magazine_Heavyweight here.]
If there are any last minute edits, let me know. I got the last of the errors removed yesterday. And I believe we are on the same page with leaving the in-line citations for ''Playboy'' to be as is, since the author didn't put them down in the works cited. [[User:NrmMGA5108|NrmMGA5108]] ([[User talk:NrmMGA5108|talk]]) 20:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)Nina Mizner
:{{Reply to|NrmMGA5108}} looking good! So, the parenthetical citations still in the article, I'm assuming, are there because of those missing sources? Please check your page numbers; some seem to be off. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:04, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Completed Remediation From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity? ==

Greeting Dr. Lucas,

I have made the adjustment that you mentioned.

I also made additional edits to my short footnotes and noticed that my citations did not link to my references - which has been fixed.

I have tested all of my citations, and they all work.

Here is my article by Alexander Hicks, ''From Here to Eternity and The Naked and The Dead: Premier to Eternity?''

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/From_Here_to_Eternity_and_The_Naked_and_the_Dead:_Premiere_to_Eternity%3F

Have a great day.
:{{Reply to| THarrell}} Please always sign your talk page posts. Several “quoted items” in the article appear as ‘quoted items’; these must be corrected, please. No spaces or returns should surround {{tl|pg}} calls. Multiple page numbers should look like this <code><nowiki>{{sfn|Moretti|1996|pp=11-14}}</nowiki></code>; note the double <code>pp</code>. There seem to be many typos. I corrected some for you, but you must see to the rest. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:16, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

== Remediation for “Footnote to Death in the Afternoon” ==

Greetings Dr. Lucus,

My article is ready for your review. Thank you.

https://projectmailer.net/pm/The_Mailer_Review/Volume_4,_2010/Mailer%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%9CFootnote_to_Death_in_the_Afternoon%E2%80%9D)
:{{Reply to| KForeman}} it's coming along. Please ''always'' sign your talk page posts. Right up top, there are errors. Please use the real {{tl|pg}}, like all the other articles. Citations need to be fixed. All parenthetical citations must be converted. You still have quite a bit of work to do. All red sections need to be seen to and corrected. Thanks. —[[User:Grlucas|Grlucas]] ([[User talk:Grlucas|talk]]) 10:20, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

=Remediation of "Cluster Seeds and the Mailer Legacy"=
Hello, Dr. Lucas. I have completed the remediation of [https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=The_Mailer_Review/Volume_5,_2011/Cluster_Seeds_and_the_Mailer_Legacy&oldid=18200| my article], and it is ready for your review. Thank you!—[[User:ADavis|ADavis]] ([[User talk:ADavis|talk]]) 11:32, 8 April 2025 (EDT)@ADavis

== Remediating Article: Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing Volume 4. ==

Hello Dr. Lucas,

I have completed remediating my article. Here is the link [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Mailer, Hemingway, and Boxing|The Mailer Review: Volume 4: Mailer, Hemingway, Boxing (2010)]] [[User:JBrown|JBrown]] ([[User talk:JBrown|talk]]) 13:01, 8 April 2025 (EDT)JBrown

== Remediation for ''Norris Church Mailer'' ==
Dr. Lucas, I have finished up remediating the article [[The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Norris Church Mailer|Norris Church Mailer]], and it is ready for review. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you! —[[User:Kamyers|Kamyers]] ([[User talk:Kamyers|talk]]) 13:42, 8 April 2025 (EDT)

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-08T19:49:01Z

DBond007: Finished up citations. Edited for consistency.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia nostalgia] as technique in ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' and ''[[w:For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=. . .}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: "A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.” {{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simpleminded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past
through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity, used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to
“the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across
mediums, from blockbuster films, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump ''Forrest Gump''] or ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film) Titanic]'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan Ronald Reagan], or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s [https://politicaldictionary.com/words/camelot/ Camelot].

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain
the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “we cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological
relationship to time”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking
measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically that it
strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn
for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach
to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the
myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history
meaningful on a personal and collective level” {{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=3}}. Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten
and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in ''The Naked and the Dead'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}} At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which takes the reader to events in the men’s lives before their service. While ''Time'' off handedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall tone and interpretation of the novel.{{sfn|"War"|1948|}}

In the ten stories that comprise "The Time Machine," Mailer offers the
reader details regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life.
From this viewpoint, "The Time Machine" pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism, such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet.” {{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=222}} With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields.” {{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=226}} Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of "The Time Machine" essays and ''The Naked and the Dead'' as a whole. But to consider them nothing
more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research, seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel
Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei. {{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told ''The New York Times'' that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism.” {{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}} Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with
The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological
agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s Time Machine section, titled “The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration.
In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and passive mother. During college, though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways but lost. He tells one girlfriend, “I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around.” {{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=349}} Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the
world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to
a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future
still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you.” {{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of
his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood.” {{sfn|Mailer|1948|p=353}} A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war, corrupt politics, and flawed humanity.” {{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit,
and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a
means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains, when“[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that
the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared
in 1940. So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot.” {{sfn|Solow|2009|p=1166}} Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As
an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning.” {{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=465}} Given
that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of
the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the
bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=4}}

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war”.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time.”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards”.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=148}} Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=108}} Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us”{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}}, points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village”.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there”.{{sfn|Hemingway|1940|p=147}} The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.{{sfn|Janover|2000|p=115}}

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and its immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization.”{{sfn|Sprengler|2009|p=16}} Leigh, for example, then views 'The Time Machine' sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown to be static and unchanging.”{{sfn|Leigh|1987|p=427}} Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one
direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and
memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated.”{{sfn|Charnes|2009|pp=74-75}} Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|40em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace| | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}

{{Review|state=expanded}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-08T18:36:02Z

DBond007: /* Works Cited */

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia nostalgia] as technique in ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' and ''[[w:For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=. . .}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: "A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.” {{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simpleminded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past
through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity, used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to
“the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across
mediums, from blockbuster films, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump ''Forrest Gump''] or ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film) Titanic]'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan Ronald Reagan], or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s [https://politicaldictionary.com/words/camelot/ Camelot].

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain
the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “we cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological
relationship to time”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking
measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically that it
strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn
for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach
to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the
myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history
meaningful on a personal and collective level” (). Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews, while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten
and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help
the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the
storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret
broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career (“War”). At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the
men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which
takes the reader to events in the men’s lives prior to their service.While Time
offhandedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos
Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are
not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall
tone and interpretation of the novel (“War”).

In the ten stories that comprise The Time Machine, Mailer offers the
reader detail regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life.
From this viewpoint, The Time Machine pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism,such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet” (). With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields” (). Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of The Time Machine essays and The Naked and the Dead as a whole. But to consider them nothing
more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research,seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel
Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei (). Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told The New
York Times that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism” (Breit ). Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with
The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological
agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s
Time Machine section,titled“The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration.
In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and
passive mother. During college though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways, but lost. He tells one girlfriend,
“I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around” (). Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the
world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to
a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future
still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you” (). But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of
his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood” (). A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war,
corrupt politics, and flawed humanity” (). The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit,
and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a
means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in For Whom the Bell Tolls
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains,when“[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that
the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared
in . So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot” (). Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As
an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning” (). Given
that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of
the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the
bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war” (). He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time” (). In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards” (). Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains (). Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us” (), points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village” (). The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there” (). The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” () can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization” (). Leigh, for example, then views 'The Time Machine' sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown
to be static and unchanging” (). Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one
direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and
memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated” (–
). Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|40em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace| | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}

{{Review|state=expanded}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-08T18:35:04Z

DBond007: /* Works Cited */

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia nostalgia] as technique in ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' and ''[[w:For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=. . .}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: "A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.” {{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simpleminded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past
through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity, used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to
“the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across
mediums, from blockbuster films, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump ''Forrest Gump''] or ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film) Titanic]'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan Ronald Reagan], or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s [https://politicaldictionary.com/words/camelot/ Camelot].

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain
the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “we cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological
relationship to time”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking
measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically that it
strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn
for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach
to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the
myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history
meaningful on a personal and collective level” (). Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews, while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten
and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help
the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the
storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret
broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career (“War”). At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the
men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which
takes the reader to events in the men’s lives prior to their service.While Time
offhandedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos
Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are
not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall
tone and interpretation of the novel (“War”).

In the ten stories that comprise The Time Machine, Mailer offers the
reader detail regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life.
From this viewpoint, The Time Machine pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism,such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet” (). With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields” (). Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of The Time Machine essays and The Naked and the Dead as a whole. But to consider them nothing
more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research,seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel
Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei (). Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told The New
York Times that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism” (Breit ). Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with
The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological
agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s
Time Machine section,titled“The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration.
In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and
passive mother. During college though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways, but lost. He tells one girlfriend,
“I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around” (). Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the
world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to
a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future
still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you” (). But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of
his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood” (). A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war,
corrupt politics, and flawed humanity” (). The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit,
and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a
means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in For Whom the Bell Tolls
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains,when“[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that
the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared
in . So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot” (). Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As
an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning” (). Given
that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of
the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the
bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war” (). He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time” (). In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards” (). Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains (). Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us” (), points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village” (). The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there” (). The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” () can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization” (). Leigh, for example, then views 'The Time Machine' sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown
to be static and unchanging” (). Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one
direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and
memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated” (–
). Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|40em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace| | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}
* {{cite journal |date= |title=War & No Peace| | journal=''Rev. of'' The Naked and The Dead, ''by Norman Mailer. Time. ''Time Inc.'', 10 May 1948. Web. 30 March 2010. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804699,00. }}

{{Review|state=expanded}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-04-08T18:12:33Z

DBond007: Added headers, content. Finished Works Cited. Working on citations.

{{DISPLAYTITLE:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/{{SUBPAGENAME}}}}
{{MR04}}
{{Working}} 
{{byline|last=Batchelor|first=Bob|abstract=An examination of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia nostalgia] as technique in ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' and ''[[w:For Whom the Bell Tolls|For Whom the Bell Tolls]]''. |url=. . .}}
{{dc|dc=B|reit quotes Mailer in ''The New York Times'' in 1951}}: "A great writer always goes to the root, he is always coming up with the contradictions, the impasses, the insoluble dilemmas of the particular time he lives in. The result is not to cement society but to question it and destroy it.” {{sfn|Breit|1951|p=20}}

Nostalgia is a contested word that evokes numerous, often conflicting, definitions depending on its context. In contemporary usage, however, the term most often implies a romantic look at the past, as if history’s difficulties have been bleached out of existence. Through nostalgia, people can make sense of the past in a highly personal way, essentially crafting or re-creating narratives that fit into their broader ideas about self and society. The tendency, however, is to consider this use simpleminded.

What I call the “nostalgic attraction” or the desire to examine the past
through rose-colored lenses has become a vital component of popular culture. The general craving for nostalgia has transformed the idea into a commodity, used to advertise, market, and sell products by invoking a return to
“the good ole’ days.” The nostalgic idea also drives mass culture. There are
numerous examples of nostalgia assuming a kind of starring role across
mediums, from blockbuster films, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump ''Forrest Gump''] or ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film) Titanic]'' to popular television shows, music, books, and fashion. Nostalgia is also closely associated with certain presidents, such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan Ronald Reagan], or with presidential eras, like John F. Kennedy’s [https://politicaldictionary.com/words/camelot/ Camelot].

Much of nostalgia’s allure is in providing people with a way to explain
the past in favorable terms, a kind of self-persuasion or possibly even delusion. According to Linda Charnes, “we cannot, nor would we want to, abandon the important project of understanding how people lived in times before
ours—what they experienced in their own cultural present”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} She contends, however, that scholars also need to “acknowledge the inherent limitations of the cognitive framework that continues to organize our ideological
relationship to time”.{{sfn|Charnes|2009|p=73}} Since life unfolds in chronological terms, taking
measure of past milestones or events seems logical. Yet, when given a fanciful spin, nostalgia is less history and more fairytale.

Despite the overriding negativity surrounding nostalgia—basically that it
strips history of its complexities and enables individuals and society to yearn
for a mythical past—a careful examination uncovers a different approach
to looking at the past. From this alternative perspective, nostalgia can be interpreted as a positive force. Or, as Christine Sprengler explains, “[nostalgia] tells us something about our own historical consciousness, about the
myths we construct and circulate and about our desire to make history
meaningful on a personal and collective level” (). Rather than simply brushing it off as a form of camp or romanticism, I argue that nostalgia is a central component in enabling individuals to create worldviews, while also
discovering ways to maneuver within society. Nostalgia, then, can enlighten
and provide nuance as one interprets the past.

In this essay, I focus on how Norman Mailer and Ernest Hemingway use
nostalgia in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls as a literary technique. In each, nostalgia is deliberately invoked as a means to help
the reader understand or contextualize the narrative. As a result, nostalgia
fills in chronological gaps in the texts, thus pulling readers deeper into the
storylines. Hemingway and Mailer are also able to use nostalgia to interpret
broader societal issues.

It may be challenging to break from the common notion of interpreting
nostalgia as a silly distraction, particularly in contrast to the more difficult work of understanding the authentic past. Yet, what Mailer and Hemingway demonstrate is that nostalgia can be used, even with a touch of sentimentality, to add additional interpretive layers to fiction. Taking nostalgia seriously, the authors expand on the term and demonstrate its potential in advancing historical insight.

=Mailer Enters "The Time Machine"=
Boldly declared “the best novel yet about World War II” by Time magazine,
The Naked and the Dead launched Mailer’s career (“War”). At twenty-five, the author stood atop the literary world, with fame and wealth at his side. The enduring power of the book, however, is its exploration beyond the traditional scope of the war novel. Rather than cast the battle as simply one of good versus evil, Mailer penetrates deeply into issues at humanity’s core. He showcases both the horror and humor of war, wadding it into a single existential romp through the jungles of tiny Pacific island Anopopei.

One of the interesting techniques Mailer uses in exploring the lives of the
men fighting on the island is a device he calls “The Time Machine,” which
takes the reader to events in the men’s lives prior to their service.While Time
offhandedly labeled these simply “flashbacks” and likened them to John Dos
Passos’ use of realistic snapshots in the U.S.A. trilogy, Mailer’s portraits are
not toss-off pieces, but instead provide information central to the overall
tone and interpretation of the novel (“War”).

In the ten stories that comprise The Time Machine, Mailer offers the
reader detail regarding each subject’s life before the Army, essentially establishing a link between the person’s past and present. Many of them reveal
the men at their most base—actors operating within the gritty drama of life.
From this viewpoint, The Time Machine pieces point toward Mailer’s predecessors in American naturalism,such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris. However, there is a nostalgic strain that runs through them as well. The combination of realism and nostalgia displays the young author’s skill in storytelling and purposely crafting an impression for the reader, as if hinting toward a nostalgic past within the naturalistic framework is a way of lessening the violence and disparity in these sections.

For example, Mailer shows Red Valsen’s duality, almost lovingly describing him as having “an expression of concentrated contempt” and “tired eyes, a rather painful blue . . . quiet” (). With deft writing, Mailer also creates the suffocating Montana mines of the man’s youth, as well as the open road
he craves, with the unnamed narrator explaining, “To a kid from a mining
town, getting drunk in a flatcar on Saturday night is still fun. The horizon extends for a million miles over the silver cornfields” (). Without resorting to the fake sentimentality that marks the contemporary definition of nostalgia, Mailer uses the great American myth/nostalgic view of the open road
as a tool to elicit a specific feeling from the reader. His style—the “silver cornfields”—acts as an additional character as the reader travels through Valsen’s remembered past.

Mailer certainly understood the realist aspects of The Time Machine essays and The Naked and the Dead as a whole. But to consider them nothing
more than simple reportage, or “massive amounts of research,seemingly assembled rather than written . . . in a crude unexpanded note form,” as Nigel
Leigh describes them, is a terrible injustice to the part they play in clarifying
each man’s past and adding context to the group’s role in the attack on
Anopopei (). Three years after publishing the novel, Mailer told The New
York Times that he respected, but felt hamstrung, by “that terrible word naturalism” (Breit ). Obviously, for the author, there was more at stake with
The Time Machine pieces than simply pushing a political or ideological
agenda.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given Mailer’s years at Harvard, Robert Hearn’s
Time Machine section,titled“The Addled Womb,” is the deepest exploration.
In this piece, Mailer allows Hearn to use his past as a springboard in becoming a different person. At first, Hearn looks back on his past with nostalgic feelings, despite his difficult relationship with his bullying father and
passive mother. During college though, the young man goes through a transformation. He emerges wiser in many ways, but lost. He tells one girlfriend,
“I don’t feel sick. I just feel blank . . . superior, I don’t give a damn, I’m just
waiting around” (). Hearn becomes so enmeshed in the sensitivities of the
world that he himself disappears in the process.

At the end of the Hearn section, the man sets off on a troop transport
from San Francisco and looks back at the city lights. Hearn’s mind drifts to
a nostalgic vision of the past, to his time as a younger man when the future
still looked promising, “the power that leaped at you, invited you” (). But,
when examining his generation, he concedes “all the bright young people of
his youth had butted their heads, smashed against things until they got
weaker and the things still stood” (). A scion of the Midwest with unlimited resources, he is nonetheless beaten. In his defeat, he becomes part of the institution that he flailed against.

=Authenticity Versus Nostalgia in Hemingway=
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway’s tale of guerrilla warfare in the Spanish mountains as seen through the eyes of American professor Robert Jordan, according to Michael K. Solow, “can be read as an indictment of war,
corrupt politics, and flawed humanity” (). The novel is also a study in details, as Jordan lives among Pablo’s bandits, falls in love with Maria/Rabbit,
and prepares to blow up the bridge, which he concedes is a suicide mission.

Yet, within the stark description of life in the jungle and Jordan’s last several days leading up to the explosion, Hemingway also uses nostalgia as a
means of providing context and explanation for Jordan’s decision to sacrifice himself and his guerrilla colleagues. Nostalgia in For Whom the Bell Tolls
is a necessary component in making this sacrifice have meaning. Particularly, Solow explains,when“[c]ontemporary readers also knew too well that
the Spanish Civil War had been lost for over a year when the novel appeared
in . So, in a larger sense, the actual outcome of Jordan’s mission—from a rational perspective—is altogether moot” (). Hemingway uses Jordan’s nostalgic feelings for Spain before the war as a motivation for his actions in the novel.

Robert Jordan fights the fascists because he believes in the pre-Civil War Spain he loves. His worldview includes this nostalgic aspect, which he holds simultaneously with an analytical understanding of his current situation. As
an intellectual, he holds an acute, fact-based, and logical worldview. Jordan also sees the larger strategic picture, even on his last day, boosting his morale by thinking, “as long as we can hold them here we keep the fascists tied up. They can’t attack any other country until they finish with us.” But, then admitting, “You just watch now and do what you should” and chastising himself for “getting very pompous in the early morning” (). Given
that the reader knows the Spanish Civil War was lost, Hemingway needed to convince them that Jordan fought for something important.

The contrast between Jordan the thinker and Jordan the dreamer that
Hemingway creates really expands and deepens the reader’s interpretation of
the character. Early in the novel, the reader watches as Jordan sketches the
bridge in his ever-present notebook, a kind of lifeline he clings to throughout the story. Thus, one reads, “He sketched quickly and happily; glad at last to have the problem under his hand; glad at last actually to be engaged upon it,” and recognizes the orderly, rational side of Jordan that puts him on this task, despite the risk.

Hemingway, though, does not create Jordan as a kind of robot, without
emotion or feeling, which may have been an easier route to take, given the complexity of detail the author provides throughout the novel. Instead, the young guerrilla warrior has a past and thoughts about his personal history that have consequences for his current beliefs and actions. Jordan, for example, draws a distinction between the things he learns as an actor within the drama of war and the time he spent in Spain with its people for “parts of ten years before the war” (). He is able to balance the atrocities he participates in with the loving feelings as an outsider, but who
had put in the time to learn the nation and its people to the point, “He never felt like a foreigner in Spanish and they did not really treat him like a foreigner most of the time” (). In the end, Jordan decides he will take in everything, convincing himself “if he were going to form judgments he would form them afterwards” (). Yet, it is difficult to think that he could divorce himself from ten years of previous experiences in Spain or his love for the nation.

While Jordan holds both a rational side and a nostalgic vision of the past, Pilar presents a kind of anti-nostalgia in telling the story of the massacre at Avila. Although, even then, Pilar drapes the story in positive images of the past, when she was beautiful and young and Pablo was a strong, forceful leader. Hemingway emphasizes the importance of the speech by couching it in terms of a lecture, “as though she were speaking to a classroom,” the narrator explains (). Jordan, on the other hand, places a nostalgic sheen on the event.

Later, when Jordan reflects on Pilar’s story, he hopes that he can someday
write about the episode as she told it. His desire to get at “[w]hat we did. Not what the others did to us” (), points to balance Hemingway creates between the authentic history of the Spanish Civil War, which will be ultimately told by the winners, and the people of Spain: “You had to have
known the people before. You had to know what they had been in the village” (). The tension between authenticity and nostalgia creates a new way of looking at a world event witnessed by Hemingway and written about shortly after its end. With For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway forced his readers, just as Pilar forced Jordan, to confess “that damned woman made me see it as though I had been there” (). The reader must address the relationship between authenticity and nostalgia, which Hemingway presents without overt sentimentality, giving nostalgia a prime place in how Jordan creates his powerful worldview.

==Nostalgia as a Literary Technique==
The contemporary negative attributes of nostalgia as mere sentimentality
or as a tool to sell products hides its effectiveness as a legitimate way of addressing the past, particularly in literature. In other words, nostalgia does not have to be automatically linked to an unrealistic or fanciful yearning for a romanticized past. As Michael Janover explains, “Nostalgia is the pain of homesickness,” which could be turned into a positive as an author creates characters that have thoughts and feelings about their history. His interpretation of “nostalgias,” defined as “the pangs of longing for another time, another place, another self . . . almost certainly romantic in seed and, potentially, corrosively decadent in growth” () can also be transformed into a useful device for creating literary figures.

Given that ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and ''The Naked and the Dead'' were published a mere eight years apart, the use of nostalgia within the narratives and as a literary technique speaks to the role of nostalgia in that era dominated by war, its consequences, and immediate aftermath. As Sprengler notes, the interpretation of nostalgia had gone through a transformation in the early years of the twentieth century “within modernity because of industrialization, technological modernization and urbanization” (). Leigh, for example, then views 'The Time Machine' sections of Mailer’s novel as fixing the characters “unalterably to their environments . . . to a reality that is shown
to be static and unchanging” (). Looking into the past, then, for some
guidance or grounding within the current environment would provide solace for people going through tremendous change, whether it is for the authors, the characters they create, or for their readers.

There remains a fine line between an authentic representation of the past
and a nostalgic view. For Hemingway and Mailer, the use of nostalgia in war novels certainly softens the harshness of the place their characters exist in the current time. As Charnes notes, “As physical creatures who are born, grow,
age, and die, our experience of time convinces us that it moves in only one
direction: forward. [But] As creatures with highly developed cognition and
memory, however, our experience of time is vastly more complicated” (–
). Breaking out of the chronological view also adds density to the narratives by revealing that time is a complex experience. For both Hemingway and Mailer, providing a multi-dimensional view of a character’s past that includes nostalgic impulses creates richer characters, ones that readers, in turn, empathize with as they struggle through the atrocities of warfare.

==Citations==
{{reflist|20em}}

==Works Cited==
{{refbegin|40em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |last=Breit |first=Harvey |date=1951 |chapter=Talk with Norman Mailer |title=The New York Times, ''3 June 1951'', ''late ed., sec 7:20'' |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Charnes |first=Linda |date=2009 |title=Anticipating Nostalgia: Finding Temporal Logic in a Textual Anomaly | |journal=Textual Cultures: Text, Contexts, Interpretation |volume='''4''''' |issue=1 |pages=72–83. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Ernest |date=1940 |title=For Whom the Bell Tolls. ''New York: Scribner's. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Janover |first=Michael |date=2000 |chapter=Nostalgias |title=Critical Horizons 1.1 |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Leigh |first=Nigel |date=1987 |title=Spirit of Place in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead | | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''21''''' |issue=3 |pages=426–429. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}
* {{cite journal |last=Solow |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Clash of Certainties, Old and New: ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' and the Inner War of Ernest Hemingway| | journal=Journal of American Studies |volume='''29''''' |issue=1 |pages=103–122. Print. }}
* {{cite book |last=Sprengler |first=Christine |date=2009 |title=Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics in Contemporary American Film. ''New York: Berghahn Books. |location=Print }}
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1948 |title=The Naked and the Dead. ''New York: Rinehart and Company. |location=Print }}

{{Review|state=expanded}}
[[Category:Articles (MR)]]

User:DBond007

2025-03-13T19:37:46Z

DBond007: Removed caption on image.

Danielle Bond is a lecturer in the English Department at Valdosta State University. She currently rotates her teachings between First-Year Writing Classes: English 1101 & 1102; World Literature: Medieval to Early Modern; Race, Class, and Gender; and Writing for Criminal Justice. In the fall, she is excited about rolling out her new class, Monsters in American Culture.

After high school, Danielle served in the military as a lab tech where she completed her AAS in Medical Laboratory Technology. After leaving the military, she continued working in the medical, scientific, and research fields for several years. She excelled in medical and scientific writing roles at the workplace. Ultimately, she earned her BA in [https://radow.kennesaw.edu/english/index.php English] at [https://www.kennesaw.edu/ Kennesaw State University]. Danielle also earned her MA in [https://www.valdosta.edu/english/ English] from [https://www.valdosta.edu/ Valdosta State University]. She is pursuing her second [https://www.mga.edu/graduate-admissions/programs/masters/masters-technical-writing.php) Master's degree in Technical and Professional Writing (MATPW)] at [https://www.mga.edu/ Middle Georgia State University] which will be completed in the Fall of 2025.

Her interests include multi-modal and 'hands-on' pedagogies, anything visual, adaptations, graphic novels, film, Chaucer, experiential learning, semiotics, theory, research (in general), care-based teaching, and the list is ever-growing. She loves literature and teaching; she hopes to continue expanding the conversation of both.

<gallery>
dbond.jpg|
</gallery>
[[Category:Student Editors]] [[Category:Spring 2025]]

File:Dbond.jpg

2025-03-13T19:32:20Z

DBond007:

User:DBond007

2025-03-13T16:14:39Z

DBond007: Expanding Bio. Will come back to how to insert image. :)

Danielle Bond is a lecturer in the English Department at Valdosta State University. She currently rotates her teachings between First-Year Writing Classes: English 1101 & 1102; World Literature: Medieval to Early Modern; Race, Class, and Gender; and Writing for Criminal Justice. In the fall, she is excited about rolling out her new class, Monsters in American Culture.

After high school, Danielle served in the military as a lab tech where she completed her AAS in Medical Laboratory Technology. After leaving the military, she continued working in the medical, scientific, and research fields for several years. She excelled in medical and scientific writing roles at the workplace. Ultimately, she earned her BA in [https://radow.kennesaw.edu/english/index.php English] at [https://www.kennesaw.edu/ Kennesaw State University]. Danielle also earned her MA in [https://www.valdosta.edu/english/ English] from [https://www.valdosta.edu/ Valdosta State University]. She is pursuing her second [https://www.mga.edu/graduate-admissions/programs/masters/masters-technical-writing.php) Master's degree in Technical and Professional Writing (MATPW)] at [https://www.mga.edu/ Middle Georgia State University] which will be completed in the Fall of 2025.

Her interests include multi-modal and 'hands-on' pedagogies, anything visual, adaptations, graphic novels, film, Chaucer, experiential learning, semiotics, theory, research (in general), care-based teaching, and the list is ever-growing. She loves literature and teaching; she hopes to continue expanding the conversation of both.

<gallery>
dbond.jpg|Danielle Bond
</gallery>
[[Category:Student Editors]] [[Category:Spring 2025]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-03-12T19:46:42Z

DBond007: Added 5th body paragraph. Will revise and add references later.

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-03-12T19:44:02Z

DBond007: Added 4th body paragraph and 2 footnote (Charnes) and reference. Also, completed the journal article title.

User:DBond007

2025-03-12T19:09:50Z

DBond007: Deleted 'and'.

Hello. My name is Danielle Bond. I love literature and teaching; I am interested in expanding the conversation about both.
[[Category:Student Editors]] [[Category:Spring 2025]]

The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Looking at the Past: Nostalgia as Technique in The Naked and the Dead and For Whom the Bell Tolls

2025-03-12T16:28:12Z

DBond007:

User:DBond007

2025-03-11T15:40:48Z

DBond007: Brief Intro and Hello

Hello. My name is Danielle Bond. I love literature and teaching; I am interested in expanding the conversation about both.
[[Category:Student Editors]] and [[Category:Spring 2025]]