An American Dream Expanded/Definition of Selfhood - Revision history

Jules Carry: Added display title.

2019-04-23T21:11:40Z

Added display title.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:11, 23 April 2019
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			{{DISPLAYTITLE:''An American Dream'' Expanded/Definition of Selfhood}}
	===Definition of Selfhood<ref>Letter to the Editor, ''Saturday Review'', June 6, 1965</ref>===		===Definition of Selfhood<ref>Letter to the Editor, ''Saturday Review'', June 6, 1965</ref>===
	While I cannot determine just what a literary hoax is, judging from the whirlings and groans of the reviewers, ''An American Dream'' [''SR'', Mar. 20] must be a real apostasy. The entire literary community has adopted a posture of shocked betrayal. Mr. Hicks in particular writes like a spurned lover or, more to the point, a disappointed investor. ...		While I cannot determine just what a literary hoax is, judging from the whirlings and groans of the reviewers, ''An American Dream'' [''SR'', Mar. 20] must be a real apostasy. The entire literary community has adopted a posture of shocked betrayal. Mr. Hicks in particular writes like a spurned lover or, more to the point, a disappointed investor. ...

Jules Carry: Jules Carry moved page SaturdayReview/BillPowers to An American Dream Expanded/Definition of Selfhood: Made this a subpage of AADE per Grlucas.

2019-04-23T21:10:29Z

Jules Carry moved page SaturdayReview/BillPowers to An American Dream Expanded/Definition of Selfhood: Made this a subpage of AADE per Grlucas.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:10, 23 April 2019
(No difference)

Jules Carry: Changes and fixes.

2019-04-23T21:09:30Z

Changes and fixes.

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:09, 23 April 2019
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	~~{{DISPLAYTITLE:The Saturday Review, Bill Powers,~~ Definition of Selfhood, June 5, 1965}}		===Definition of Selfhood<ref>Letter to the Editor, ''Saturday Review'', June 6, 1965</ref>===
	~~[[File:BillPowers SaturdayReview Page2.jpg \|thumb\|left]]{{Aade-sm}}~~		While I cannot determine just what a literary hoax is, judging from the whirlings and groans of the reviewers, ''An American Dream'' [''SR'', Mar. 20] must be a real apostasy. The entire literary community has adopted a posture of shocked betrayal. Mr. Hicks in particular writes like a spurned lover or, more to the point, a disappointed investor. ...
			[[File:BillPowers SaturdayReview Page2.jpg \|thumb\|left]]

	~~Definition of Selfhood~~

	While I cannot determine just what a literary hoax is, judging from the whirlings and groans of the reviewers, ''An American Dream'' ([~~[w:Saturday Review (U.S. magazine\|~~SR]], Mar. 20) must be a real apostasy. The entire literary community has adopted a posture of shocked betrayal. Mr. Hicks in particular writes like a spurned lover or, more to the point, a disappointed investor. ...

	However, the main complaint of the critics is that violence and lust govern the actions of the protagonist of ''Dream'', Stephen Rojack. Indeed Rojack acts as if the only significant actions of which he is capable are killing, maiming and copulating. . . .		However, the main complaint of the critics is that violence and lust govern the actions of the protagonist of ''Dream'', Stephen Rojack. Indeed Rojack acts as if the only significant actions of which he is capable are killing, maiming and copulating. . . .
			{{Aade-sm}}
			Mailer first approached this theme in ''[[The White Negro]]''. In this essay he identifies the condition of the hipster with that of the Negro. One rejecting, the other rejected by society, both are forced towards raw sex and brutality. Only the psychopathic act can redeem them. Seeking the “good orgasm” (fulfillment, sexual and otherwise), the hipster and Negro both are driven to promiscuity and murder. In ''Growing Up Absurd'', [[w:Paul Goodman\|Paul Goodman]] explores the same phenomena. Because they can find no man’s work within the societal framework, a whole group of young Americans, among whom Goodman includes delinquents, homosexuals, beatniks and hipsters, are led into rebellion by their need for real and fruitful challenge. Their antisocial behavior is a reaction to this de-virilization. Carrying the ideas contained in ''The White Negro'' into the creative plane, Mailer both describes and prescribes the psychotic state resulting from the hipsters’ alienation. Rojack is the hipster-psychopath seen from the inside out. Congressman, intellectual, teacher: none of these roles has satisfied him. Only in murder, the most terrible cutting off from society, is he completed. The whole novel is a sorting out, a solution developing from the act of killing. It is a dissolution, a letting go of the entire social man which places Rojack in position to rebegin his life. ... Bigger Thomas in [[w:Richard Wright\|Richard Wright]]’s [[w:Native Son\|''Native Son'']] illustrates this process in converse, completing the formula of ''The White Negro''. Bigger kills and for the first time experiences the feeling of being an individual in the white world which has depraved him by oppression and direct denial of his manhood. Rojack comes to murder from the opposite direction (society, in conventional terms, has been good to him) to achieve the definition of selfhood.

	~~Mailer first approached this theme in [[w:The White Negro\|''The White Negro'']]. In this essay he identifies~~ the ~~condition~~ of the ~~hipster with that~~ of the ~~Negro~~. ~~One rejecting, the other rejected by society~~, ~~both are forced towards raw sex and brutality~~. ~~Only the psychopathic act can redeem them~~. ~~Seeking~~ the ~~"good orgasm" (~~fulfillment~~, sexual and otherwise),~~ the hipster ~~and Negro both are driven~~ to ~~promiscuity and murder. In ''Growing Up Absurd'', [[w:Paul Goodman\|Paul Goodman]] explores~~ the ~~same phenomena. Because they can find no man's work within the societal framework~~, a whole group of young Americans, among whom Goodman includes delinquents, homosexuals, beatniks and hipsters, are led into rebellion by their need for real and fruitful challenge. Their antisocial behavior is a reaction to this de-virilization. Carrying the ideas contained in ~~''The White Negro'' into the creative plane~~, ~~Mailer both describes~~ and prescribes the psychotic state resulting from the hipsters' alienation. Rojack is the hipster-psychopath seen from the inside out. Congressman, intellectual, teacher: none of these roles has satisfied him. Only in murder, the most terrible cutting off from society, is he completed. The whole novel is a sorting out, a solution developing from the act of killing. It is a dissolution, a letting go of the entire social man which places Rojack in position to rebegin his life. ... Bigger Thomas in [[w:Richard Wright\|Richard Wright's]] [[w:Native Son\|''Native Son'']] illustrates this process in converse, completing the formula of ''The White Negro''. Bigger kills and for the first time experiences the feeling of being an individual in the white world which has depraved him by oppression and direct denial of his manhood. Rojack comes to murder from the opposite direction (society, in conventional terms, has been good to him) to achieve the definition of selfhood.		Apparently it is the picture of the future of the American intellectual which repels Mr. Hicks, et. al. They cannot accept Mailer’s identification of the intellectual seeking valid fulfillment with the socially corrosive attitude of the hipster. They refuse to consider the possibility that significant action, in our time, must be psychopathic and destructive. ...

	~~Apparently it is the picture of the future of the American intellectual which repels Mr. Hicks~~, et. al. They cannot accept Mailer's identification of the intellectual seeking valid fulfillment with the socially corrosive attitude of the hipster. They refuse to consider the possibility that significant action, in our time, must be psychopathic and destructive. ...		Bill Powers<br />
			Athens, Greece<br />

	~~Bill Powers~~		===Note===
			{{Reflist}}

	~~Athens, Greece~~		[[Category:Full Text Letters]]

JVbird: Creating page for Saturday Review, Bill Powers

2019-04-23T18:42:33Z

Creating page for Saturday Review, Bill Powers

New page

{{DISPLAYTITLE:The Saturday Review, Bill Powers, Definition of Selfhood, June 5, 1965}}
[[File:BillPowers SaturdayReview Page2.jpg |thumb|left]]{{Aade-sm}}

Definition of Selfhood

While I cannot determine just what a literary hoax is, judging from the whirlings and groans of the reviewers, ''An American Dream'' ([[w:Saturday Review (U.S. magazine|SR]], Mar. 20) must be a real apostasy. The entire literary community has adopted a posture of shocked betrayal. Mr. Hicks in particular writes like a spurned lover or, more to the point, a disappointed investor. ...

However, the main complaint of the critics is that violence and lust govern the actions of the protagonist of ''Dream'', Stephen Rojack. Indeed Rojack acts as if the only significant actions of which he is capable are killing, maiming and copulating. . . .

Mailer first approached this theme in [[w:The White Negro|''The White Negro'']]. In this essay he identifies the condition of the hipster with that of the Negro. One rejecting, the other rejected by society, both are forced towards raw sex and brutality. Only the psychopathic act can redeem them. Seeking the "good orgasm" (fulfillment, sexual and otherwise), the hipster and Negro both are driven to promiscuity and murder. In ''Growing Up Absurd'', [[w:Paul Goodman|Paul Goodman]] explores the same phenomena. Because they can find no man's work within the societal framework, a whole group of young Americans, among whom Goodman includes delinquents, homosexuals, beatniks and hipsters, are led into rebellion by their need for real and fruitful challenge. Their antisocial behavior is a reaction to this de-virilization. Carrying the ideas contained in ''The White Negro'' into the creative plane, Mailer both describes and prescribes the psychotic state resulting from the hipsters' alienation. Rojack is the hipster-psychopath seen from the inside out. Congressman, intellectual, teacher: none of these roles has satisfied him. Only in murder, the most terrible cutting off from society, is he completed. The whole novel is a sorting out, a solution developing from the act of killing. It is a dissolution, a letting go of the entire social man which places Rojack in position to rebegin his life. ... Bigger Thomas in [[w:Richard Wright|Richard Wright's]] [[w:Native Son|''Native Son'']] illustrates this process in converse, completing the formula of ''The White Negro''. Bigger kills and for the first time experiences the feeling of being an individual in the white world which has depraved him by oppression and direct denial of his manhood. Rojack comes to murder from the opposite direction (society, in conventional terms, has been good to him) to achieve the definition of selfhood.

Apparently it is the picture of the future of the American intellectual which repels Mr. Hicks, et. al. They cannot accept Mailer's identification of the intellectual seeking valid fulfillment with the socially corrosive attitude of the hipster. They refuse to consider the possibility that significant action, in our time, must be psychopathic and destructive. ...

Bill Powers

Athens, Greece