The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/Norman Mailer: Stupidity Brings Out Violence in Me: Difference between revisions

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 '''Mailer''': You could have writers who are first in the people’s mind but I don’t know if that has any literary value. If you had an election tomorrow there would probably be five of us who would be in contention, and you could have a runoff. The results wouldn’t matter because each of us would walk away thinking, “I was the best.” I don’t think it’s important.
+'''Grobel''': Is it important for you, though? To drive yourself?
+'''Mailer''': So long as there’s no election, I don’t give a damn. It’s not important anymore. If there was an election and somebody else won, I’d be annoyed.
+'''Grobel''': How envious have you been of other writers?
+'''Mailer''': By now I don’t think I’m envious at all. When I was younger I would fight feelings of envy at times. But I’ve never felt envious so much about writers as I have about freedom. Since I’ve been married all my life, I’ve always envied the great freedom that certain men friends of mine would have.
+'''Grobel''': But each time you’ve divorced you’ve gotten married again.
+'''Mailer''': That’s right. Once a philosopher, twice a pervert.
+'''Grobel''': You’ve admitted envy for [[w:Truman Capote|Truman Capote]]’s ability to get invited to the right parties.
+'''Mailer''': That was 20 years ago, when I wanted to get invited to those parties, because I could have written about them. Those parties had a wonderful feeling they don’t possess now. When you’re young is the time you should go to parties like that. Truman went to those parties at the right time.
+'''Grobel''': What’s your opinion of Capote?
+'''Mailer''': Very, very talented man. I was misquoted in a magazine story that bothered me a great deal, had me saying that he was through.
+'''Grobel''': That his life was wrecked.
+'''Mailer''': I felt very bad about it, because what happened is the reporter led me down the garden path. She said, “Wouldn’t you say that Truman is through?” And I said, “Off the record, I’ll tell you that even if I thought he was through I would never say it, because I don’t have the right to sit in judgment on another writer and decide they’re through. People said I was through when I wasn’t. I used to laugh inside. But they had no right to say it about me, and I have no right to say it about anyone else.” She said, “But what do you really think?” I said, “If you push me I’ll say that I don’t think he’s through.” Well, she was reading all these qualifications and in her mind she decided the bottom line was that he was through, so she put the words in my mouth. I never said it. No, I don’t think he’s through, I think he’s not well and is going through a very tough time. We never know when we’re going to get out of our troubles. He may not, but he might. The bits of ''[[w:Answered Prayers|Answered Prayers]]'' that he’s published have been interesting.
+'''Grobel''': Think he’ll ever finish it?
+'''Mailer''': I don’t know how much of it he’s done. And I don’t know what kind of shape he’s in.
+'''Grobel''': What do you think of [[w:James A. Michener|James A. Michener]]’s remark that if Capote ever finishes it, ''Answered Prayers'' will be the book most remembered fifty years from now?
+'''Mailer''': It’s a remark. But authors’ remarks are never terribly interesting. We’re all self-serving in our subtle ways. As are politicians. Authors’ theories are the same as politicians’ theories. Writers advance those theories that are best for their own latest work.
+'''Grobel''': Let me give you Capote’s remark about your ''Ancient Evenings'', spoken before it was published. He said it couldn’t possibly be a good book because you’re only good at writing about what you know, and you didn’t know anything about ancient Egypt, anymore then you knew about Gary Gilmore.
+'''Mailer''': Truman’s very upset about ''The Executioner’s Song''. He feels that I should have made a pilgrimage and gotten down on my knees and said, “Oh great Cardinal Capote, do I have your blessing? May I proceed to write a book about a killer?” And I didn’t. He went around saying that I never gave any credit to his ''[[w:In Cold Blood|In Cold Blood]]''. Well, I just thought that book was so famous that you didn’t have to give credit to it. I reread ''In Cold Blood'' after I finished ''The Executioner’s Song'' and it’s a very good novel, as much of a novel as ''The Executioner’s Song''. Maybe more. It’s very nicely written and it may end up being a classic because it is remarkable. But I don’t know what he’s talking about, it just struck me as a dumb remark. Truman is canny as hell but he’s not the brightest guy in the world.
+'''Grobel''': You and Truman Capote share a dislike for [[w:Gore Vidal|Gore Vidal]]. Why?
+'''Mailer''': I don’t want to get into it. We had a feud that went on for a few years and I don’t care whether we ever make friends again.
+'''Grobel''': Would you agree with Vidal that we live in a time where the personality of the writer is everything and what he writes is nothing?
+'''Mailer''': No. There’s a tendency in that direction but it’s a vastly over-exaggerated remark.
+'''Grobel''': Vidal has called you a messiah without hope of Paradise and with no precise mission. How does that strike you?
+'''Mailer''': As twelve years old.
+'''Grobel''': You’ve come to blows with Vidal, haven’t you?
+'''Mailer''': No. I knocked a heavy cocktail glass out of his hand and that was the end of the fight.
+'''Grobel''': Didn’t you head-butt him?
+'''Mailer''': That’s not a fight, that’s just head-butting.
+'''Grobel''': You’ve butted heads with Hemingway’s son Gregory. Was that your way of connecting with his old man?
+'''Mailer''': I head-butt with a lot of people. People have the wrong idea about it. It isn’t that you head-butt and somebody drops. For me, it’s a touch of affection. You just butt heads once lightly.
+'''Grobel''': Is it always lightly?
+'''Mailer''': No, not always. It wasn’t lightly with Vidal that time. But it’s always fair for one writer to butt another in the head. Writers have hard heads. The hardest heads you’ll ever encounter will be a writer’s head. It’s just like an erect phallus. All there.
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