User:KForeman/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Love affair? Well, that’s what he says: “I fell in love with a bullfighter.”Not that they ever met: “Meeting him could only have spoiled the perfection of my love, so pure was my affection.” That courtly sentiment emanates from Mailer’s watching “El Loco, the Crazy One. It is not a term of endearment in Mexico, where half the populace is crazy” (8).

The rest of the essay proceeds to elucidate and obfuscate Mailer’s affair with El Loco. Obfuscation: As a sort of preface to our knowing El Loco, Mailer explains: “The bullfight is nine-tenths cruelty. The bullfight brews one’s cruelty out of one’s pores—it makes an elixir of cruelty.”Those are his chosen words—“an elixir of cruelty.” Mailer deliberately twists the old alchemical elixir of life into something oxymoronically reprehensible. Can he mean such an assertion? In Spanis, we say: “Vaya usted a saber,” which is not far from“Go figure.” ~~Norman~~ Mailer’s bold, outspoken, and prolific personality was reflected in his writing style. He was unafraid to express his thoughts, regardless of how controversial or risky they might be (Adams 7).

The rest of the essay proceeds to elucidate and obfuscate Mailer’s affair with El Loco. Obfuscation: As a sort of preface to our knowing El Loco, Mailer explains: “The bullfight is nine-tenths cruelty. The bullfight brews one’s cruelty out of one’s pores—it makes an elixir of cruelty.”Those are his chosen words—“an elixir of cruelty.” Mailer deliberately twists the old alchemical elixir of life into something oxymoronically reprehensible. Can he mean such an assertion? In Spanis, we say: “Vaya usted a saber,” which is not far from“Go figure.” Mailer’s bold, outspoken, and prolific personality was reflected in his writing style. He was unafraid to express his thoughts, regardless of how controversial or risky they might be (Adams 7).

{{pg| 284 • T H E M A I L E R R E V I E W|a l l e n j o s e p h s • 285}}

This sociological quicksand that Mailer is creating gets deeper: “[. . .] one of the few gleams in the muck of all this dubious Mexican majesty called existence is that one can on occasion laugh bitterly with the gods.” As Mailer rakes through the Mexican muck, all he manages to do is to splatter his essay with Kinnamon’s hasty generalizations and preposterous inferences: “In the Spanish-Indian blood, the substance of one’s dignity is found in sharing the cruel vision of the gods.” Is Mailer comparing the sacrifice of the bull to the Aztec sacrifice of humans or is he conveniently forgetting that the corrida has its origins in the most profoundly Spanish Catholic traditions? Or both? “In fact,” he goes on, “dignity can be found nowhere else. For courage is seen as the servant of the gods’ cruel vision” (11). There is no dignity to be found in all of Mexico except in the bullring? Courage is a joke?

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Form is the record of a war: On the 6th of February, 1955, Amado Ramírez, El Loco, took the alternative to become a full matador. He was unable to kill any of his three bulls and subsequently renounced the alternative and ended his career as a professional matador. Norman Mailer would not write “the novel about the bullfight.”

Since the identification of the writer and torero, as well as the larger context of war, came first from Hemingway, Mailer’s ultimate insight—his fleeting recognition of himself in the other, of the other in himself, and of both of them as one with Hemingway and his taurine shadow—was derivative in its source, yet original in its vision, adding another layer in its peculiar confirmation to Hemingway’s discovery of the literary value of toreo. Thanks to the clue Amado Ramírez had given him through his erratic performances (clue harks back to the ball of thread Theseus used to escape the labyrinth, after killing them in Otaur), Mailer’s eureka-like moment helps turn a messy essay in an unfortunate tome into an intricately conceived footnote to Death in the Afternoon.

Since the identification of the writer and torero, as well as the larger context of war, came first from Hemingway, Mailer’s ultimate insight—his fleeting recognition of himself in the other, of the other in himself, and of both of them as one with Hemingway and his taurine shadow—was derivative in its source, yet original in its vision, adding another layer in its peculiar confirmation to Hemingway’s discovery of the literary value of toreo. Thanks to the clue Amado Ramírez had given him through his erratic performances (clue harks back to the ball of thread Theseus used to escape the labyrinth, after killing them in Otaur), Mailer’s eureka-like moment helps turn a messy essay in an unfortunate tome into an intricately conceived footnote to Death in the Afternoon. Mailer’s fascination with Hemingway’s works inspired him to pursue similar ambitions in his writing (Rodriquez 97).

{{pg| 292 • T H E M A I L E R R E V I E W|a l l e n j o s e p h s • 293}}

===Works Cited===

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<ref>Adams, Laura Gail. Norman Mailer's Aesthetics of Growth. Diss. 1972.</ref>

<ref>Rodríguez, Emilio Cañadas. "Norman Mailer and Truman Capote: A Brief Account of Parallel Lives." 2008,</ref>

@@ Line 71: / Line 71: @@
 Love affair? Well, that’s what he says: “I fell in love with a bullfighter.”Not that they ever met: “Meeting him could only have spoiled the perfection of my love, so pure was my affection.” That courtly sentiment emanates from Mailer’s watching “El Loco, the Crazy One. It is not a term of endearment in Mexico, where half the populace is crazy” (8).
-The rest of the essay proceeds to elucidate and obfuscate Mailer’s affair with El Loco. Obfuscation: As a sort of preface to our knowing El Loco, Mailer explains: “The bullfight is nine-tenths cruelty. The bullfight brews one’s cruelty out of one’s pores—it makes an elixir of cruelty.”Those are his chosen words—“an elixir of cruelty.” Mailer deliberately twists the old alchemical elixir of life into something oxymoronically reprehensible. Can he mean such an assertion? In Spanis, we say: “Vaya usted a saber,” which is not far from“Go figure.” Norman Mailer’s bold, outspoken, and prolific personality was reflected in his writing style.  He was unafraid to express his thoughts, regardless of how controversial or risky they might be (Adams 7).
+The rest of the essay proceeds to elucidate and obfuscate Mailer’s affair with El Loco. Obfuscation: As a sort of preface to our knowing El Loco, Mailer explains: “The bullfight is nine-tenths cruelty. The bullfight brews one’s cruelty out of one’s pores—it makes an elixir of cruelty.”Those are his chosen words—“an elixir of cruelty.” Mailer deliberately twists the old alchemical elixir of life into something oxymoronically reprehensible. Can he mean such an assertion? In Spanis, we say: “Vaya usted a saber,” which is not far from“Go figure.” Mailer’s bold, outspoken, and prolific personality was reflected in his writing style.  He was unafraid to express his thoughts, regardless of how controversial or risky they might be (Adams 7).
 {{pg| 284 • T H E  M A I L E R  R E V I E W|a l l e n  j o s e p h s • 285}}
 This sociological quicksand that Mailer is creating gets deeper: “[. . .] one of the few gleams in the muck of all this dubious Mexican majesty called existence is that one can on occasion laugh bitterly with the gods.” As Mailer rakes through the Mexican muck, all he manages to do is to splatter his essay with Kinnamon’s hasty generalizations and preposterous inferences: “In the Spanish-Indian blood, the substance of one’s dignity is found in sharing the cruel vision of the gods.” Is Mailer comparing the sacrifice of the bull to the Aztec sacrifice of humans or is he conveniently forgetting that the corrida has its origins in the most profoundly Spanish Catholic traditions? Or both? “In fact,” he goes on, “dignity can be found nowhere else. For courage is seen as the servant of the gods’ cruel vision” (11). There is no dignity to be found in all of Mexico except in the bullring? Courage is a joke?
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 Form is the record of a war: On the 6th of February, 1955, Amado Ramírez, El Loco, took the alternative to become a full matador. He was unable to kill any of his three bulls and subsequently renounced the alternative and ended his career as a professional matador. Norman Mailer would not write “the novel about the bullfight.”
-Since the identification of the writer and torero, as well as the larger context of war, came first from Hemingway, Mailer’s ultimate insight—his fleeting recognition of himself in the other, of the other in himself, and of both of them as one with Hemingway and his taurine shadow—was derivative in its source, yet original in its vision, adding another layer in its peculiar confirmation to Hemingway’s discovery of the literary value of toreo. Thanks to the clue Amado Ramírez had given him through his erratic performances (clue harks back to the ball of thread Theseus used to escape the labyrinth, after killing them in Otaur), Mailer’s eureka-like moment helps turn a messy essay in an unfortunate tome into an intricately conceived footnote to Death in the Afternoon.
+Since the identification of the writer and torero, as well as the larger context of war, came first from Hemingway, Mailer’s ultimate insight—his fleeting recognition of himself in the other, of the other in himself, and of both of them as one with Hemingway and his taurine shadow—was derivative in its source, yet original in its vision, adding another layer in its peculiar confirmation to Hemingway’s discovery of the literary value of toreo. Thanks to the clue Amado Ramírez had given him through his erratic performances (clue harks back to the ball of thread Theseus used to escape the labyrinth, after killing them in Otaur), Mailer’s eureka-like moment helps turn a messy essay in an unfortunate tome into an intricately conceived footnote to Death in the Afternoon. Mailer’s fascination with Hemingway’s works inspired him to pursue similar ambitions in his writing (Rodriquez 97).
 {{pg| 292 • T H E  M A I L E R  R E V I E W|a l l e n  j o s e p h s • 293}}
 ===Works Cited===
@@ Line 254: / Line 254: @@
 <ref>Adams, Laura Gail. Norman Mailer's Aesthetics of Growth. Diss. 1972.</ref>
+<ref>Rodríguez, Emilio Cañadas. "Norman Mailer and Truman Capote: A Brief Account of Parallel Lives." 2008,</ref>
 {{Reflist}}