The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Angst, Authorship, Critics: “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” “The Crack-Up,” Advertisements for Myself: Difference between revisions
heading and italics |
italics, citation, punctuation |
||
| Line 137: | Line 137: | ||
So, despite differences in narrative form and intention, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Crack-Up” share a common landscape—that of authorial anxiety and cultural depression. Both works were written under personal stress, both are revealing, and both proved therapeutic for their authors.<sup>22</sup> To use a handy German phrase, the ''Sitz im Leben'' of both Hemingway and Fitzgerald in 1936 had far more similarity than either author was prepared to admit. | So, despite differences in narrative form and intention, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Crack-Up” share a common landscape—that of authorial anxiety and cultural depression. Both works were written under personal stress, both are revealing, and both proved therapeutic for their authors.<sup>22</sup> To use a handy German phrase, the ''Sitz im Leben'' of both Hemingway and Fitzgerald in 1936 had far more similarity than either author was prepared to admit. | ||
=== MAILER AND ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF (1959) === | === '''MAILER AND ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF (1959)''' === | ||
Two decades on, in 1959, in a genre-bending fusion of retrospective,self-creation, and future strategy, Mailer’s Advertisements appeared. Norman Mailer believed his task was “nothing less than making a revolution in the consciousness of our time” Advertisements.{{sfn|Mailer|1959|pp=17]] This bold work would mark a new, controversial era in Mailer’s life and work. ''Advertisements'' has been described by David Castronovo as “an act of defiance—filled with tantrums and inflated rhetoric—but nevertheless a landmark in our literature of protest.'{{sfn|Castronovo|2003|PP=179}} From this moment onward, Mailer would never be “the modernist ''deus absconditus'' . . . vanishing into silence” {{sfn|Braudy|1981|pp=630}} as Leo Braudy has described Thomas Pynchon. Mailer must be both observer of and participant in his times, both author and actor. Mailer would embrace that dual role with enthusiasm. | |||
We have seen that Hilary | |||
. . . | . . . | ||