User:MerAtticus/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Although ''Strawhead'' was never produced on Broadway, it did recieve some attention before going "kerflooie" in Mailer's words.{{sfn|Mailer|7 May 1986|letter}} In 1983, The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard had a staged reading for alum of Mailer's spec script. That same year, Provincetown Playhouse also produced a version. Mailer's sexual obession was blatantly evident in the early script that began with a fantasy interview wherein the Marilyn character gives a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. Shelley Winters had such a negative response that it resulted in a Mailer rewrite. The 1986 Actor's Studio production was attended by many of Mailer's friends, some of whom, such as Kitty Carlyle wrote that she found herself "enormously interested." Less complimentary is a letter from Elia Kazan who diplogatically writes, "Your play is worth more work. You can and should improve it."

On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}

On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}cal take on the subject of Mailer's repeated return to the subject. In his biographical study ''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer,'' he suggests other reasons for Mailer's repeated return to the subject. Leeds rhapsodizes on what he considers the many similarities between NM and MM. ''Au contraire,'' I would counter, if there is a oneness of the two, I would invoke the Yin/Yang oneness, the oneness of opposites: in this case, I would suggest, the user and the used. However, Mailer's uses were progressively less effective. ''Marilyn'' was a critical and financial success, ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' less so, and finally, ''Strawhead'' was never published and after a two week run at the Actor's Studia, it had no further production.

Lest I be accused of pilin on Mailer, a few lines about his success in writing in Marilyn's voice are called for. Among her other attributes, Mailer gives his Marilyn a sensitivity to color, a trait that escapes many male writers who create female characters. She describes the colors of the furniture and walls in her Waldorf Tower apartment, using the word "buff" to describe the walls. Buff is not a word men often use; gradations in color tones are definitely a predominantly feminine bent. ''Strawhead'' also captures the terrible sense of loneliness Marilyn felt by staging her as the only person onstage, all the others being her remembrances. Among the bits printed in ''Fragments'' are the lines "''Alone!!!!!/ I am alone''--I am ''always/ alone/no matter what''."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|pg=35}} Unfortunately, he gets little of her poetic side, her fears of aging captured in lines such as those written on hotel stationary in Surrey. "Where his eyes rest with pleasure--I/want to be still be--but time has changes/the hold of that glance. Alas how will I cope when I am less youthful--."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|p=119}} Finally, the issue divides itself into two conflicting parts. On the one hand, Mailer cannibalizes Marilyn for his own purposes, be it fantasy, finacial, or ego-maniacal. On the other hand, his writing imagination is sometimes so spot-on as to create a viable portrait, first through biography and then autobiography. Michael Glenday also suggests that there is a certain pleasure associated with "encountering not just the memoir, but also the vitality of interaction between Mailer's imagination and his subject".{{sfn|Glenday|2008|p=350}} In addition, if the commonplace is that a man can't write from a woman's perspective, in ''Of Women And Their Elegance,'' although Mailer's Marilyn voice is totally fictional and does not fully capture Marilyn, it is certainly a plausible creation.

To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}

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* {{citation |last=Carlyle |first=Kitty |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Marilyn V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite journal |last=Glenday |first=Michael K. |date=2008 |title=From Monroe to Picasso: Norman Mailer and the Life-Study |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |pages=348-363 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{citation |last=Kazan |first=Elia |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Leeds |first=Barry H. |date=2002 |title=The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer |location=Bainbridge Island, WA |publisher=Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press | pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

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* {{cite book |last=Manso |first=Peter |date=1985 |title= Mailer |location=New York |publisher= Simon & Schuster |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Merrill |first=Robert |date=1992 |title=Norman Mailer Revisited |location=New York |publisher= Twayne Publishers |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Monroe |first=Marilyn |date=2010 |title=Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters |editors=Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Rollyson |first=Carl |date=1991 |title=The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Paragon House |page= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{citation |author= |title=Strawhead |people=By Norman Mailer (Director) Norris Church Mailer, Robert Heller and Mickey Knox (Performers) |date=January 1986 |location=Actors Studio, New York |type=Performance |ref=harv }}

* {{cite journal |last=Morrow |first=Stephan |date=2008 |title=The Unknown and the General |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |location= |pages=273-297 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |date=June 1981 |title=Shades of Gray |magazine=Texas Monthly |pages=196-207 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 Although ''Strawhead'' was never produced on Broadway, it did recieve some attention before going "kerflooie" in Mailer's words.{{sfn|Mailer|7 May 1986|letter}} In 1983, The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard had a staged reading for alum of Mailer's spec script. That same year, Provincetown Playhouse also produced a version. Mailer's sexual obession was blatantly evident in the early script that began with a fantasy interview wherein the Marilyn character gives a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. Shelley Winters had such a negative response that it resulted in a Mailer rewrite. The 1986 Actor's Studio production was attended by many of Mailer's friends, some of whom, such as Kitty Carlyle wrote that she found herself "enormously interested." Less complimentary is a letter from Elia Kazan who diplogatically writes, "Your play is worth more work. You can and should improve it."
-On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}
+On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}cal take on the subject of Mailer's repeated return to the subject. In his biographical study ''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer,'' he suggests other reasons for Mailer's repeated return to the subject. Leeds rhapsodizes on what he considers the many similarities between NM and MM. ''Au contraire,'' I would counter, if there is a oneness of the two, I would invoke the Yin/Yang oneness, the oneness of opposites: in this case, I would suggest, the user and the used. However, Mailer's uses were progressively less effective. ''Marilyn'' was a critical and financial success, ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' less so, and finally, ''Strawhead'' was never published and after a two week run at the Actor's Studia, it had no further production.
+Lest I be accused of pilin on Mailer, a few lines about his success in writing in Marilyn's voice are called for. Among her other attributes, Mailer gives his Marilyn a sensitivity to color, a trait that escapes many male writers who create female characters. She describes the colors of the furniture and walls in her Waldorf Tower apartment, using the word "buff" to describe the walls. Buff is not a word men often use; gradations in color tones are definitely a predominantly feminine bent. ''Strawhead'' also captures the terrible sense of loneliness Marilyn felt by staging her as the only person onstage, all the others being her remembrances. Among the bits printed in ''Fragments'' are the lines "''Alone!!!!!/ I am alone''--I am ''always/ alone/no matter what''."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|pg=35}} Unfortunately, he gets little of her poetic side, her fears of aging captured in lines such as those written on hotel stationary in Surrey. "Where his eyes rest with pleasure--I/want to be still be--but time has changes/the hold of that glance. Alas how will I cope when I am less youthful--."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|p=119}} Finally, the issue divides itself into two conflicting parts. On the one hand, Mailer cannibalizes Marilyn for his own purposes, be it fantasy, finacial, or ego-maniacal. On the other hand, his writing imagination is sometimes so spot-on as to create a viable portrait, first through biography and then autobiography. Michael Glenday also suggests that there is a certain pleasure associated with "encountering not just the memoir, but also the vitality of interaction between Mailer's imagination and his subject".{{sfn|Glenday|2008|p=350}} In addition, if the commonplace is that a man can't write from a woman's perspective, in ''Of Women And Their Elegance,'' although Mailer's Marilyn voice is totally fictional and does not fully capture Marilyn, it is certainly a plausible creation.
+To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}
@@ Line 52: / Line 56: @@
 * {{citation |last=Carlyle |first=Kitty |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Marilyn V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
+* {{cite journal |last=Glenday |first=Michael K. |date=2008 |title=From Monroe to Picasso: Norman Mailer and the Life-Study |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |pages=348-363 |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{citation |last=Kazan |first=Elia |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Leeds |first=Barry H. |date=2002 |title=The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer |location=Bainbridge Island, WA |publisher=Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press | pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
@@ Line 62: / Line 67: @@
 * {{cite book |last=Manso |first=Peter |date=1985 |title= Mailer |location=New York |publisher= Simon & Schuster |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Merrill |first=Robert |date=1992 |title=Norman Mailer Revisited |location=New York |publisher= Twayne Publishers |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
+* {{cite book |last=Monroe |first=Marilyn |date=2010 |title=Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters |editors=Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Rollyson |first=Carl |date=1991 |title=The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Paragon House |page= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{citation |author= |title=Strawhead |people=By Norman Mailer (Director) Norris Church Mailer, Robert Heller and Mickey Knox (Performers) |date=January 1986 |location=Actors Studio, New York |type=Performance |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite journal |last=Morrow |first=Stephan |date=2008 |title=The Unknown and the General |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |location= |pages=273-297 |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |date=June 1981 |title=Shades of Gray |magazine=Texas Monthly |pages=196-207 |type=Print |ref=harv }}