User:JBrown/sandbox: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

In 1998, Norman Mailer Published ''The Time of Our Time'' , a 1,300 page retrospective of his own work, covering not simply of the “fifty years of American time” which had passed since his first novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'',had appeared but also the previous nineteen, as Mailer had understood them (ix). The book begins with two “preludes,” the first, an account of the “historic afternoon” in June 1929 when Morley Callaghan floored Ernest Hemingway in a boxing ring at the American Club in Paris, is entitled “''Boxing with Hemingway''."

In 1998, Norman Mailer Published ''The Time of Our Time'' , a 1,300 page retrospective of his own work, covering not simply of the “fifty years of American time” which had passed since his first novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'', had appeared but also the previous nineteen, as Mailer had understood them (ix). The book begins with two “preludes,” the first, an account of the “historic afternoon” in June 1929 when Morley Callaghan floored Ernest Hemingway in a boxing ring at the American Club in Paris, is entitled “''Boxing with Hemingway''."

It is often assumed that the relationship between Mailer, Hemingway and boxing is a matter of simple repetition. As Hemingway sought to “square up” Turgenev, Maupassant and Tolstoy in order to become the heavy weight “champion” of the literary world (Hemingway, ''Selected Letters 673''),so Mailer aspired to become the next generation's “novelist as giant” by taking on and superseding Hemingway (Mailer, ''Cannibals 96''). Mailer himself then became “the man to beat for the men and women who punch out words” (''Healy 173'') so Max Apple imagines being “Inside Norman Mailer” (49) while Joyce Carol Oates fantasizes about “eat[ing] Mailer’s heart” (''Our Private Lives 335''). But it may not be as straightforward as all that.

Line 39:

For all that Hemingway strove to be “classic,” “sophisticated,” “purer,” and “graceful,” for all that he represented the ideals of “scrupulosity,”“manners,” and “gravity” (''Pieces'' 912), the chaos of his “inner” life was still apparent to Mailer (''Existential'' 10). In other words, like Cal Hubbard,"[t]he two halves of his soul were far apart" (''Harlot’s'' 117). The question was one of balance. At his best, like Hubbard, Hemingway’s “strength was that he had managed to find some inner cooperation between these disparate halves” (''Harlot’s'' 117). At “his worst” (''Advertisements'' 474) shortly before his death, the “old moldering” (477) writer was adding to “the nausea he once cleared away” (474).

'''“BEING MACHO IS NO FUN”''' (''THE BIG EMPTY 185'') Nowhere in Hemingway’s fiction does what Mailer called the “continuing battle” of “being a man” emerge more clearly than in his representation of boxers (''Advertisements'' 222). T o consider a boxer (especially a heavyweight) is to consider a man who should—at least in the world into which Hemingway was born—epitomize a straightforward, unambiguous Anglo-Saxon heterosexual manliness. But, for one reason or another, Hemingway’s boxers are unable to fulfill the brief. Cooperation between one’s disparate halves— “the Champ and the Fraud” —is not always possible (''Pontifications'' 160).

Consider “The Light of the World” (1933), in which the teenage narrator and his friend, Tom, encounter a motley crew of late-night travelers at a rail-way station: “five whores . . . and six white men and four Indians” (Hemingway, ''Short Stories'' 385). Among the prostitutes are two “big” women, Alice and Peroxide, who argue about who really knew “Steve” or “Stanley” Ketchel (they also can’t agree on the first name). The cook remembers Stanley Ketchel’s 1909 fight with Jack Johnson, in particular how Ketchel had floored Johnson in the 12th round just before Johnson knocked him out. Peroxide attributes Ketchel’s defeat to a punch by Johnson (“the big black bastard” (389)) when Ketchel, “the only man she ever loved” (388), smiled at her in the audience. Alice remembers Steve Ketchel telling her she was “a lovely piece” (390). Both women refer continuously to Ketchel’s “whiteness”—“I never saw a man as clean and as white and as beautiful,” says Peroxide (388). “White,” as Walter Benn Michaels notes, “becomes an adjective describing character instead of skin” (“The Souls” 193); and so, Ketchel is figured as a kind of Christ-like figure, while Johnson, “that black son of a bitch from hell” (Hemingway,“The Light” 389), is the devil.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{user sandbox|plain=yes}}
-In 1998, Norman Mailer Published ''The Time of Our Time'' , a 1,300 page retrospective of his own work, covering not simply of the “fifty years of American time” which had passed since his first novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'',had appeared but also the previous nineteen, as Mailer had understood them (ix). The book begins with two “preludes,” the first, an account of the “historic afternoon” in June 1929 when Morley Callaghan floored Ernest Hemingway in a boxing ring at the American Club in Paris, is entitled “''Boxing with Hemingway''."
+In 1998, Norman Mailer Published ''The Time of Our Time'' , a 1,300 page retrospective of his own work, covering not simply of the “fifty years of American time” which had passed since his first novel, ''The Naked and the Dead'', had appeared but also the previous nineteen, as Mailer had understood them (ix). The book begins with two “preludes,” the first, an account of the “historic afternoon” in June 1929 when Morley Callaghan floored Ernest Hemingway in a boxing ring at the American Club in Paris, is entitled “''Boxing with Hemingway''."
 It is often assumed that the relationship between Mailer, Hemingway and boxing is a matter of simple repetition. As Hemingway sought to “square up” Turgenev, Maupassant and Tolstoy in order to become the heavy weight “champion” of the literary world (Hemingway, ''Selected Letters 673''),so Mailer aspired to become the next generation's “novelist as giant” by taking on and superseding Hemingway (Mailer, ''Cannibals 96''). Mailer himself then became “the man to beat for the men and women who punch out words” (''Healy 173'') so Max Apple imagines being “Inside Norman Mailer” (49) while Joyce Carol Oates fantasizes about “eat[ing] Mailer’s heart” (''Our Private Lives 335''). But it may not be as straightforward as all that.
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 For all that Hemingway strove to be “classic,” “sophisticated,” “purer,” and “graceful,” for all that he represented the ideals of “scrupulosity,”“manners,” and “gravity” (''Pieces'' 912), the chaos of his “inner” life was still apparent to Mailer (''Existential'' 10). In other words, like Cal Hubbard,"[t]he two halves of his soul were far apart" (''Harlot’s'' 117). The question was one of balance. At his best, like Hubbard, Hemingway’s “strength was that he had managed to find some inner cooperation between these disparate halves” (''Harlot’s'' 117). At “his worst” (''Advertisements'' 474) shortly before his death, the “old moldering” (477) writer was adding to “the nausea he once cleared away” (474).
+'''“BEING MACHO IS NO FUN”''' (''THE BIG EMPTY 185'') Nowhere in Hemingway’s fiction does what Mailer called the “continuing battle” of “being a man” emerge more clearly than in his representation of boxers (''Advertisements'' 222). T o consider a boxer (especially a heavyweight) is to consider a man who should—at least in the world into which Hemingway was born—epitomize a straightforward, unambiguous Anglo-Saxon heterosexual manliness. But, for one reason or another, Hemingway’s boxers are unable to fulfill the brief. Cooperation between one’s disparate halves— “the Champ and the Fraud” —is not always possible (''Pontifications'' 160).
+Consider “The Light of the World” (1933), in which the teenage narrator and his friend, Tom, encounter a motley crew of late-night travelers at a rail-way station: “five whores . . . and six white men and four Indians” (Hemingway, ''Short Stories'' 385). Among the prostitutes are two “big” women, Alice and Peroxide, who argue about who really knew “Steve” or “Stanley” Ketchel (they also can’t agree on the first name). The cook remembers Stanley Ketchel’s 1909 fight with Jack Johnson, in particular how Ketchel had floored Johnson in the 12th round just before Johnson knocked him out. Peroxide attributes Ketchel’s defeat to a punch by Johnson (“the big black bastard” (389)) when Ketchel, “the only man she ever loved” (388), smiled at her in the audience. Alice remembers Steve Ketchel telling her she was “a lovely piece” (390). Both women refer continuously to Ketchel’s “whiteness”—“I never saw a man as clean and as white and as beautiful,” says Peroxide (388). “White,” as Walter Benn Michaels notes, “becomes an adjective describing character instead of skin” (“The Souls” 193); and so, Ketchel is figured as a kind of Christ-like figure, while Johnson, “that black son of a bitch from hell” (Hemingway,“The Light” 389), is the devil.