The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Encounters with Mailer: Difference between revisions
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Mailer began apologetically, saying his reputation had been exaggerated. They seemed to expect a wild man like Hunter S. Thompson: “I couldn’t carry Hunter Thompson’s water pail,” he said modestly. He referred to the last lecture he had given at the University of Florida, in 1975, when the audience heckled him; he felt he had laid an egg that night and seemed to want to make up for it. But his opening anecdote about the boxer Sonny Liston, intended to warm them up, received no response. “That’s the first time I’ve told that story without getting a laugh,” he said. “I can see we’re going to have a lot of fun tonight.” With that, the audience finally laughed, and Mailer smiled for the first time that evening. | Mailer began apologetically, saying his reputation had been exaggerated. They seemed to expect a wild man like Hunter S. Thompson: “I couldn’t carry Hunter Thompson’s water pail,” he said modestly. He referred to the last lecture he had given at the University of Florida, in 1975, when the audience heckled him; he felt he had laid an egg that night and seemed to want to make up for it. But his opening anecdote about the boxer Sonny Liston, intended to warm them up, received no response. “That’s the first time I’ve told that story without getting a laugh,” he said. “I can see we’re going to have a lot of fun tonight.” With that, the audience finally laughed, and Mailer smiled for the first time that evening. | ||
He read a passage about Muhammad Ali from ''The Fight'', speaking with a Southern twang, holding the book in his right hand while making short jabs with his clenched left fist. He also read from | He read a passage about Muhammad Ali from ''The Fight'', speaking with a Southern twang, holding the book in his right hand while making short jabs with his clenched left fist. He also read from ''The Art of Writing'', which had recently been published in ''Michigan Quarterly Review''. | ||
Afterwards there were the inevitable questions about Mailer’s reputation as a male chauvinist. “I’ve been called a sexist. I’ve been called macho. . . . Women don’t know what they’re talking about....Women have been telling men how to live in New York for the last century.” Some in the audience groaned; others laughed. | Afterwards there were the inevitable questions about Mailer’s reputation as a male chauvinist. “I’ve been called a sexist. I’ve been called macho. . . . Women don’t know what they’re talking about....Women have been telling men how to live in New York for the last century.” Some in the audience groaned; others laughed. | ||