The Mailer Review/Volume 4, 2010/Jive-Ass Aficionado: Why Are We in Vietnam? and Hemingway's Moral Code: Difference between revisions

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 novel’s end, a boy who has enough aficion to know right from wrong in the
 matter of hunting etiquette seems suddenly hot to board that plane for “Vietnam, hot damn” (Mailer, ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' 208). Unless, of course, he is the voice of an ironist who asks which is worse, Harlem guiding Dallas or vice versa? The Hipster or the Redneck?{{pg|205|206}}
+Ultimately, it is Mailer and D.J.’s adoption of the Hipster mind-set and
+way of talking that sets them apart from others, even more so than the
+hunter’s code of honor. And being an insider—someone who knows what
+the outside world can only imagine—is perhaps the most crucial element
+of ''aficion'', as Hemingway detailed it.“Jake achieves prominence in the group
+because he is the aficionado,” Linda Wagner-Martin observes. And with
+Barnes as narrator (''The Sun Also Rises''),“Hemingway tries to use that mocking, quasi-humorous tone that he chooses for his ''Esquire'' columns during the 1930s, for ""Green Hills of Africa"", and for some of his stories” (10). In ""The Sun Also Rises"", the Pamplona hotel owner who has ''aficion'' and who boards bullfighters that share his ''aficion'', puts his hand on Jake Barnes’ shoulder and smiles. Jake writes,
+<blockquote>He always smiled as though bull-fighting were a very special secret between the two of us; a rather shocking but really very deep secret that we knew about. He always smiled as though there were something lewd about the secret to outsiders, but that it was something that we understood. It would not do to expose it to people who would not understand. (Hemingway, ''Sun'' 131)</blockquote>
+Likewise, in ''Green Hills of Africa'', Poppa’s prowess and hunting ''aficion'' earns him a special tribal handshake “using the thumb which evidently denoted
+extreme emotion” (Hemingway 167); later, he asks what it means, and Pop
+explains,“It’s on the order of blood brotherhood but a little less formal,” and
+quips, “You’re getting to be a hell of a fellow”when he hears that the Massai
+have accepted Poppa into their circle (206).
+“Hip makes for a livelier vocabulary, a more stylish way of carrying oneself, more and better orgasms,” writes one critic (Dupee 101). The Hipster, which D.J. embraces, is a culture whose Mandarin language is understood only by members of an exclusive group, the same as with Hemingway’s heroes. “The Hipster is, of course, only one of many possible realizations of the ‘new consciousness’ of which Mailer is the prophet,” Foster concludes (26); and prophets are always insiders. By the end of ''Why Are We in Vietnam?'' it has become clear that D.J. is indeed an insider with a unique and prophetic voice. He’s also a true aficionado. But the disturbing question (and the force behind what power the novel possesses) is, as Mailer was fully{{pg|206|207}}
+aware, of ''what?'' More and better orgasms? As Hemingway’s war-wounded
+hero quips at the end of ''The Sun Also Rises'',“Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (247).