Talk:The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/Interview with Susan Mailer, author of In Another Place: With and Without My Father, Norman Mailer: Difference between revisions
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'''#1) As a practicing psychoanalyst, you have published professional papers, but this is your first creative work. Why did you decide to write a memoir?''' | '''#1) As a practicing psychoanalyst, you have published professional papers, but this is your first creative work. Why did you decide to write a memoir?''' | ||
'''SM''': In 2013 I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the '''<Norman Mailer Society>''' Conference. I decided to write a personal vignette that would shed light on an unknown aspect of my father's life. Immediately, I remembered those months Dad had spent in Mexico when I was a small child and had taken me to the bullfights. I hadn't thought about the ''corridas'' in more than 40 years, but the images were all there, waiting to be retrieved: the music, the atmosphere, the smell of beer and Mexican snacks, people cheering, and most of all the black bull running, panting, fighting for his life, and finally dying. | '''SM''': In 2013 I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the '''<u>Norman Mailer Society</u>''' Conference. I decided to write a personal vignette that would shed light on an unknown aspect of my father's life. Immediately, I remembered those months Dad had spent in Mexico when I was a small child and had taken me to the bullfights. I hadn't thought about the ''corridas'' in more than 40 years, but the images were all there, waiting to be retrieved: the music, the atmosphere, the smell of beer and Mexican snacks, people cheering, and most of all the black bull running, panting, fighting for his life, and finally dying. | ||
Before the Norman Mailer Conference, I had participated in psychoanalytic conferences and written papers that were published in journals. Thinking about my life and setting down on paper was a new experience. I dug into my memories, waited for my unconscious to work through the gray areas, and a piece of my life with Dad appeared. The writing flowed, and I enjoyed it. I thought I want to do more of this. And I also thought, ''many books have been written about Dad, but few people know what he was like as a father''. I decided to plunge into unknown territory and began writing the memoir. | Before the Norman Mailer Conference, I had participated in psychoanalytic conferences and written papers that were published in journals. Thinking about my life and setting down on paper was a new experience. I dug into my memories, waited for my unconscious to work through the gray areas, and a piece of my life with Dad appeared. The writing flowed, and I enjoyed it. I thought I want to do more of this. And I also thought, ''many books have been written about Dad, but few people know what he was like as a father''. I decided to plunge into unknown territory and began writing the memoir. | ||