User:MerAtticus/sandbox: Difference between revisions
MerAtticus (talk | contribs) Added second paragraph, page break 264-265, Manso citation and works cited, and notes a=1, b=2. |
MerAtticus (talk | contribs) Added third paragraph, in-text and works cited citations for Lehmann and Dearborn, added notes C and D. |
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IN A LENGTHY, SINGLE-SPACED, TWO-AND-A-HALF-PAGE TYPEWRITTEN CRITIQUE of the Actor's Studio production of ''Strawhead,'' Norman Mailer's fifth wife, Carol, tasks him with the above observation about this third appropriation of Marilyn Monroe as a focus for his creative endeavors. It is a salient question, something mentioned not only by someone who knew him intimately, but also by critics of the relevant works, ''Marilyn, Of Women and Their Elegance,'' and ''Strawhead''. Mailer's biographers have also noted how beguiled he was with the topic. Robert Merrill calls it "a | IN A LENGTHY, SINGLE-SPACED, TWO-AND-A-HALF-PAGE TYPEWRITTEN CRITIQUE of the Actor's Studio production of ''Strawhead,'' Norman Mailer's fifth wife, Carol, tasks him with the above observation about this third appropriation of Marilyn Monroe as a focus for his creative endeavors. It is a salient question, something mentioned not only by someone who knew him intimately, but also by critics of the relevant works, ''Marilyn, Of Women and Their Elegance,'' and ''Strawhead''. Mailer's biographers have also noted how beguiled he was with the topic. Robert Merrill calls it "a continuing obsession".{{sfn|Merrill|1992|p=9}} Barry Leeds introduces his book-length study, ''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer,'' with a chapter on Mailer and Marilyn, observing in his first sentence that for decades Mailer had been "fascinated with the life and death of Marilyn Monroe",{{sfn|Leeds|2002|p=20}} introducing the similarities between them, and concluding that they were both prisoners of sex. The issue calls for further exploration of both its enduring allure for Mailer and the unsavory aspects of his handling of his Marilyn mania. | ||
It is hard to know exactly when this "obsession" began. Mailer claimed on a number of occasions that he had never met Marilyn Monroe. Not so, according to Shelley Winters, quoted in the "Hollywood Politics" chapter of Peter Manso's biography. She contradicts Mailer's claim that he never met Monroe. According to Winters, they met at a rally for Henry Wallace in {{pg|264|265}}Hollywood in 1948.{{sfn|Manso|1985|p=131}} Both may be right according to their memories. It is possible that in 1948, the woman who would become Marilyn Monroe was still Norma Jeane and displayed little of that incandescent ability to exude sexuality as she projected herself to camera and fans.{{efn|Guiles spells it "Jeane" in ''Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe,'' as does Leaming in ''Marilyn.'' Mailer spells it "Jean".}} The as-yet-unknown Norma Jeane may not have made enough of an impression on Mailer for him to remember it. Years later, once he began writing about her, the official story from him and a number of his biographers is that the only place they ever met was in his imagination.{{efn| This holds true for the make-believe trial he created to forestall the criticism of his second Monroe book. '''When his is''' asked in an imaginary court scene, Mailer answers the Prosecutor's question about whether he had ever met MM, by saying, "No, but I sat behind her once at '''(the)''' Actor's Studio" ("Before" 33).}} Regardless of whether or not they met briefly in the forties or never met, once Mailer had fastened onto Monroe as a topic for his literary delectation, he had a hard time letting go. In addition, his fervor sometimes led to "piling on" and on occasion "late hits" or "low blows," to use football and boxing metaphors for Mailer's literary excesses. | It is hard to know exactly when this "obsession" began. Mailer claimed on a number of occasions that he had never met Marilyn Monroe. Not so, according to Shelley Winters, quoted in the "Hollywood Politics" chapter of Peter Manso's biography. She contradicts Mailer's claim that he never met Monroe. According to Winters, they met at a rally for Henry Wallace in {{pg|264|265}}Hollywood in 1948.{{sfn|Manso|1985|p=131}} Both may be right according to their memories. It is possible that in 1948, the woman who would become Marilyn Monroe was still Norma Jeane and displayed little of that incandescent ability to exude sexuality as she projected herself to camera and fans.{{efn|Guiles spells it "Jeane" in ''Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe,'' as does Leaming in ''Marilyn.'' Mailer spells it "Jean".}} The as-yet-unknown Norma Jeane may not have made enough of an impression on Mailer for him to remember it. Years later, once he began writing about her, the official story from him and a number of his biographers is that the only place they ever met was in his imagination.{{efn| This holds true for the make-believe trial he created to forestall the criticism of his second Monroe book. '''When his is''' asked in an imaginary court scene, Mailer answers the Prosecutor's question about whether he had ever met MM, by saying, "No, but I sat behind her once at '''(the)''' Actor's Studio" ("Before" 33).}} Regardless of whether or not they met briefly in the forties or never met, once Mailer had fastened onto Monroe as a topic for his literary delectation, he had a hard time letting go. In addition, his fervor sometimes led to "piling on" and on occasion "late hits" or "low blows," to use football and boxing metaphors for Mailer's literary excesses. | ||
Oddly enough for what became such an enduring interest, the initial impetus to write about Monroe was not Mailer's.{{{efn|I am not unmindful of the earlier references to Monroe or the Marilynesque characters in previous Mailer works, but here I mean Marilyn as the main subject.}} It came as part of a book project for a compilation of photographs, principle among them Larry Schiller who had taken nude photographs of the actress in the last days of her life. Others included Milton Greene, Bert Stern, Eve Arnold, and Richard Avedon.{{efn|Milton Greene's photographs would be featured in Mailer's second Monroe project ''Of Women and Their Elegance.''}} Mailer was a big name writer, whom they contacted to quickly deliver a ten-thousand-word preface for this photography book. However, as is often the case with addictions and/or obsessions, once started, they are difficult to abandon. The Preface was like an aphrodisiac appetizer for Mailer and once begun, the subject so enflamed his phallic pen, that eventually it produced more than ninety thousand words and, in the opinion of the ''New York Times'' reviewer, the "100 photographs...[were] reduced to serving the relatively minor function of illustrating his text".{{sfn|Lehmann-Haupt|1973|p=27}} And while Marilyn was to serve as Mailer's muse on three separate occasions, it was this initial foray into the world of America's legendary sex goddess that first demonstrated Marilyn's variety of uses for Mailer. In this case, the publication of ''Marilyn'' was professionally valuable in the development of Mailer's career. Middle-aged, with his career in a "holding pattern," according to '''Mary''' Dearborn, "''Marilyn'' put Norman's name before the public, where it had not been" for some years.{{sfn|Dearborn |1999|p=324}} | |||
=== Notes === | === Notes === | ||
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===Works Cited=== | ===Works Cited=== | ||
{{Refbegin}} | {{Refbegin}} | ||
* {{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= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first= Marilyn V. |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Manso |first=Peter |date=1985 |title= Mailer |location=New York |publisher= Simon & Schuster |pages= |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 }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Merrill |first=Robert |date=1992 |title=Norman Mailer Revisited |location=New York |publisher= Twayne Publishers|pages= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite journal |last= Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |title=Aquarius ON Gemini - I |work=New York Times ||volume=27 |date=16 July 1973 |location= |type=Print |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{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 }} | |||
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IN A LENGTHY, SINGLE-SPACED, TWO-AND-A-HALF-PAGE TYPEWRITTEN CRITIQUE of the Actor's Studio production of Strawhead, Norman Mailer's fifth wife, Carol, tasks him with the above observation about this third appropriation of Marilyn Monroe as a focus for his creative endeavors. It is a salient question, something mentioned not only by someone who knew him intimately, but also by critics of the relevant works, Marilyn, Of Women and Their Elegance, and Strawhead. Mailer's biographers have also noted how beguiled he was with the topic. Robert Merrill calls it "a continuing obsession".[1] Barry Leeds introduces his book-length study, The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer, with a chapter on Mailer and Marilyn, observing in his first sentence that for decades Mailer had been "fascinated with the life and death of Marilyn Monroe",[2] introducing the similarities between them, and concluding that they were both prisoners of sex. The issue calls for further exploration of both its enduring allure for Mailer and the unsavory aspects of his handling of his Marilyn mania.
It is hard to know exactly when this "obsession" began. Mailer claimed on a number of occasions that he had never met Marilyn Monroe. Not so, according to Shelley Winters, quoted in the "Hollywood Politics" chapter of Peter Manso's biography. She contradicts Mailer's claim that he never met Monroe. According to Winters, they met at a rally for Henry Wallace in
page 264
Hollywood in 1948.[3] Both may be right according to their memories. It is possible that in 1948, the woman who would become Marilyn Monroe was still Norma Jeane and displayed little of that incandescent ability to exude sexuality as she projected herself to camera and fans.[a] The as-yet-unknown Norma Jeane may not have made enough of an impression on Mailer for him to remember it. Years later, once he began writing about her, the official story from him and a number of his biographers is that the only place they ever met was in his imagination.[b] Regardless of whether or not they met briefly in the forties or never met, once Mailer had fastened onto Monroe as a topic for his literary delectation, he had a hard time letting go. In addition, his fervor sometimes led to "piling on" and on occasion "late hits" or "low blows," to use football and boxing metaphors for Mailer's literary excesses.
Oddly enough for what became such an enduring interest, the initial impetus to write about Monroe was not Mailer's.{[c] It came as part of a book project for a compilation of photographs, principle among them Larry Schiller who had taken nude photographs of the actress in the last days of her life. Others included Milton Greene, Bert Stern, Eve Arnold, and Richard Avedon.[d] Mailer was a big name writer, whom they contacted to quickly deliver a ten-thousand-word preface for this photography book. However, as is often the case with addictions and/or obsessions, once started, they are difficult to abandon. The Preface was like an aphrodisiac appetizer for Mailer and once begun, the subject so enflamed his phallic pen, that eventually it produced more than ninety thousand words and, in the opinion of the New York Times reviewer, the "100 photographs...[were] reduced to serving the relatively minor function of illustrating his text".[4] And while Marilyn was to serve as Mailer's muse on three separate occasions, it was this initial foray into the world of America's legendary sex goddess that first demonstrated Marilyn's variety of uses for Mailer. In this case, the publication of Marilyn was professionally valuable in the development of Mailer's career. Middle-aged, with his career in a "holding pattern," according to Mary Dearborn, "Marilyn put Norman's name before the public, where it had not been" for some years.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Guiles spells it "Jeane" in Legend: The Life and Death of Marilyn Monroe, as does Leaming in Marilyn. Mailer spells it "Jean".
- ↑ This holds true for the make-believe trial he created to forestall the criticism of his second Monroe book. When his is asked in an imaginary court scene, Mailer answers the Prosecutor's question about whether he had ever met MM, by saying, "No, but I sat behind her once at (the) Actor's Studio" ("Before" 33).
- ↑ I am not unmindful of the earlier references to Monroe or the Marilynesque characters in previous Mailer works, but here I mean Marilyn as the main subject.
- ↑ Milton Greene's photographs would be featured in Mailer's second Monroe project Of Women and Their Elegance.
Citations
- ↑ Merrill 1992, p. 9.
- ↑ Leeds 2002, p. 20.
- ↑ Manso 1985, p. 131.
- ↑ Lehmann-Haupt 1973, p. 27.
- ↑ Dearborn 1999, p. 324.
Works Cited
- Dearborn, Marilyn V. Mailer: A Biography (Print). New York: Houghton Mifflin.
- Leeds, Barry H. (2002). The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer (Print). Bainbridge Island, WA: Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press.
- Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (16 July 1973). "Aquarius ON Gemini - I". New York Times (Print). 27.
- Manso, Peter (1985). Mailer (Print). New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Merrill, Robert (1992). Norman Mailer Revisited (Print). New York: Twayne Publishers.