User:MerAtticus/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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''Of Women and Their Elegance,'' Mailer's second appropriation of Marilyn Monroe, came some seven years after the first. Like the first, it is heavily reliant on the visual. Here, however, rather than pictures only of Marilyn, there are pictures of other women and their elegance. The photographs by Milton H. Greene run the gamut from Marlene Dietrich to Grandma Moses. In ''Marilyn'' Mailer claimed to be writing a "novel biography" and he routinely referenced the biographical works of Maurice Zolotow, Fred Lawrence Guiles, and Norman Rosten, also often citing what he called "factoids." Here he baldly states in a note before the text that he "does not pretend to offer factual representations."

Obviously foreseeing much of the kind of criticism that this book would engender, Mailer anticipates his detractors in a make-believe trial published in ''New York'' magazine. Deftly titled "Before the Literary Bar," besides his own voice he creates the parts of the Prosecutor, the Defense, and The Court. The charge is "criminal literary negligence" and Mailer himself characterizes the work as a "falso autobiography" or "an imaginary memoir".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|pp=27-8}} The thrust of his main argument about his fast-and-loose treatment of the facts is that what he portrays in the book, "whether factual or not...[could] reasonably have occurred in Miss Monroe's life" and that they are therefore "aesthetically true" if not literally so.{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=34}} Mailer assumes the variety of voices, both pro and con, in an adroit manner, convincingly developing the arguments of his detractors. In some spots he even demonstartes a delightful sense of self-irony. An example is when, after having been instructed numerous times to reply only to the questions asked of him, he has The Court remark, "Maybe Mr. Mailer thinks he is being paid by the word".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=34}} In another instance he {{pg|270|271}} has The Court assure him, after a question of whether or not he would like it if someone made up facts about him when he is dead, that they "do not with to rush that occasion".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=45-6}}

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* {{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 journal |last= Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |title=Aquarius ON Gemini - I |url= |journal=New York Times |volume=27 |issue= |date=16 July 1973 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite magazine |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=10 Nov 1980 |title=Before the Literary Bar |magazine=New York Magazine |pages=27-46 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1980 |title= Of Women and Their Elegance |location=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1973 |title=Marilyn |location=New York |publisher=Galahad Books |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

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 ''Of Women and Their Elegance,'' Mailer's second appropriation of Marilyn Monroe, came some seven years after the first. Like the first, it is heavily reliant on the visual. Here, however, rather than pictures only of Marilyn, there are pictures of other women and their elegance. The photographs by Milton H. Greene run the gamut from Marlene Dietrich to Grandma Moses. In ''Marilyn'' Mailer claimed to be writing a "novel biography" and he routinely referenced the biographical works of Maurice Zolotow, Fred Lawrence Guiles, and Norman Rosten, also often citing what he called "factoids." Here he baldly states in a note before the text that he "does not pretend to offer factual representations."
+Obviously foreseeing much of the kind of criticism that this book would engender, Mailer anticipates his detractors in a make-believe trial published in ''New York'' magazine. Deftly titled "Before the Literary Bar," besides his own voice he creates the parts of the Prosecutor, the Defense, and The Court. The charge is "criminal literary negligence" and Mailer himself characterizes the work as a "falso autobiography" or "an imaginary memoir".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|pp=27-8}} The thrust of his main argument about his fast-and-loose treatment of the facts is that what he portrays in the book, "whether factual or not...[could] reasonably have occurred in Miss Monroe's life" and that they are therefore "aesthetically true" if not literally so.{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=34}} Mailer assumes the variety of voices, both pro and con, in an adroit manner, convincingly developing the arguments of his detractors. In some spots he even demonstartes a delightful sense of self-irony. An example is when, after having been instructed numerous times to reply only to the questions asked of him, he has The Court remark, "Maybe Mr. Mailer thinks he is being paid by the word".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=34}} In another instance he {{pg|270|271}} has The Court assure him, after a question of whether or not he would like it if someone made up facts about him when he is dead, that they "do not with to rush that occasion".{{sfn|Mailer|10 Nov 1980|p=45-6}}
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 * {{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 journal |last= Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |title=Aquarius ON Gemini - I |url= |journal=New York Times |volume=27 |issue= |date=16 July 1973 |type=Print |ref=harv }}
+* {{cite magazine |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=10 Nov 1980 |title=Before the Literary Bar |magazine=New York Magazine |pages=27-46 |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1980 |title= Of Women and Their Elegance |location=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1973 |title=Marilyn |location=New York |publisher=Galahad Books |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}