User:MerAtticus/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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The reception of ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' was mixed. The exploitive nature of Mailer's use of Monroe did not go without notice. Although David Marshall considered it a "wonderful treasure," mainly because of the photographs, he also remarked that Mailer was "squeezing the last dollar out of a woman he never met." Lawrence Wright's ''Texas Monthly'' article that explores the connections between fact and fiction, particularly in what is called the "new journalism," compares Mailer's ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' unfavorably to ''The Executioner's Song.'' Wright terms the former "reader abuse" and concludes that Mailer's depiction of Marilyn is unconvincing as he is "trying to fill the unexplored spaces in her personlaity with his own".{{sfn|Wright|June 1981|p=202}} In addition, beyond the critiques of the text of the book, it has the dubious distinction that the 1999 ''Esquire'' Book Awards named ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' as Worst Title.

It took Mailer a few years to get back to "piling on" Marilyn. This time, the medium was theatre. Although ''Strawhead'' is often categorized as a dramatization of ''Of Women and Their Elegance,'' there are a number of variances, probably occasioned by the differences in media and perhaps by Mailer's desire to emphasize the imaginary truth aspect of his take on Marilyn. Richard Hannum is listed as the co-author of the play. Among the number of drafts housed at the Harry Ransom Center is a bound copy that emphasizes the "staged" quality of the production.{{efn|There are numerous drafts in the Mailer collection, reflecting pre- and post-production rewrites.}} It begins with the ACTRESS, the DIRECTOR, and the PLAYWRIGHT discussing the issue of whether or not the ACTRESS should take the part and whether she feels up to it. She names her boyfriend, her agent and her consciousness-raising group as reason not to take the part. In terms of the latter, Mailer's cognizance of previous feminist reations to his "Marilyn" works may be in play. The ACTRESS names feminist indecision about whether to consider Marilyn a martyr, a victim, or a collaborator with the enemy. Further removal of the distance between audience and subject is accom-{{pg|274|275}}plished by the way, when the play is ready to begin, the audience watches as the Marilyn character is created. The actress draws a small black mole on her cheek and puts on a blonde wig. In addition, Mailer uses the timeworn theatrical technique of the aside to indicate that the "mirror of her mind" is being reflected to the audience. These he indentifcies as D.A.--Direct Address. There are many occasions for this. Much of the action begins at Marilyn's dressing table as she remembers. Stage directions call for the "actors who paly varying roles in Marilyn Monroe's life [to] appear...like 'cat calls.' "They are verbal memories for Marilyn".{{sfn|''Strawhead''|1986|1.1}}

Among the changes from text to stage is a different initial setting. Whereas ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' begins with an excerpt from a ''Life'' magazine interview shortly before she died and then moves to a Waldorf Towers suite, all of ''Strawhead'' takes place in Marilyn's mind. Added sound effects contribute to the wistful and tragic tone of the piece. In a number of scenes there are claps of thunder heard and in one version, "Smile Though Your Heart is Aching" is played at the end of the play as Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chapline walk off together.

Although ''Strawhead'' was never produced on Broadway, it did recieve some attention before going "kerflooie" in Mailer's words.{{sfn|Mailer|7 May 1986|letter}} In 1983, The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard had a staged reading for alum of Mailer's spec script. That same year, Provincetown Playhouse also produced a version. Mailer's sexual obession was blatantly evident in the early script that began with a fantasy interview wherein the Marilyn character gives a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. Shelley Winters had such a negative response that it resulted in a Mailer rewrite. The 1986 Actor's Studio production was attended by many of Mailer's friends, some of whom, such as Kitty Carlyle wrote that she found herself "enormously interested." Less complimentary is a letter from Elia Kazan who diplogatically writes, "Your play is worth more work. You can and should improve it."

On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}

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* {{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Jennifer |date=1979 |title= Norman Mailer: Quick-Change Artist |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{citation |last=Carlyle |first=Kitty |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Marilyn V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{citation |last=Kazan |first=Elia |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |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 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 }}

* {{citation |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=7 May 1986 |title=Letter to Loren Plotkin |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harvesting}}

* {{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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* {{cite book |last=Rollyson |first=Carl |date=1991 |title=The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Paragon House |page= |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{citation |author= |title=Strawhead |people=By Norman Mailer (Director) Norris Church Mailer, Robert Heller and Mickey Knox (Performers) |date=January 1986 |location=Actors Studio, New York |type=Performance |ref=harv }}

* {{cite journal |last=Morrow |first=Stephan |date=2008 |title=The Unknown and the General |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |location= |pages=273-297 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

* {{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |date=June 1981 |title=Shades of Gray |magazine=Texas Monthly |pages=196-207 |type=Print |ref=harv }}

@@ Line 31: / Line 31: @@
 The reception of ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' was mixed. The exploitive nature of Mailer's use of Monroe did not go without notice. Although David Marshall considered it a "wonderful treasure," mainly because of the photographs, he also remarked that Mailer was "squeezing the last dollar out of a woman he never met." Lawrence Wright's ''Texas Monthly'' article that explores the connections between fact and fiction, particularly in what is called the "new journalism," compares Mailer's ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' unfavorably to ''The Executioner's Song.'' Wright terms the former "reader abuse" and concludes that Mailer's depiction of Marilyn is unconvincing as he is "trying to fill the unexplored spaces in her personlaity with his own".{{sfn|Wright|June 1981|p=202}} In addition, beyond the critiques of the text of the book, it has the dubious distinction that the 1999 ''Esquire'' Book Awards named ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' as Worst Title.
 It took Mailer a few years to get back to "piling on" Marilyn. This time, the medium was theatre. Although ''Strawhead'' is often categorized as a dramatization of ''Of Women and Their Elegance,'' there are a number of variances, probably occasioned by the differences in media and perhaps by Mailer's desire to emphasize the imaginary truth aspect of his take on Marilyn. Richard Hannum is listed as the co-author of the play. Among the number of drafts housed at the Harry Ransom Center is a bound copy that emphasizes the "staged" quality of the production.{{efn|There are numerous drafts in the Mailer collection, reflecting pre- and post-production rewrites.}} It begins with the ACTRESS, the DIRECTOR, and the PLAYWRIGHT discussing the issue of whether or not the ACTRESS should take the part and whether she feels up to it. She names her boyfriend, her agent and her consciousness-raising group as reason not to take the part. In terms of the latter, Mailer's cognizance of previous feminist reations to his "Marilyn" works may be in play. The ACTRESS names feminist indecision about whether to consider Marilyn a martyr, a victim, or a collaborator with the enemy. Further removal of the distance between audience and subject is accom-{{pg|274|275}}plished by the way, when the play is ready to begin, the audience watches as the Marilyn character is created. The actress draws a small black mole on her cheek and puts on a blonde wig. In addition, Mailer uses the timeworn theatrical technique of the aside to indicate that the "mirror of her mind" is being reflected to the audience. These he indentifcies as D.A.--Direct Address. There are many occasions for this. Much of the action begins at Marilyn's dressing table as she remembers. Stage directions call for the "actors who paly varying roles in Marilyn Monroe's life [to] appear...like 'cat calls.' "They are verbal memories for Marilyn".{{sfn|''Strawhead''|1986|1.1}}
+Among the changes from text to stage is a different initial setting. Whereas ''Of Women and Their Elegance'' begins with an excerpt from a ''Life'' magazine interview shortly before she died and then moves to a Waldorf Towers suite, all of ''Strawhead'' takes place in Marilyn's mind. Added sound effects contribute to the wistful and tragic tone of the piece. In a number of scenes there are claps of thunder heard and in one version, "Smile Though Your Heart is Aching" is played at the end of the play as Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chapline walk off together.
+Although ''Strawhead'' was never produced on Broadway, it did recieve some attention before going "kerflooie" in Mailer's words.{{sfn|Mailer|7 May 1986|letter}} In 1983, The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard had a staged reading for alum of Mailer's spec script. That same year, Provincetown Playhouse also produced a version. Mailer's sexual obession was blatantly evident in the early script that began with a fantasy interview wherein the Marilyn character gives a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. Shelley Winters had such a negative response that it resulted in a Mailer rewrite. The 1986 Actor's Studio production was attended by many of Mailer's friends, some of whom, such as Kitty Carlyle wrote that she found herself "enormously interested." Less complimentary is a letter from Elia Kazan who diplogatically writes, "Your play is worth more work. You can and should improve it."
+On three occasions, Norman Mailer made use of Marilyn Monroe and I choose my language advisedly. He "used" her shamelessly. In an earlier study, I argue that Mailer, in ''Marilyn,'' creates an auto-erotic fantasy to satisfy his actual inability to consummate a sexual relationship with her. Obviously, the illusion was not fulfilling enough and so he was to attempt satisfaction two more times--again through photograph and text and finally, when those did not suffice, by bodying forth his imaginative vision with live actors in a theatrical production of his script ''Strawhead''.{{efn|Several writers have skirted around the quirky choice of his daughter Kate to play Monroe in the production, noting the Freudian associations. Stephan Morrow comments on the "various and delicious Oedipal" implications, especially during one rehearsal where Mailer demonstrated how he wanted the "blowjob" scene between Marilyn and Rod played. Kate got so disgusted that she refused to go on with the "tabloid bullshit".{{sfn|Morrow|2008|p=278}}}} Barry Leeds has a less cyni-{{pg|275|276}}
@@ Line 44: / Line 50: @@
 {{Refbegin}}
 * {{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Jennifer |date=1979 |title= Norman Mailer: Quick-Change Artist |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
+* {{citation |last=Carlyle |first=Kitty |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite book |last=Dearborn |first=Marilyn V. |date=1999 |title=Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |pages= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
+* {{citation |last=Kazan |first=Elia |date= |title=Letter to Norman Mailer. N.d. MS. |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |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 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 }}
+* {{citation |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=7 May 1986 |title=Letter to Loren Plotkin |series=Norman Mailer Collection |location=Harry Ransom Center Humanities Research Center, University of Texas-Austin |ref=harvesting}}
 * {{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 }}
@@ Line 55: / Line 64: @@
 * {{cite book |last=Rollyson |first=Carl |date=1991 |title=The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography |location=New York |publisher=Paragon House |page= |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{citation |author= |title=Strawhead |people=By Norman Mailer (Director) Norris Church Mailer, Robert Heller and Mickey Knox (Performers) |date=January 1986 |location=Actors Studio, New York |type=Performance |ref=harv }}
+* {{cite journal |last=Morrow |first=Stephan |date=2008 |title=The Unknown and the General |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |location= |pages=273-297 |type=Print |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |date=June 1981 |title=Shades of Gray |magazine=Texas Monthly |pages=196-207 |type=Print |ref=harv }}