User:MerAtticus/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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Lest I be accused of pilin on Mailer, a few lines about his success in writing in Marilyn's voice are called for. Among her other attributes, Mailer gives his Marilyn a sensitivity to color, a trait that escapes many male writers who create female characters. She describes the colors of the furniture and walls in her Waldorf Tower apartment, using the word "buff" to describe the walls. Buff is not a word men often use; gradations in color tones are definitely a predominantly feminine bent. ''Strawhead'' also captures the terrible sense of loneliness Marilyn felt by staging her as the only person onstage, all the others being her remembrances. Among the bits printed in ''Fragments'' are the lines "''Alone!!!!!/ I am alone''--I am ''always/ alone/no matter what''."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|pg=35}} Unfortunately, he gets little of her poetic side, her fears of aging captured in lines such as those written on hotel stationary in Surrey. "Where his eyes rest with pleasure--I/want to be still be--but time has changes/the hold of that glance. Alas how will I cope when I am less youthful--."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|p=119}} Finally, the issue divides itself into two conflicting parts. On the one hand, Mailer cannibalizes Marilyn for his own purposes, be it fantasy, finacial, or ego-maniacal. On the other hand, his writing imagination is sometimes so spot-on as to create a viable portrait, first through biography and then autobiography. Michael Glenday also suggests that there is a certain pleasure associated with "encountering not just the memoir, but also the vitality of interaction between Mailer's imagination and his subject".{{sfn|Glenday|2008|p=350}} In addition, if the commonplace is that a man can't write from a woman's perspective, in ''Of Women And Their Elegance,'' although Mailer's Marilyn voice is totally fictional and does not fully capture Marilyn, it is certainly a plausible creation.

To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}

To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}''Blonde,'' the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Another movie is in the works about the conspiracy theory that Marilyn was murdered and not a suicide. A recent novel in Britain uses the trick of having "Maf" (short for Mafia), the Maltese terrier gifted to her by Frank Sinatra, as narrator. Still another film with Michelle Williams is titled ''My Week With Marilyn.{{sfn|Dowd|24 Oct 2010|18A}} The dress Marilyn wore in the famous subway grate scene of ''The Seven Year Itch'' brought a record $5.6 million at Debbie Reynolds' movie memorabilia sale in June, 2011. And, finally, a bittersweet footnote about the Marilyn/Mailer connection: A recent ''New York Times'' article about the sale of Mailer's last home includes a reference to, among other items, a framed original print of Milton Greene's photograph of Marilyn Monroe. "Mailer's obsession and the subject of two affectionate books" is the identifying phrase for the picture, one among the many eclectic possessions left when Mailer died. One might conclude that Marilyn was with him to the end.{{efn|My thanks to my colleagues Robert Gunn and Ezra Cappell who read the first draft of this article and made several useful suggestions.}}

{{font|text=''My thanks to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin for permission to examine the Norman Mailer archives in researching this essay.|size=18|color=}}

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* {{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 }}

* {{cite news |last=Dowd |first=Maureen |date=24 Oct 2010 |title=Making Ignorance Chic |newspaper=El Paso Inc |type=Print|page=18A. |ref=harv }}

* {{cite journal |last=Glenday |first=Michael K. |date=2008 |title=From Monroe to Picasso: Norman Mailer and the Life-Study |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |pages=348-363 |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 }}

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 Lest I be accused of pilin on Mailer, a few lines about his success in writing in Marilyn's voice are called for. Among her other attributes, Mailer gives his Marilyn a sensitivity to color, a trait that escapes many male writers who create female characters. She describes the colors of the furniture and walls in her Waldorf Tower apartment, using the word "buff" to describe the walls. Buff is not a word men often use; gradations in color tones are definitely a predominantly feminine bent. ''Strawhead'' also captures the terrible sense of loneliness Marilyn felt by staging her as the only person onstage, all the others being her remembrances. Among the bits printed in ''Fragments'' are the lines "''Alone!!!!!/ I am alone''--I am ''always/ alone/no matter what''."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|pg=35}} Unfortunately, he gets little of her poetic side, her fears of aging captured in lines such as those written on hotel stationary in Surrey. "Where his eyes rest with pleasure--I/want to be still be--but time has changes/the hold of that glance. Alas how will I cope when I am less youthful--."{{sfn|Monroe|2010|p=119}} Finally, the issue divides itself into two conflicting parts. On the one hand, Mailer cannibalizes Marilyn for his own purposes, be it fantasy, finacial, or ego-maniacal. On the other hand, his writing imagination is sometimes so spot-on as to create a viable portrait, first through biography and then autobiography. Michael Glenday also suggests that there is a certain pleasure associated with "encountering not just the memoir, but also the vitality of interaction between Mailer's imagination and his subject".{{sfn|Glenday|2008|p=350}} In addition, if the commonplace is that a man can't write from a woman's perspective, in ''Of Women And Their Elegance,'' although Mailer's Marilyn voice is totally fictional and does not fully capture Marilyn, it is certainly a plausible creation.
-To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}
+To date, the obession with Marilym does not seem to have abated.{{efn|As far back as 1974 the obsession was in full flower. In his biography, Robert F. Slatzer noted that over forty books had already been written about Monroe. Mailer was not the only famous novelist to write about her. Joyce Carol Oates tried her hand at it in ''Blonde,'' also labeled as a novel, published in 2000. Gloria Steinem is another celebrity biographer.}} Nor is it limited to Mailer. In a 2010 article, Maureen Dowd lists a number of current "Marilyn" projects. One is a biopic starring Naomi Watts, based on{{pg|276|277}}''Blonde,'' the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Another movie is in the works about the conspiracy  theory that Marilyn was murdered and not a suicide. A recent novel in Britain uses the trick of having "Maf" (short for Mafia), the Maltese terrier gifted to her by Frank Sinatra, as narrator. Still another film with Michelle Williams is titled ''My Week With Marilyn.{{sfn|Dowd|24 Oct 2010|18A}} The dress Marilyn wore in the famous subway grate scene of ''The Seven Year Itch'' brought a record $5.6 million at Debbie Reynolds' movie memorabilia sale in June, 2011. And, finally, a bittersweet footnote about the Marilyn/Mailer connection: A recent ''New York Times'' article about the sale of Mailer's last home includes a reference to, among other items, a framed original print of Milton Greene's photograph of Marilyn Monroe. "Mailer's obsession and the subject of two affectionate books" is the identifying phrase for the picture, one among the many eclectic possessions left when Mailer died. One might conclude that Marilyn was with him to the end.{{efn|My thanks to my colleagues Robert Gunn and Ezra Cappell who read the first draft of this article and made several useful suggestions.}}
+{{font|text=''My thanks to the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin for permission to examine the Norman Mailer archives in researching this essay.|size=18|color=}}
@@ Line 56: / Line 58: @@
 * {{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 }}
+* {{cite news |last=Dowd |first=Maureen |date=24 Oct 2010 |title=Making Ignorance Chic |newspaper=El Paso Inc |type=Print|page=18A. |ref=harv }}
 * {{cite journal |last=Glenday |first=Michael K. |date=2008 |title=From Monroe to Picasso: Norman Mailer and the Life-Study |journal=The Mailer Review 2.1 |pages=348-363 |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 }}