The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008/The Wise Blood of Norman Mailer: An Interpretation and Defense of Why Are We in Vietnam?

Written by
Richard Lee Fulgham

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Abstract: Why Are We in Vietnam? is a novel that calls for reassessment four decades after its appearance, particularly as a work of satiric allegory.

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URL: https://prmlr.us/mr08fulg

Among the imperceptive and raucous commentaries on Mailer’s novels, this remark by Anatole Broyard stands out as refreshingly clear: “the rock he throws usually has a message tied to it” .

In D.J.’s words, “He sings the song of the swine” .

Many times D.J. interrupts his monologue to suggest that he is not really a “Texas Wasp,” but rather a “black-ass cripple Spade and sending from Harlem” .

This quotation from Cannibals and Christians may help clarify Mailer’s position: “The

only explanation I can find for the war in Vietnam is that we are sinking into the swamps of a plague and the massacre of strange people seems to relieve this plague. If one were to take the patients in a hospital, give them guns and let them shoot on pedestrians down from hospital windows you may be sure you would find a few miraculous cures” {{sfn}|Mailer|1966|p=91}}

Works Cited

• Broyard, Anatole (1967). ""A Disturbnce of the Peace"". New York Times.
• Mailer, Norman (1966). Cannibals and Christians. New York: Dial.
• Mailer, Norman (1959). "The White Negro in Advertisements for Myself. New York: Putnam. pp. 357–358.
• Mailer, Norman (1967). Why Are We in Vietnam. New York: Putnam.