04.4a

“Are You Open-Minded Enough for Norman Mailer on Iraq?” Article-interview by Evan Schaeffer. Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground, 21 April. Internet. Account of Mailer’s speech at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville on 20 April. Mailer spoke on his support for Democratic candidate John Kerry, and the war in Iraq, and said that America had overthrown Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, who was generally detested, but “there’s a shame involved in this for the Iraqis,” for having another nation do this dirty job. Asked about getting bogged down, he said, “It’s shocking when you can see a situation coming up before your leaders do. There’s no other way to put it: They were so fucking stupid.” He also spoke about novel-writing: “Writing novels is damned tough. Half of all very good novels have endings not as good as the novel promises. The reason is because you lose it, the novel gets away from you.” See. 04.4b.