84.30

“Norman Mailer: The Prisoner of Celebrity.” Article-interview by Mark Bowden. Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, 2 December, 40–44. Another report, presumably the last, based on the May dinner party thrown by Random House to promote 84.17, and a small news conference at Random House three months later when 84.17 had risen to the middle of most bestseller lists. The interview is valuable for Mailer’s long statement about his unwillingness to plot his books out ahead of time: “Knowing what the plot of my book was going to be in detail would be like being married to someone whose every habit you knew.” See 84.5, 84.6, 84.8.