Norman Mailer Speaks His Mind
By: Redford MacDougall[1]
- Setting — Large, dimly-lit living room of Robert Hershorn, Publisher of Exchange Magazine.
- Characters — Norman Mailer; Three Reporters, representing the Star, Le Nouveau Journal and the McGill Daily; Stephen Vizinczey, Editor of Exchange Magazine.
- Properties — 1 tape recorder; 3 pads and three pencils
What is the difference between a Hipster and a Beatnik?
Beatniks are passive, contemplative and take pride in being impractical. They are also defeatist. The Hipster, however, is active, belives he has something extraordinary in him and wants to do good. Both take marijuana.
Why does the Hipster take drugs?
Drugs intensify one’s vision of reality. They also allow one’s character to dominate. If you’re bad, you become very bad, and the reverse. I speak here of marijuana, which intensifies one’s sense of personal reality. Heroin, on the other hand, dissolves character. It’s a totalitarian drug.
Is there such a thing as a female Hipster?
Censored. See February issue of Exchange Magazine.
Writers and Writing
What great writers have most influenced you?
Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Marx, Engels, Trotsky, Stendhal, Proust, Malraux, Spengler, E. M. Forster, Isherwood, Thomas Wolfe, Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Steinbeck, James Jones, Hemingway, Maugham . . . No, I can’t end with Maugham, so let’s add Marquis de Sade.
What kind of writer has America produced and how do you consider yourself?
Principally the instinctive writer and the calculated writer, of which I consider myself more in the latter category.
Is New York a good influence on a writer?
New York deadens anyone who lives there too long. Yet it stimulates, too, because so much of what makes America is there.
Is it possible to write the great American Novel?
Let me answer you this way. The great American novel is possible if someone writes it, otherwise it is not. There’s a lot of talent in America today and perhaps one writer might get through.
Should a writer begin writing early in life?
It depends. Some start early, some late. A would-be writer shouldn’t worry about what other writers have done. He should judge himself by his own standards. If he knows he could have done better, this tells him what he’s go to do in the future.
How do you write?
Generally, I write in spurts but, when I’m writing a novel, I write a certain amount each day.
Do you feel guilty when you haven’t been writing?
Let’s say I feel “uneasy.” But, look, I don’t like to talk about writing. It’s a kind of trap where you become a professional about yourself.
What do you think of the political situation in America?
A disturbing left no longer exists. There’s only a sexual left, which fights for sexual liberty.
What do you think of the Twist?
It’s sexual totalitarianism. It’s the dance of the dominant totalitarian Middle Class which dictates the standards in America. To oppose the Twist, I propose the Resist!
Do you believe in the moral evolution of man?
I’m an existentialist and believe every man has a seed of free will. With this he can become extraordinary or despicable.
Eichman Trial
What do you think of the Eichman trial?
A Jewish disaster. I say this as a Jew and I know how the Jews feel about it. They were trying to do something heroic, but they should have assassinated Eichman in South America.
The trial would have been justified if something new was said. Eichman, however, pretended to be a “petit fonctionnaire.” No one was helped by the trial. It was a vast blunder. The Jews have so often been losers because they get into situations which they get too little from.
A public assertion of the Jews, the trial showed what happens when a suppressed people come to power. There’s a psychic elimination of the past. And it’s terribly wasteful.