Lipton’s Journal/January 26, 1955/281

If the above sounds very fancy (the pompous man, the nasty mother) let it be remembered that animal life poses enigmas unless understood this way. The gentle pussy cat slaps her kittens away, the dove throws her fledglings into the air, and so forth. Life invents, life adapts, life fights stasis. In a hostile environment life must be aggressive to remain alive. A commonplace, but the same cat defends her kittens when danger is near. In the hostile environment of man’s life, the pompous man drives away his children in order to give life to them, yet also defends them. The reason I found it hard to love Susy^[1] when she was born is that I was such a sociostatic radical (in my top drawer) that I wanted the State to provide for her.

note

↑ Susan Mailer, the only child of Mailer and his first wife Beatrice Silverman, and the oldest of his nine children, was born in Hollywood, August 28, 1949.

[1] Susan Mailer, the only child of Mailer and his first wife Beatrice Silverman, and the oldest of his nine children, was born in Hollywood, August 28, 1949.

[1]