Lipton’s Journal/December 8, 1954/13
It seems to me that the few occasions on which I have felt close to fainting were moments when I was abruptly face to face with the reality of a situation, where I saw the horror of it. So, last night, talking to Romain[1] about K, I was close to fainting because of the awful and meaningless gap between writing a book and what one must do to publish it afterward.
note
- ↑ A prolific French novelist (of Litvak origins), Romain Gary (1914 – 1980) was also an aviator during WWII and a postwar diplomat. Mailer met him in Paris in 1947 – 48, and became reacquainted with him when Gary headed the French delegation to the U.N. in the early 1950s.
