07.30
“Oh, the Devils He Knows.” Interview by Ron Rosenbaum. Moment: Jewish Politics, Culture & Religion, June, 30–35, 60. One of Mailer’s longest discussions of the Holocaust and its effects. In the 1950s, the mass extermination of Jews, he says, made him begin to think that death was becoming meaningless. He recoiled from this idea: “Death is important, and when death is without meaning, it’s dangerous.” He also discusses how he got the idea for The Castle in the Forest (07.10) after reading Rosenbaum’s book, Explaining Hitler.
