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The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007/An American Dream: The Singular Nightmare: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007/An American Dream: The Singular Nightmare (view source)
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Symbolic telephone calls extend throughout Rojack’s dream. The “catenary” appears early: “So I went into an outdoor booth, and shivering in the trapped cold air, I phoned her apartment. She was home,”{{sfn|Mailer|1965|p=19}} At the beginning, Rojack’s phone call to Deborah results in murder, an extreme physical act to show the possibilities of damnation or exposure inherent in external manners. At the end, Rojack’s phone call to Cherry (not “in the trapped cold air” but in desert heat) results in freedom, an extreme spiritual act to show the possibilities of salvation or survival inherent in internal manners. “In a funny way,” ''An American Dream'' is a novel of manners in which a morality of murder is internalized. Rojack can not be confused with the American Adam in a drawingroom; but, at least, he can be confused with the American Cain escaping detection all the way from New York to Las Vegas. In either case, Rojack’s higher quest (his “secret frightened romance with the phases of the moon”{{sfn|Mailer|1965|p=7}}) between nightmare and dream will continue. ''An American Dream''’s real denouement will occur far out of America, somewhere between the moon and Yucatan. | Symbolic telephone calls extend throughout Rojack’s dream. The “catenary” appears early: “So I went into an outdoor booth, and shivering in the trapped cold air, I phoned her apartment. She was home,”{{sfn|Mailer|1965|p=19}} At the beginning, Rojack’s phone call to Deborah results in murder, an extreme physical act to show the possibilities of damnation or exposure inherent in external manners. At the end, Rojack’s phone call to Cherry (not “in the trapped cold air” but in desert heat) results in freedom, an extreme spiritual act to show the possibilities of salvation or survival inherent in internal manners. “In a funny way,” ''An American Dream'' is a novel of manners in which a morality of murder is internalized. Rojack can not be confused with the American Adam in a drawingroom; but, at least, he can be confused with the American Cain escaping detection all the way from New York to Las Vegas. In either case, Rojack’s higher quest (his “secret frightened romance with the phases of the moon”{{sfn|Mailer|1965|p=7}}) between nightmare and dream will continue. ''An American Dream''’s real denouement will occur far out of America, somewhere between the moon and Yucatan. | ||
== | ==Note== | ||
{{Notelist}} | {{Notelist}} | ||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1965 |title=An American Dream |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |page= |isbn= |author-link=Norman Mailer |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1965 |title=An American Dream |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |page= |isbn= |author-link=Norman Mailer |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1966 |title=Cannibals and Christians |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1966 |title=Cannibals and Christians |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1963 |title=The Presidential Papers |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1963 |title=The Presidential Papers |url= |location=New York |publisher=Dial Press |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite interview |last=Mailer |authormask=1 |first=Norman |subject-link=Norman Mailer |interviewer=Edmund Skelling |title=Mailer in Provincetown / Mailer in Alaska |url= |publisher=Unpublished Audio |location= |date=n.d. |ref=harv }} | * {{cite interview |last=Mailer |authormask=1 |first=Norman |subject-link=Norman Mailer |interviewer=Edmund Skelling |title=Mailer in Provincetown / Mailer in Alaska |url= |publisher=Unpublished Audio |location= |date=n.d. |ref=harv }} | ||
{{refend}} | |||
{{Review|state=expanded}} | {{Review|state=expanded}} | ||
[[Category:Classic Interpretations (MR)]] | [[Category:Classic Interpretations (MR)]] | ||