The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007/Moments of Metaphor in Mailer's Castle: Difference between revisions
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{{Quote box|title=''The Castle in the Forest''|By [[Norman Mailer]]<br />New York: Random House, 2007<br />477 pp. Cloth $27.95.|align=right|width=25%}} | {{Quote box|title=''The Castle in the Forest''|By [[Norman Mailer]]<br />New York: Random House, 2007<br />477 pp. Cloth $27.95.|align=right|width=25%}} | ||
{{Byline|last=Sipiora|first=Phillip}} | {{Byline|last=Sipiora|first=Phillip|url=https://prmlr.us/mr07sipi|note=An earlier version of this review appeared in ''The Tampa Tribune'' in January 2007. My thanks to the ''Tribune'' for permission to reprint.}} | ||
Readers | Readers familiar with the tradition of American literature may associate Norman Mailer and Herman Melville by the opening lines of their respective novels. ''Moby-Dick'' begins, “Call me Ishmael.” Mailer begins ''[[The Castle in the Forest]]'' with “You may call me D.T.” Both writers announce, declaratively, the presence of pseudonymous narrators, yet these proclamations disclose strategic metaphoric gestures at least equal to their function as rhetorical devices of fiction. Their corresponding roles differ widely, of course, as they fade and emerge in the flow of the respective narratives. Yet they are more than fictional stratagems in the traditional practice of narrative exposition. They are complex metaphoric representations of face, mask, disguise. The technical term for this trope is ''prosopopeia'' (Gk: ''pros-'' + ''pon'', face, from ''ps'', ''p-'', eye + ''poiein'', to make; see). It is not possible to know a “stable” Ishmael or D.T. precisely because they are metaphoric creations, subjective to the conditions of our imaginations, necessarily fleeting. The ability to create figural richness, particularly in character, is a defining quality in Mailer’s seven-decade stretch of literary magnitude. | ||
In speaking of literary style, Aristotle says in his ''Poetics'': “The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor…. [I]t is the mark of genius.” Aristotle anticipated the literary genius of Norman Mailer. ''Castle'', Mailer’s most recent novel, employs an elaborate army of metaphors, infusing his narrative with complex layers of meaning. The metaphor of bee-keeping, for example, represents, among other things, the national, cultural, and personal conflicts, along with their corresponding tensions, of the first half of the twentieth century. Sordid, soiled characters such as Der Alte, an ancient beekeeper and client of the devil, are metaphoric illustrations of degeneration, spiritual and corporeal. God and Satan are entangled macro-metaphors for ageless conflict, earthly and cosmic. | In speaking of literary style, Aristotle says in his ''Poetics'': “The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor…. [I]t is the mark of genius.” Aristotle anticipated the literary genius of Norman Mailer. ''Castle'', Mailer’s most recent novel, employs an elaborate army of metaphors, infusing his narrative with complex layers of meaning. The metaphor of bee-keeping, for example, represents, among other things, the national, cultural, and personal conflicts, along with their corresponding tensions, of the first half of the twentieth century. Sordid, soiled characters such as Der Alte, an ancient beekeeper and client of the devil, are metaphoric illustrations of degeneration, spiritual and corporeal. God and Satan are entangled macro-metaphors for ageless conflict, earthly and cosmic. | ||
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Now well into his ninth decade, Norman Mailer has — once again and most aggressively — confounded, challenged, questioned, and pleased his readers, with hints of more to come. In a flash-forward moment referring to Hitler’s experiences in World War I, D.T. interrupts himself with a momentary slip of the tongue, “Too soon to speak of that, however.” A subtle foreshadowing by the literary Maestro that he may not yet be finished exploring the most enigmatic reincarnation of evil the last century has produced. | Now well into his ninth decade, Norman Mailer has — once again and most aggressively — confounded, challenged, questioned, and pleased his readers, with hints of more to come. In a flash-forward moment referring to Hitler’s experiences in World War I, D.T. interrupts himself with a momentary slip of the tongue, “Too soon to speak of that, however.” A subtle foreshadowing by the literary Maestro that he may not yet be finished exploring the most enigmatic reincarnation of evil the last century has produced. | ||
{{Review|state=expanded}} | {{Review|state=expanded}} | ||
[[Category:Book Reviews (MR)]] | [[Category:Book Reviews (MR)]] | ||