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{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">''The Mailer Review''/Volume 10, 2016/</span>The Curious Story of Norman Mailer’s Engagement with Short Fiction}} | |||
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{{byline|last=Peppard|first=Victor|abstract=An analysis of strategic issues in Norman Mailer’s short fiction.|note=I presented a paper with this title at the 2015 Norman Mailer Society Conference in Provincetown, MA.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr16pepp}} | {{byline|last=Peppard|first=Victor|abstract=An analysis of strategic issues in Norman Mailer’s short fiction.|note=I presented a paper with this title at the 2015 Norman Mailer Society Conference in Provincetown, MA.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr16pepp}} | ||
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Now that we have been put on alert that Mailer favors the likes of Chekhov, Hemingway, and Poe, we may be on the lookout for traces of these masters, either in form or content. With respect to the former, that is the form, I can say that if there is a chunk of Chekhov to fasten onto here, it may be that Mailer likes to leave the fates of his characters up to our contemplation of what their future(s) may be. If we are looking for the short story structure that Poe advocated, however, I think we are going to be disappointed, because Mailer does not hesitate to veer off the track of his plots to indulge in all kinds of asides and observations, as he does in his novels. Put another way, Mailer’s inclination is toward expansion rather than direction, that is, the direction in which Poe believed all parts of a story should lead. The story of Mailer and Hemingway is, as we know well, a long and complicated one that moves between the poles of admiration, as here, and ridicule, as in his assessment of ''The Old Man and the Sea'' in ''Advertisements for Myself''.{{sfn|Mailer|1959|pp=20–21}} In brief, Mailer does not like the fact that he sees the face of Hemingway on the Cuban fisherman. Mailer also employs various echoes, stylizations, and perhaps parody of Hemingway. For example, Sergius O’Shaugnessy, the narrator of “The Time of Her Time,” teaches bullfighting, not in Spain or even Mexico, where he dabbled in this so-called sport, but in Greenwich Village. I find something incongruous about the combination of the first and last names of Sergius (the name of a character Tolstoy wrote about in “Father Sergius”) and O’Shaugnessy, a most Irish surname, one I have never encountered in a man with the first name of Sergius. But perhaps my experience is just too limited. And there is also something incongruous about teaching bullfighting out of an apartment in Greenwich Village. When I spent part of the summer of 1964 there, I didn’t see any ads for a bullfighting school. I wonder whether this, together with Mailer’s portrayal of Sergius O’Shaugnessy, as Heather Braun says, as “an aloof übermacho hipster”{{sfn|Braun|2014|p=226}} is not a double dig: the first at O’Shaugnessy, and the second at American literature’s most famous explicator of bullfighting—just a thought. In any event, in the final analysis Mailer came to recognize Hemingway’s importance to American literature. | Now that we have been put on alert that Mailer favors the likes of Chekhov, Hemingway, and Poe, we may be on the lookout for traces of these masters, either in form or content. With respect to the former, that is the form, I can say that if there is a chunk of Chekhov to fasten onto here, it may be that Mailer likes to leave the fates of his characters up to our contemplation of what their future(s) may be. If we are looking for the short story structure that Poe advocated, however, I think we are going to be disappointed, because Mailer does not hesitate to veer off the track of his plots to indulge in all kinds of asides and observations, as he does in his novels. Put another way, Mailer’s inclination is toward expansion rather than direction, that is, the direction in which Poe believed all parts of a story should lead. The story of Mailer and Hemingway is, as we know well, a long and complicated one that moves between the poles of admiration, as here, and ridicule, as in his assessment of ''The Old Man and the Sea'' in ''Advertisements for Myself''.{{sfn|Mailer|1959|pp=20–21}} In brief, Mailer does not like the fact that he sees the face of Hemingway on the Cuban fisherman. Mailer also employs various echoes, stylizations, and perhaps parody of Hemingway. For example, Sergius O’Shaugnessy, the narrator of “The Time of Her Time,” teaches bullfighting, not in Spain or even Mexico, where he dabbled in this so-called sport, but in Greenwich Village. I find something incongruous about the combination of the first and last names of Sergius (the name of a character Tolstoy wrote about in “Father Sergius”) and O’Shaugnessy, a most Irish surname, one I have never encountered in a man with the first name of Sergius. But perhaps my experience is just too limited. And there is also something incongruous about teaching bullfighting out of an apartment in Greenwich Village. When I spent part of the summer of 1964 there, I didn’t see any ads for a bullfighting school. I wonder whether this, together with Mailer’s portrayal of Sergius O’Shaugnessy, as Heather Braun says, as “an aloof übermacho hipster”{{sfn|Braun|2014|p=226}} is not a double dig: the first at O’Shaugnessy, and the second at American literature’s most famous explicator of bullfighting—just a thought. In any event, in the final analysis Mailer came to recognize Hemingway’s importance to American literature. | ||
==The Apocalypse According to Mailer in “The Last Night: A Story”== | ===The Apocalypse According to Mailer in “The Last Night: A Story”=== | ||
Here I would like to examine Mailer’s | Here I would like to examine Mailer’s “[[The Last Night: A Story]],” partly because I find in it an interesting confluence of themes and genres, perhaps a unique one for Mailer, and partly because it is one of his stories that I believe sneaks unannounced by the author into the category of important fiction. At a minimum, “Last Night” resonates with both edenic and apocalyptic biblical motifs, contains obvious elements of science fiction, employs satire, some of which has affinities with Menippean satire, and partakes of the utopian tradition but on the dystopian side of it. Mailer begins this story with a NOTE TO THE READER in which he explains why “a movie must be based on a novel, a story, a play, or an original idea. I suppose that it could even derive from a poem. ‘Let’s do The Wasteland,’ said a character of mine named Collie Munshin” [in the play ''Deer Park''].{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=207}} In this way, Mailer is able to make a jocular double mini-ad for himself—I call it a double advertisement, because he combines reference to his earlier play with a “note” that promotes the idea that his story could be the basis of a future film. To make sure that the reader hasn’t missed his point, Mailer further underscores his purpose by defining what he calls a “treatment . . . to present for the attention of a producer, a director, or a script reader.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=207}} | ||
“Last Night” is a story that treats a question that was timely when written in 1962 and remains so to this day, namely the degradation of the environment by mankind’s misuse of technology, a question that takes on more relevance with each passing day. Specifically, Mailer is referring to massive radiation fallout brought on by the testing of atomic bombs by “the Americans, Russians, English, French, the Algerians, Africans, the Israelis and the | “Last Night” is a story that treats a question that was timely when written in 1962 and remains so to this day, namely the degradation of the environment by mankind’s misuse of technology, a question that takes on more relevance with each passing day. Specifically, Mailer is referring to massive radiation fallout brought on by the testing of atomic bombs by “the Americans, Russians, English, French, the Algerians, Africans, the Israelis and the Chinese, not to mention the Turks, Hindus and Yugoslavians.” Whereas before, guilt for such a situation would have been ascribed to a single nation, now “no one is innocent.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=209}} The Cold War is over and nations have agreed that “Man had succeeded in so polluting the atmosphere that he was doomed to expire himself.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=210}} | ||
Chinese, not to mention the Turks, Hindus and Yugoslavians.” Whereas before, guilt for such a situation would have been ascribed to a single nation, now “no one is innocent.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=209}} The Cold War is over and nations have agreed that “Man had succeeded in so polluting the atmosphere that he was doomed to expire himself.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|p=210}} | |||
So far, “The Story” gives the appearance of a fairly straightforward indictment of the world’s obsession with developing and over-testing nuclear weapons without regard for the consequences for the planet and the people living on it. However, it takes a turn in the direction of a more powerful and multifaceted satire when the President of the United States agrees to a scheme for preserving at least a small percentage of humankind by sending half a million people to Mars in 10,000 rockets. Legislation for a Fleet has been passed, first in the United States and then around the world. Mailer breaks the illusion of reality—if indeed we’re dealing with reality here—and returns to the scenario he wants the story to become when he declares that “No space here, or for that matter in the movie, to talk of the endless and difficult negotiations which had gone on. The movie could begin perhaps with the ratification of the most astounding piece of legislation ever to be passed in any country . . . [that] had been passed by every nation in the world.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|pp=210–211}} As we see here, Mailer has moved from an advertisement cum “treatment” to directions on how to produce the movie. However, there is a real problem with Mars, for the advance party of one hundred people already there is now suffering from radiation even greater than that found on earth, and this means that our whole solar system is lethally contaminated. It should be noted here that one of the hallmarks of satire, I want to say good satire, is exaggeration on a grand scale—exaggeration of size, as with Swift, and of magnitude, as in Mailer’s “Story.” | So far, “The Story” gives the appearance of a fairly straightforward indictment of the world’s obsession with developing and over-testing nuclear weapons without regard for the consequences for the planet and the people living on it. However, it takes a turn in the direction of a more powerful and multifaceted satire when the President of the United States agrees to a scheme for preserving at least a small percentage of humankind by sending half a million people to Mars in 10,000 rockets. Legislation for a Fleet has been passed, first in the United States and then around the world. Mailer breaks the illusion of reality—if indeed we’re dealing with reality here—and returns to the scenario he wants the story to become when he declares that “No space here, or for that matter in the movie, to talk of the endless and difficult negotiations which had gone on. The movie could begin perhaps with the ratification of the most astounding piece of legislation ever to be passed in any country . . . [that] had been passed by every nation in the world.”{{sfn|Mailer|1981|pp=210–211}} As we see here, Mailer has moved from an advertisement cum “treatment” to directions on how to produce the movie. However, there is a real problem with Mars, for the advance party of one hundred people already there is now suffering from radiation even greater than that found on earth, and this means that our whole solar system is lethally contaminated. It should be noted here that one of the hallmarks of satire, I want to say good satire, is exaggeration on a grand scale—exaggeration of size, as with Swift, and of magnitude, as in Mailer’s “Story.” | ||
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==Works Cited== | ==Works Cited== | ||
{{refbegin| | {{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | ||
* {{cite podcast |url=https://normanmailersociety.org/?s=death+is+a+celebration |last=Bozung |first=Justin |title=Death is a Celebration: An Audio Documentary about ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' |website=Norman Mailer Society |publisher= |host= |date=2016 |time= |access-date=2019-05-27 }} | * {{cite podcast |url=https://normanmailersociety.org/?s=death+is+a+celebration |last=Bozung |first=Justin |title=Death is a Celebration: An Audio Documentary about ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' |website=Norman Mailer Society |publisher= |host= |date=2016 |time= |access-date=2019-05-27 }} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Braun |first=Heather |date=2014 |title=Teaching Controversy in the College Classroom |url=https://prmlr.us/mr14brau |journal=The Mailer Review |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=325–332 |access-date= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite journal |last=Braun |first=Heather |date=2014 |title=Teaching Controversy in the College Classroom |url=https://prmlr.us/mr14brau |journal=The Mailer Review |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=325–332 |access-date= |ref=harv }} | ||