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The Mailer Review/Volume 5, 2011/Norman Mailer and the Novel 2.0: Difference between revisions
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{{dc|dc=O|ne of the most distinguishing characteristics of the digital age}} is its challenge to established systems of control. Nowhere has this change been more evident recently than the upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya. While the credit given to social media in these revolutions might be overstated, what social media websites like Twitter and Facebook represent expresses a fundamental shift in who controls communication. Traditional channels of media authority are finally being challenged by a new digital zeitgeist. In many instances, monolithic media forms have encountered a wave of digital literacy that, tsunami-like, washes away political, social, and economic structures that have stood for years. | |||
As I write this, Muammar el-Qaddafi’s state-run media organizations wage a narrative battle against the revolutionary forces of Facebook and Twitter while literally trying to crush a political rebellion. The former, an organization of old media forms like television, newspapers, and radio, obfuscate alternative views with official ones, while the latter allows a polyphony of challenges to attack this view, both inside and outside of Libya. While the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were able to facilitate political change mostly through the media, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain—and arguably Iran—must translate the battle of words into the material world. Many of these regimes are not afraid to back their one-sided propaganda with force, a tactic not uncommon for the despotic. | As I write this, Muammar el-Qaddafi’s state-run media organizations wage a narrative battle against the revolutionary forces of Facebook and Twitter while literally trying to crush a political rebellion. The former, an organization of old media forms like television, newspapers, and radio, obfuscate alternative views with official ones, while the latter allows a polyphony of challenges to attack this view, both inside and outside of Libya. While the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were able to facilitate political change mostly through the media, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain—and arguably Iran—must translate the battle of words into the material world. Many of these regimes are not afraid to back their one-sided propaganda with force, a tactic not uncommon for the despotic. | ||
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My interest here is inherently political, if not expressly. As a student of literature, I came to my discipline as many others did—reveling in the content, the thematic concerns of great narrative. However, I wonder how the authority of literature—particularly that of its dominant form, the novel—can withstand or should resist the tide of digital change? | My interest here is inherently political, if not expressly. As a student of literature, I came to my discipline as many others did—reveling in the content, the thematic concerns of great narrative. However, I wonder how the authority of literature—particularly that of its dominant form, the novel—can withstand or should resist the tide of digital change? | ||
==A Crisis of Interpretation== | ===A Crisis of Interpretation=== | ||
After September 11, 2001, the United States has arguably entered a continuum characterized by the capitalist drive to “just do it.” This mantra is a zeitgeist that emphasizes action over thought, movement over contemplation. A trend toward anti-intellectualism had been growing since the last century, and the fact of terrorism seems to have been the final blow, toppling American thoughtfulness along with the twin towers. | After September 11, 2001, the United States has arguably entered a continuum characterized by the capitalist drive to “just do it.” This mantra is a zeitgeist that emphasizes action over thought, movement over contemplation. A trend toward anti-intellectualism had been growing since the last century, and the fact of terrorism seems to have been the final blow, toppling American thoughtfulness along with the twin towers. | ||
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This crisis of interpretation has us retreating to the easily binary answers of good and evil, right and wrong, right and left. The problem with the polarities is that they sacrifice subtlety, nuance, and choice to the gods of certainty, righteousness, and privilege. The rallying call demands that the polyphony of voices be silenced by the one, true voice of certainty. In a time of crisis, we seem to seek the authority that can help us out of it. Don your tea bags—''We must act!'' | This crisis of interpretation has us retreating to the easily binary answers of good and evil, right and wrong, right and left. The problem with the polarities is that they sacrifice subtlety, nuance, and choice to the gods of certainty, righteousness, and privilege. The rallying call demands that the polyphony of voices be silenced by the one, true voice of certainty. In a time of crisis, we seem to seek the authority that can help us out of it. Don your tea bags—''We must act!'' | ||
==The Novel and the Order== | ===The Novel and the Order=== | ||
Arguably, the dominant form of literature in the twentieth century was prose fiction, of which the novel was a titan, if not a god. Indeed, there is something god-like about the novel and its relation to Western Civilization’s sense of identity and order. While the novel has its genesis in ancient prose texts, it didn’t develop fully until certain intellectual and technological foundations were established. Since the Enlightenment, the novel has become an art form of, in Lukács’s words, the “new world,” a representative guide for the modern human seeking meaning in a cold universe.{{sfn|Lukács|1971|p=20}} The novel, therefore, seems to be the medium of expression for a twentieth-century zeitgeist, fully developed during the modernist days of recovery from the intellectual revolutions of the turn of the century and the literal rubble of the World War I. And while the work of the modern novel was serious and sober, the postmodern novel’s authority is, perhaps, ironic and blasphemous. | Arguably, the dominant form of literature in the twentieth century was prose fiction, of which the novel was a titan, if not a god. Indeed, there is something god-like about the novel and its relation to Western Civilization’s sense of identity and order. While the novel has its genesis in ancient prose texts, it didn’t develop fully until certain intellectual and technological foundations were established. Since the Enlightenment, the novel has become an art form of, in Lukács’s words, the “new world,” a representative guide for the modern human seeking meaning in a cold universe.{{sfn|Lukács|1971|p=20}} The novel, therefore, seems to be the medium of expression for a twentieth-century zeitgeist, fully developed during the modernist days of recovery from the intellectual revolutions of the turn of the century and the literal rubble of the World War I. And while the work of the modern novel was serious and sober, the postmodern novel’s authority is, perhaps, ironic and blasphemous. | ||
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It seems, then, that we are still in need of the author, maybe even more so as atoms turn to bits.{{efn|I borrow this phrase from Nicholas {{harvtxt|Negroponte|1995|}}; it is the chief concern of his insightful ''Being Digital''.}} Perhaps this will be the cyberbard that Murray suggests might become the voice of the digital age, or maybe we aren’t ready yet to dispense with the novel just yet. | It seems, then, that we are still in need of the author, maybe even more so as atoms turn to bits.{{efn|I borrow this phrase from Nicholas {{harvtxt|Negroponte|1995|}}; it is the chief concern of his insightful ''Being Digital''.}} Perhaps this will be the cyberbard that Murray suggests might become the voice of the digital age, or maybe we aren’t ready yet to dispense with the novel just yet. | ||
==Mailer as Novelist== | ===Mailer as Novelist=== | ||
Norman Mailer saw the responsibility of the novelist as a double-edged sword: he must posit an authoritative vision of structure in form and content, yet always be aware that “no authorities exist that have certain knowledge.”{{sfn|Mailer|Mailer|2006|p=218}} This places the novelist in an ethical and existential position of great responsibility. One of Mailer’s chief concerns seems to be with the notion of individual truth and how that truth can lead to creativity, order, and action. | Norman Mailer saw the responsibility of the novelist as a double-edged sword: he must posit an authoritative vision of structure in form and content, yet always be aware that “no authorities exist that have certain knowledge.”{{sfn|Mailer|Mailer|2006|p=218}} This places the novelist in an ethical and existential position of great responsibility. One of Mailer’s chief concerns seems to be with the notion of individual truth and how that truth can lead to creativity, order, and action. | ||
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Further, Mailer might have been opposing the novel. After all, it is older than the Pentagon, and perhaps more ossified: more a symbol of authoritarianism than a challenge to it. The civil unrest of the 1960s demanded political and social change, and maybe ''Armies'' itself demanded a new literary medium. | Further, Mailer might have been opposing the novel. After all, it is older than the Pentagon, and perhaps more ossified: more a symbol of authoritarianism than a challenge to it. The civil unrest of the 1960s demanded political and social change, and maybe ''Armies'' itself demanded a new literary medium. | ||
==The Web v. the Novel== | ===The Web v. the Novel=== | ||
When I spoke at the Norman Mailer Society Conference in 2005, I was asked to discuss the position of literature and English Studies at the beginning of the twenty-first century, how the work of Norman Mailer fit into these cultural and intellectual trends, and recommend ways that the Society might continue to flourish in a still incunabular information age. In 22005, books and the system that supported their publication still reigned supreme; thus in the US alone there were published 282,500 new titles, about 40,000 of which were fiction.{{efn|See [https://web.archive.org/web/20120323101209/http://www.bowkerinfo.com/bowker/IndustryStats2010.pdf Bowker’s industry stats]. }} Also in the fall of 2005, The Facebook, a successful social networking site for colleges and universities, had just launched its version for high schools. It was still a year away from opening its digital doors to the world’s Internet users, but it already showed the growing popularity of Web 2.0 applications and their integral foundation of community built on members’ affinity. And in 2005 the world had not yet heard of an iPhone. Its launch would not be for another year and eight months. | When I spoke at the Norman Mailer Society Conference in 2005, I was asked to discuss the position of literature and English Studies at the beginning of the twenty-first century, how the work of Norman Mailer fit into these cultural and intellectual trends, and recommend ways that the Society might continue to flourish in a still incunabular information age. In 22005, books and the system that supported their publication still reigned supreme; thus in the US alone there were published 282,500 new titles, about 40,000 of which were fiction.{{efn|See [https://web.archive.org/web/20120323101209/http://www.bowkerinfo.com/bowker/IndustryStats2010.pdf Bowker’s industry stats]. }} Also in the fall of 2005, The Facebook, a successful social networking site for colleges and universities, had just launched its version for high schools. It was still a year away from opening its digital doors to the world’s Internet users, but it already showed the growing popularity of Web 2.0 applications and their integral foundation of community built on members’ affinity. And in 2005 the world had not yet heard of an iPhone. Its launch would not be for another year and eight months. | ||
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{{quote|When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain.”{{sfn|Carr|2010|}}}} | {{quote|When we go online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning. Even as the Internet grants us easy access to vast amounts of information, it is turning us into shallower thinkers, literally changing the structure of our brain.”{{sfn|Carr|2010|}}}} | ||
Reading on the Web, probably the most popular form of reading done off a computer screen, is not the same thing as reading a novel. Something about the computer—even a laptop—inspires a cursory, quick, and superficial consumption of text. Perhaps it is because it looks more like a television than it does a book? Perhaps it is because we have to lean forward, rather than lean back?{{sfn|Anderson|Wolff| | Reading on the Web, probably the most popular form of reading done off a computer screen, is not the same thing as reading a novel. Something about the computer—even a laptop—inspires a cursory, quick, and superficial consumption of text. Perhaps it is because it looks more like a television than it does a book? Perhaps it is because we have to lean forward, rather than lean back?{{sfn|Anderson|Wolff|2010|}} Maybe we are trained that what comes to us through a monitor should be consumed in a certain way, whereas that which is found on leaves in cloth binding must be absorbed in another way. In many ways, books, especially novels, are like holy artifacts. Computers, to paraphrase Mailer, are machines of the devil. | ||
I still hear people say that they can’t proofread or edit on a computer screen. There’s something about the printed word on a physical sheet of paper that allows our minds to take it more seriously than we would something appearing on a computer screen in a Web browser. Seriously, I am pretty sure I could never read a book on a PC. | I still hear people say that they can’t proofread or edit on a computer screen. There’s something about the printed word on a physical sheet of paper that allows our minds to take it more seriously than we would something appearing on a computer screen in a Web browser. Seriously, I am pretty sure I could never read a book on a PC. | ||
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With the iPad, we can finally sit back again, like we would with a novel. The iPad is made for visually rich content. The user experience is more encompassing—and applications use the entire screen, blocking out other distractions. Photographs and videos look beautiful. Games are a new experience, but it is the text applications, like iBooks, that won me over. Perhaps this new device could finally begin to usher in an age of new media that those of us who still consider the novel integral to a literary zeitgeist could finally embrace—not as a replacement—but as an evolving, vibrant, and important literary form. | With the iPad, we can finally sit back again, like we would with a novel. The iPad is made for visually rich content. The user experience is more encompassing—and applications use the entire screen, blocking out other distractions. Photographs and videos look beautiful. Games are a new experience, but it is the text applications, like iBooks, that won me over. Perhaps this new device could finally begin to usher in an age of new media that those of us who still consider the novel integral to a literary zeitgeist could finally embrace—not as a replacement—but as an evolving, vibrant, and important literary form. | ||
==The Novel 2.0?== | ===The Novel 2.0?=== | ||
In the late 1960s, Mailer saw a disturbing trend in America: with the many distractions that contemporary America presents, people are no longer reading literature. There was a revolution happening, but instead of being aligned with the great literary figures of America’s oppositional past—Whitman, Emerson, Hemingway—it was instead one of television, popular music, and drugs.{{sfn|Bufithis|1978|pp=89–90}} While Mailer opposed the war in Vietnam and the new American authoritarian machine that precipitated it, he, too, opposed the increasing effects of a disengaged and lazy culture. | In the late 1960s, Mailer saw a disturbing trend in America: with the many distractions that contemporary America presents, people are no longer reading literature. There was a revolution happening, but instead of being aligned with the great literary figures of America’s oppositional past—Whitman, Emerson, Hemingway—it was instead one of television, popular music, and drugs.{{sfn|Bufithis|1978|pp=89–90}} While Mailer opposed the war in Vietnam and the new American authoritarian machine that precipitated it, he, too, opposed the increasing effects of a disengaged and lazy culture. | ||
Similarly, America seems to still be engaged in a like battle. Fueled by the digital revolution, the developing world in the Middle East attempts to throw off the shackles of oppression and authoritarianism, but America seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Mass media today makes its consumers even less patient with complex ideas and nuance than it did when Mailer was writing ''Armies''. While digital technology can provide the tools for political change and revolution, it can also be used by the corporations and mass media to keep people from thinking or acting for themselves. Mailer saw this dangerous side of increasingly ubiquitous computer technology, charging computers with being the tools of the devil.{{sfn|Mailer|Lennon| | Similarly, America seems to still be engaged in a like battle. Fueled by the digital revolution, the developing world in the Middle East attempts to throw off the shackles of oppression and authoritarianism, but America seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Mass media today makes its consumers even less patient with complex ideas and nuance than it did when Mailer was writing ''Armies''. While digital technology can provide the tools for political change and revolution, it can also be used by the corporations and mass media to keep people from thinking or acting for themselves. Mailer saw this dangerous side of increasingly ubiquitous computer technology, charging computers with being the tools of the devil.{{sfn|Mailer|Lennon|2007|p=18}} It is difficult to challenge that assertion when viewing the increasingly polarized and myopic American media. | ||
The battle between democracy and authoritarianism can also be seen in literature’s waning novel. The novel, ironically, is no longer “new,” but to many represents literature’s patriarchal past. While the digital age in many ways encourages us to become engaged with the world as citizens of a democracy should be, the voices of those artists, dreamers, and rebels who wrote powerful novels seem also to be caught up in the digital tsunami overtaking world culture and politics. Instead of holing up in our bunker hoping that the tide will pass, perhaps the digital age will present the novel with a new life—a medium that can both represent the individual talent and the voices of the people. | The battle between democracy and authoritarianism can also be seen in literature’s waning novel. The novel, ironically, is no longer “new,” but to many represents literature’s patriarchal past. While the digital age in many ways encourages us to become engaged with the world as citizens of a democracy should be, the voices of those artists, dreamers, and rebels who wrote powerful novels seem also to be caught up in the digital tsunami overtaking world culture and politics. Instead of holing up in our bunker hoping that the tide will pass, perhaps the digital age will present the novel with a new life—a medium that can both represent the individual talent and the voices of the people. | ||
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The digital evolution or metamorphosis of the novel seems to be inevitable. Our books made of atoms are not going anywhere, but that medium has been getting old for a while—even Mailer saw it in the 1970s. The new era of the digital emphasizes participation and action for those who use it. It seems the novel must evolve, both as a medium and through its content, if it is to speak for a changing world. | The digital evolution or metamorphosis of the novel seems to be inevitable. Our books made of atoms are not going anywhere, but that medium has been getting old for a while—even Mailer saw it in the 1970s. The new era of the digital emphasizes participation and action for those who use it. It seems the novel must evolve, both as a medium and through its content, if it is to speak for a changing world. | ||
==Notes== | ===Notes=== | ||
{{Notelist}} | {{Notelist}} | ||
==Citations== | ===Citations=== | ||
{{Reflist|20em}} | {{Reflist|20em}} | ||
==Works Cited== | ===Works Cited=== | ||
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Adams |first=Laura |date=1976 |title=Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer |url= |location=Athens, OH |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Adams |first=Laura |date=1976 |title=Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer |url= |location=Athens, OH |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
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* {{cite news |last=Kazin |first=Alfred |date=1968 |title=The Trouble He’s Seen |url=https://static01.nyt.com/packages/html/books/mailer-armies.pdf |work=New York Times |location= |access-date=2019-05-21 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite news |last=Kazin |first=Alfred |date=1968 |title=The Trouble He’s Seen |url=https://static01.nyt.com/packages/html/books/mailer-armies.pdf |work=New York Times |location= |access-date=2019-05-21 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite web |url=https://pearanalytics.com/blog/2009/twitter-study-reveals-interesting-results-40-percent-pointless-babble/ |title=Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results About Usage – 40% is Pointless Babble |last=Kelly |first=Ryan |date=August 12, 2009 |website=Pear Analytics |publisher= |access-date=2019-05-23 |quote= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite web |url=https://pearanalytics.com/blog/2009/twitter-study-reveals-interesting-results-40-percent-pointless-babble/ |title=Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results About Usage – 40% is Pointless Babble |last=Kelly |first=Ryan |date=August 12, 2009 |website=Pear Analytics |publisher= |access-date=2019-05-23 |quote= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite journal |last=Lennon |first=J. Michael |title=Norman Mailer: Novelist, Journalist, or Historian? |url= |journal=Journal of Modern Literature |volume=30 |issue=1 |date=2006 |pages=91–103 |access-date= |ref=harv }} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Lessig |first=Lawrence |date=2008 |title=Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/LawrenceLessigRemix |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Lessig |first=Lawrence |date=2008 |title=Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy |url=https://archive.org/details/LawrenceLessigRemix |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Lukács |first=Georg |date=1971 |title=The Theory of the Novel |translator-last=Bostock |translator-first=Anna |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Lukács |first=Georg |date=1971 |title=The Theory of the Novel |translator-last=Bostock |translator-first=Anna |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
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* {{cite book |last=Moulthrop |first=Stuart |date=2004 |chapter=From Work to Play: Molecular Culture in the Time of Deadly Games |title=First Person |editor1-last=Wardrip-Fruin |editor1-first=Noah |editor2-last=Harrigan |editor2-first=Pat |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages=56–69 |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Moulthrop |first=Stuart |date=2004 |chapter=From Work to Play: Molecular Culture in the Time of Deadly Games |title=First Person |editor1-last=Wardrip-Fruin |editor1-first=Noah |editor2-last=Harrigan |editor2-first=Pat |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages=56–69 |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Murray |first=Janet H. |date=1997 |title=Hamlet on the Holodeck |url=https://archive.org/details/hamletonholodeck00murr_0 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Murray |first=Janet H. |date=1997 |title=Hamlet on the Holodeck |url=https://archive.org/details/hamletonholodeck00murr_0 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Negroponte |first=Nicholas |date= | * {{cite book |last=Negroponte |first=Nicholas |date=1995 |title=Being Digital |url=https://archive.org/details/beingdigital00negr |location=New York |publisher=Vintage |page= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Raymond |first=Eric |date=2001 |title=The Cathedral and the Bazaar |url=https://archive.org/details/cathedralbaz00raym |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=O'Reilly |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Raymond |first=Eric |date=2001 |title=The Cathedral and the Bazaar |url=https://archive.org/details/cathedralbaz00raym |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=O'Reilly |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |date=2003 |orig-year=1972 |chapter=The Technology and the Society |title=New Media Reader |editor1-last=Wardrip-Fruin |editor1-first=Noah |editor2-last=Monfort |editor2-first=Nick |url=https://archive.org/details/TheNewMediaReader |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages=289–300 |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |date=2003 |orig-year=1972 |chapter=The Technology and the Society |title=New Media Reader |editor1-last=Wardrip-Fruin |editor1-first=Noah |editor2-last=Monfort |editor2-first=Nick |url=https://archive.org/details/TheNewMediaReader |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |pages=289–300 |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||