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Mickey Knox, December 17, 1963: Difference between revisions
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The [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] thing hit very hard here. Women were crying in the streets (mainly good-looking women), a lot of middle-aged Negroes looked sad and very worried, and then we all sat around in gloom and watched the television set for the next seventy-two hours. Altogether it was one of three events having something profoundly in common: [[w:National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day|Pearl Harbor Day]] and the death of [[w:Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] being the other two. And the Ruby-Oswald stuff was just too much on top of it. I haven’t felt like writing a word about the whole thing, I’ve been too fucking depressed every which way. The main loss I think was a cultural one. Whether he wanted to or not Kennedy was giving a great boost to the arts, not because [[w:Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jackie Kennedy]] was inviting [[w:Richard Wilbur|Richard Wilbur]]<ref>Mailer met the poet Richard Wilbur in Paris in 1948.</ref> to the White House, but somehow the lid was off, and now I fear it’s going to be clamped on tight again. | The [[w:John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] thing hit very hard here. Women were crying in the streets (mainly good-looking women), a lot of middle-aged Negroes looked sad and very worried, and then we all sat around in gloom and watched the television set for the next seventy-two hours. Altogether it was one of three events having something profoundly in common: [[w:National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day|Pearl Harbor Day]] and the death of [[w:Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] being the other two. And the Ruby-Oswald stuff was just too much on top of it. I haven’t felt like writing a word about the whole thing, I’ve been too fucking depressed every which way. The main loss I think was a cultural one. Whether he wanted to or not Kennedy was giving a great boost to the arts, not because [[w:Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jackie Kennedy]] was inviting [[w:Richard Wilbur|Richard Wilbur]]<ref>Mailer met the poet Richard Wilbur in Paris in 1948.</ref> to the White House, but somehow the lid was off, and now I fear it’s going to be clamped on tight again. | ||
As for Oswald and Ruby, I don’t know what was going on, but I don’t have the confidence we’ll ever know. I’d like to believe that the FBI had a sinister hand in all of this, but somehow I doubt it. I suspect the real story is that two lonely guys, all by themselves, put more grit in the gears than anyone ever succeeded in doing before, and it’s just a mess, a dull miserable mess. | As for [[w:Lee Harvey Oswald|Oswald]] and [[w:Jack Ruby|Ruby]], I don’t know what was going on, but I don’t have the confidence we’ll ever know. I’d like to believe that the FBI had a sinister hand in all of this, but somehow I doubt it. I suspect the real story is that two lonely guys, all by themselves, put more grit in the gears than anyone ever succeeded in doing before, and it’s just a mess, a dull miserable mess. | ||
The book<ref>''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' dust jacket depicted Mailer sitting in a Kennedy-style rocking chair.</ref> of course falls by the side in all of this, one of the million minor casualties. With Kennedy alive it was a good book, but with him dead, it’s just a curiosity, and somehow irritating in tone. I don’t even mind the loss of it in a funny way. | The book<ref>''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' dust jacket depicted Mailer sitting in a Kennedy-style rocking chair.</ref> of course falls by the side in all of this, one of the million minor casualties. With Kennedy alive it was a good book, but with him dead, it’s just a curiosity, and somehow irritating in tone. I don’t even mind the loss of it in a funny way. | ||