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Roger Shattuck, June 8, 1965: Difference between revisions
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Dear Roger,<ref>Mailer met [[w:Roger Shattuck|Roger Shattuck]], the art critic, in Brooklyn in the 1950s.</ref> | Dear Roger,<ref>Mailer met [[w:Roger Shattuck|Roger Shattuck]], the art critic, in Brooklyn in the 1950s.</ref> | ||
I didn’t mind the review in the ''Village Voice''<ref>The review in the ''Village Voice'' appeared in 1963.</ref>—I naturally thought it was unduly critical, but since I have two attitudes about the novel, thinking on some days that it’s a marvelous piece of crap and on others that it’s the only thing new anybody has done since god knows when, since ''[[w:Catch-22|Catch-22]]'' or ''[[w:Studs Lonigan|Studs Lonigan]]'', or Christ, since ''w:The Sun Also Rises|The Sun Also Rises]]''. I read reviews with interest now, looking for a clue. Anyway, yours was interesting. | I didn’t mind the review in the ''Village Voice''<ref>The review in the ''Village Voice'' appeared in 1963.</ref>—I naturally thought it was unduly critical, but since I have two attitudes about the novel, thinking on some days that it’s a marvelous piece of crap and on others that it’s the only thing new anybody has done since god knows when, since ''[[w:Catch-22|Catch-22]]'' or ''[[w:Studs Lonigan|Studs Lonigan]]'', or Christ, since ''[[w:The Sun Also Rises|The Sun Also Rises]]''. I read reviews with interest now, looking for a clue. Anyway, yours was interesting. | ||
The idea of the translations intrigues me, but I don’t know yet where or if I would fit. My best language by far is French, only I’ve no desire to translate anything in that language since my French is not nearly good enough. I’ve a smattering of Spanish [and], would like to translate [[w:Federico García Lorca|Garcia Lorca]]’s “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias.”<ref>Mailer and his daughter [[Susan Mailer|Susan]] translated and published “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias” by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) in ''The Poetry Bag'' (winter 1967-68).</ref> I read a translation Spender<ref>[[w:Stephen Spender|Stephen Spender]], the poet, was editor of the British publication ''Queen Magazine'' in the early 1960s. He published some of Mailer’s poems there in April 1962.</ref> made of that poem once and knew after going through twenty lines that I could do better with my left hand. Still, that isn’t really my heart’s desire, in fact I don’t know that yet. I suspect I’d rather try translating something in a language I know hardly at all. Some early Goethe,<ref>[[w:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], the German man of letters, is greatly admired by Mailer.</ref> or some Latin or Greek. At any rate, Roger, let me think about this for a period, and remind me about this in six months perhaps. You see, right now I’m getting started on another novel, and so certainly don’t want to get into any of this.<ref>This is the “big book” Mailer had been trying to write since 1959. He mentions it in several subsequent letters, but it was abandoned later in the summer when he shifted to work on a stage version of ''[[67.13|The Deer Park]]''.</ref> | The idea of the translations intrigues me, but I don’t know yet where or if I would fit. My best language by far is French, only I’ve no desire to translate anything in that language since my French is not nearly good enough. I’ve a smattering of Spanish [and], would like to translate [[w:Federico García Lorca|Garcia Lorca]]’s “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias.”<ref>Mailer and his daughter [[Susan Mailer|Susan]] translated and published “Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias” by Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) in ''The Poetry Bag'' (winter 1967-68).</ref> I read a translation Spender<ref>[[w:Stephen Spender|Stephen Spender]], the poet, was editor of the British publication ''Queen Magazine'' in the early 1960s. He published some of Mailer’s poems there in April 1962.</ref> made of that poem once and knew after going through twenty lines that I could do better with my left hand. Still, that isn’t really my heart’s desire, in fact I don’t know that yet. I suspect I’d rather try translating something in a language I know hardly at all. Some early Goethe,<ref>[[w:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], the German man of letters, is greatly admired by Mailer.</ref> or some Latin or Greek. At any rate, Roger, let me think about this for a period, and remind me about this in six months perhaps. You see, right now I’m getting started on another novel, and so certainly don’t want to get into any of this.<ref>This is the “big book” Mailer had been trying to write since 1959. He mentions it in several subsequent letters, but it was abandoned later in the summer when he shifted to work on a stage version of ''[[67.13|The Deer Park]]''.</ref> | ||