JOLLY DAYS

Mailer's Death

Norman Mailer's death seems to be generating a lot of comment on the net — mostly about the man. No surprise there, Mailer's narcissism trumped his talents, considerable as those talents were.

Mailer encouraged controversy. A drama queen of literature, he needed turmoil to focus his energy and distract him from whatever he was trying to avoid. Maybe it was that he was a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn who didn't want to be bullied, so he adopted a pugnacious exterior, which like all macho display indicates insecurity; the contrail of Mailer's posturing muddied the clarity necessary for creation and the sanity necessary for making judgments in living a life. Both the macho posing and Mailer's careerist self-definition of the writer's enterprise as a contest betrayed a conventional mind and conformist's spirit. Perhaps that was the fascination of his inner struggle — Mailer's variant of the artist's struggle for freedom. A struggle in which there is no real “winning”.

Mailer gave great interview. Like Oscar Wilde, an exhibitionist at heart, Mailer was at his best posing in a public forum. The interview format allowed Mailer's agile mind a large space to fill. He was able to be speculative and considered, his delight in precise and surprising language on high display. Mailer's seriousness and expansive reach, his generosity of spirit and human warmth were fully available in these media venues.

In all the discussion that will follow of his disjointed ideas, Mailer's finely wrought mind and nuanced language will be lost. Mailer had a deep feeling for language — a great gift. Wanting to be the great American novelist, Mailer's talent became an expression of his need rather than a stage to frame the big ideas he sought.

Mailer's problems were finally larger than his gift; but Mailer was far more naturally gifted than many of those currently esteemed in the arts. Mailer was a fearless soul, magnetically attracted to challenge, extending the form of the novel and essay with the restless dissatisfaction of the true artist; Mailer's life and work expressed the freedom of American culture and (sometimes glorious) excess of the American spirit.