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{{ | {{Large|Courage through Opposition: The Political Resonance of Norman Mailer}} | ||
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First articulated in his 1957 novel ''The Deer Park'', Mailer’s approach to life echoes throughout his ''oeuvre'': “there was that law of life so cruel and so just which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.”{{sfn|Mailer|1957|p=294}}{{efn|Come back later to the irony of it being thought by Charles Eitel, a failed Mailer hero.}} One might even go so far as to call this “Mailer’s Law,” as it seems to provide a synecdouche for his career as an artist and public figure. As an exemplar of this early and | First articulated in his 1957 novel ''The Deer Park'', Mailer’s approach to life echoes throughout his ''oeuvre'': “there was that law of life so cruel and so just which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.”{{sfn|Mailer|1957|p=294}}{{efn|Come back later to the irony of it being thought by Charles Eitel, a failed Mailer hero.}} One might even go so far as to call this “Mailer’s Law,” as it seems to provide a synecdouche for his career as an artist and public figure. As an exemplar of this early and oft-articulated credo, Mailer never stood still for long. Not one to rest on his laurels or to be dissuaded by critical disapproval, Mailer made strides to, as he states in ''Advertisements for Myself'', “settle for nothing less than making a revolution in the consciousness of our time.”{{sfn|Mailer|1992|p=17}} While Mailer could be accused of hubris, his approach to culture and life exhibited a courage to grow in opposition to what he saw as the deadening forces of totalitarianism in America. Mailer viewed political challenge as the moral responsibility of the creative artist — especially the novelist — in maintaining freedom from tyranny. This opposition resonates until the end. | ||
Near the end of ''Why Are We at War?'', Dotson Rader asks Mailer what he most loves about America. Mailer answers that its the freedom he has enjoyed throughout his life that made his work possible, but freedom, like democracy, is delicate, and must be fought for daily.{{sfn|Mailer|2003|pp=110–11}} Mailer links freedom in America to its democracy and the responsibility of citizens to undertake the necessary responsibility of maintaining it. Built of the assumption that all humans have value and that people are more good than evil, “Democracy is a state of grace,” Mailer writes, “attained only by those countries that have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it.”{{sfn|Mailer|2003|p=71}} In other words, for Mailer, democracy is existential, always presenting new challenges, always changing, and “like each human being . . . always growing into more or less.”{{sfn|Mailer|Mailer|2006|p=78}} Democracy begins with the freedom of its citizens, but a progressive, healthy democracy depends on the ability of its citizens to meet the various forces and challenges that attempt to undermine it. | |||
Mailer saw as his own personal responsibility the necessity to equip Americans with the tools to oppose the forces that seek to undermine their freedom. In his essay “Immodest Proposals,” Mailer maintains that opposition begins with the peoples’ “power to learn to think.”{{sfn|Mailer|2004|p=569}} His words are chosen precisely: thinking here is not a static state, but one that must have agency and be able to encounter every new situation in a creative way. Culture, then, becomes a political force that is necessary for creating a populace that can see critical distinctions and not rely on habit or easy answers to important questions: “Consciousness is enlarged gently and delicately, yet powerfully, and it takes great literature, like great music, painting, and dance, to make that happen.”{{sfn|Busa|1999|p=31}} For Mailer, then, culture is worth “huge, huge risks.”{{sfn|Hitchens|1997|p=126}} | |||
In particular, the novelist must present | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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===Bibliography=== | ===Bibliography=== | ||
{{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} | {{Refbegin|indent=yes|30em}} | ||
* {{cite magazine |last=Busa |first=Christopher |date=1999 |title=Interview with Norman Mailer |url=https://outline.com/m2E6V5 |magazine=Provincetown Arts |pages=24–32 |access-date=2019-09-15 |ref=harv }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=Norman Mailer: A Minority of One |url= |journal=New Left Review |volume=22 |issue=March/April |date=1997 |pages=115–128 |access-date= |ref=harv }} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1992 |orig-year=1959 |title=Advertisements for Myself |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard UP |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |date=1992 |orig-year=1959 |title=Advertisements for Myself |url= |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard UP |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1957 |title=The Deer Park |url=https://archive.org/details/deerpark00mail |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=1957 |title=The Deer Park |url=https://archive.org/details/deerpark00mail |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |pages= |isbn= |author-link= |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |authormask=1 |date=2003 |title=Why Are We at War? |url= |location=New York |publisher=Random House |ref=harv }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Mailer |first1=Norman |authormask=1 |last2=Mailer |first2=John Buffalo |date=2006 |title=The Big Empty |url= |location=New York |publisher=Nation Books |ref=harv }} | |||
{{refend}} | {{refend}} | ||
Revision as of 07:54, 8 November 2019
Courage through Opposition: The Political Resonance of Norman Mailer
First articulated in his 1957 novel The Deer Park, Mailer’s approach to life echoes throughout his oeuvre: “there was that law of life so cruel and so just which demanded that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.”[1][a] One might even go so far as to call this “Mailer’s Law,” as it seems to provide a synecdouche for his career as an artist and public figure. As an exemplar of this early and oft-articulated credo, Mailer never stood still for long. Not one to rest on his laurels or to be dissuaded by critical disapproval, Mailer made strides to, as he states in Advertisements for Myself, “settle for nothing less than making a revolution in the consciousness of our time.”[2] While Mailer could be accused of hubris, his approach to culture and life exhibited a courage to grow in opposition to what he saw as the deadening forces of totalitarianism in America. Mailer viewed political challenge as the moral responsibility of the creative artist — especially the novelist — in maintaining freedom from tyranny. This opposition resonates until the end.
Near the end of Why Are We at War?, Dotson Rader asks Mailer what he most loves about America. Mailer answers that its the freedom he has enjoyed throughout his life that made his work possible, but freedom, like democracy, is delicate, and must be fought for daily.[3] Mailer links freedom in America to its democracy and the responsibility of citizens to undertake the necessary responsibility of maintaining it. Built of the assumption that all humans have value and that people are more good than evil, “Democracy is a state of grace,” Mailer writes, “attained only by those countries that have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it.”[4] In other words, for Mailer, democracy is existential, always presenting new challenges, always changing, and “like each human being . . . always growing into more or less.”[5] Democracy begins with the freedom of its citizens, but a progressive, healthy democracy depends on the ability of its citizens to meet the various forces and challenges that attempt to undermine it.
Mailer saw as his own personal responsibility the necessity to equip Americans with the tools to oppose the forces that seek to undermine their freedom. In his essay “Immodest Proposals,” Mailer maintains that opposition begins with the peoples’ “power to learn to think.”[6] His words are chosen precisely: thinking here is not a static state, but one that must have agency and be able to encounter every new situation in a creative way. Culture, then, becomes a political force that is necessary for creating a populace that can see critical distinctions and not rely on habit or easy answers to important questions: “Consciousness is enlarged gently and delicately, yet powerfully, and it takes great literature, like great music, painting, and dance, to make that happen.”[7] For Mailer, then, culture is worth “huge, huge risks.”[8]
In particular, the novelist must present
References
Notes
- ↑ Come back later to the irony of it being thought by Charles Eitel, a failed Mailer hero.
Citations
- ↑ Mailer 1957, p. 294.
- ↑ Mailer 1992, p. 17.
- ↑ Mailer 2003, pp. 110–11.
- ↑ Mailer 2003, p. 71.
- ↑ Mailer & Mailer 2006, p. 78.
- ↑ Mailer 2004, p. 569.
- ↑ Busa 1999, p. 31.
- ↑ Hitchens 1997, p. 126.
Bibliography
- Busa, Christopher (1999). "Interview with Norman Mailer". Provincetown Arts. pp. 24–32. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- Hitchens, Christopher (1997). "Norman Mailer: A Minority of One". New Left Review. 22 (March/April): 115–128.
- Mailer, Norman (1992) [1959]. Advertisements for Myself. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.
- — (1957). The Deer Park. New York: New American Library.
- — (2003). Why Are We at War?. New York: Random House.
- —; Mailer, John Buffalo (2006). The Big Empty. New York: Nation Books.
