NORMAN MAILER – RIP
And here’s something of a tribute. (Via Noudela)
I intend to post more later, but I didn’t want to wait on this. The old guard are going fast. And I don’t feel so well myself. But now, more than ever, we really must continue no matter how tempting dreamless oblivion may become.
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10 comments:
Shit... didnt know he had died.
The shits are still killing us, Normie.
Even as they kill themselves
each day a few more lies eat the seed into which we are born...
have a good rest, suh.
MH
who cares? he was a fucking pig and a crap writer too. good riddance, i say.
considering how much he hated women, that image is quite apropos.
"Death Don't Have No Mercy in This Land"
So what land does death have mercy in? What kind of mercy do you expect of death when it come to an 84 year old who didn't exactly treat his body with kid gloves. Doesn't anyone get to check out without our acting like it was something "done" to them?
We should be so lucky to have lived so fully as Mailer, past the average for men, much less for hard-living drinkers before we call it quits. And yeah, maybe he hated women... six marriages tell me he for sure didn't "get" them (do what you want with the pun), but where is it decreed any writer, artist, scientist (Einstein sucked as a father), you name it, has to fit into some prescribed set of values for their work to have value. Sure, perfection would be nice, but.......
I'm starting to see a pattern as these old timers check out or sell out, etc. that we have a habit of having a shit load of expectations for others. No doubt those who take a public role invite that, but what's occurring to me is - aside from how obnoxious it may be for them - what's it say about us? What's it doing to us?
Actually, all I've got for the moment is the question. Need to think about the answer. Definitely seems worth looking at though. Any takers?
"we are the puppet people..."
Just for academic reference "Death Don't Have No Mercy In This Land" is an old blues tune later covered by the G. Dead
Thanks Geek,
I'm no academic when it comes to the blues.
Thing is, I can easily see a bluesman saying that but would be hard put to imagine it'd be about a privileged 84 year old white man who had it all and then some. No doubt there was a bit of nostalgia in its use here.
Been thinking why I had such a problem cutting it some slack and realize I think americans are pretty fucked up about death. Maybe if we came to terms with it better here we'd stop spreading it about so liberally elsewhere.
hey kass, i hear you, and right on ... mostly. but ... i humbly submit that einstein sucking as a father is light years away from mailer hating women. one is a character flaw, the other is the mindset of a monster. i object to the idea that mailer not considering women to be equal human beings (or even human beings at all) is him not subscribing to some "prescribed set of values." i mean, first of all, in fact he DID subscribe to a prescribed set of values, the mainstream one that says women are not full human beings and deserve to be treated like chattel or cattle. hating any other group as much might have given more people pause, but since it was bitches, the hatred was tolerated and overlooked. instead of being called a hater he's called "controversial." (pfah! what's so controversial about hating women?) i just don't find such tolerance acceptable, especially from anyone who describes themselves as a radical thinker. (and i don't mean you,; i'm speaking just in general.)
i've said it before and i'll say it again: misogyny is status quo. it should be opposed and called out as much as any other divisive mechanism of the ruling class.
as for his writing, yeah. i didn't much care for it, no matter what his attitudes.
Some girl,
Agree misogyny "should be opposed and called out as much as any other divisive mechanism of the ruling class." I don't see that at odds with what I wrote.
What i meant to convey was that valuing someone's work doesn't mean you have to necessarily approve of them as people (I'm thinking of more than Mailer here... Picasso, many other artists/thinkers/writers of all stripes come to mind) nor is there any reason for it to keep you from blasting them with criticism if you want, but neither does it confer some right to expect them to be a certain way.
Come to think of it, since you don't value Mailer's writing, maybe my response wasn't even appropriate. Maybe I was over-reacting - wouldn't be the first time - because of earlier posts like the one on Dylan, people's disappointment in his "selling out," idealizing the person because of the work, etc.
Many artists transcend themselves with their work. Maybe that's even the point of art... transcending. The difference between someone's work and their life seems a complicated one to me. I think there often is a difference, and I guess it bugs me that people don't allow for that.
I'm curious, as long as we're into this, if any Doc 40 visitors who may still be reading this far back have thoughts on, comments on this issue, if that's what it is ???????
So much for that.....
C'est la vie.
Actually "Death Don't Have No Mercy In This Land" is a Rev. Gary Davis song.
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