Norman Mailer dead at 84

[sadora]

The first book I ever read from Norman Mailer was his Pulitzer winning non-fiction novel "The Armies of the Night" which is about the 1967 March on the Pentagon, anti-Vietnam rally in Washington. Along with Capote and Hunter S. Thompson, Mailer was one the innovators of creative non-fiction by using journalistic narrative. Along with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, Mailer first published The Village Voice, paving the way for the independent news paper.

"There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will."
-Norman Mailer

For more on Mailer, here is his wiki entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer

[troutman]

The Fight, about the Ali - Foreman fight is one of the best sports books written.

[Vulcan]

IIRC, in "The Armies of the Night" he talks about how the marchers tried to levitate the Pentagon. Kind of laughable now but at the time it showed how us young people thought almost anything was possible, both scientifically and spiritually. The science part is doing pretty well but spiritually, I can't help but think that Bush and his ideas have put us back into the nineteenth century.
Disappointing.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

IIRC, in "The Armies of the Night" he talks about how the marchers tried to levitate the Pentagon. Kind of laughable now but at the time it showed how us young people thought almost anything was possible, both scientifically and spiritually. The science part is doing pretty well but spiritually, I can't help but think that Bush and his ideas have put us back into the nineteenth century.
Disappointing.

I remember reading that and laughing. But the best part of that book is how it captures a time when people still believed that their actions meant something. That by standing together they could change the world. Now, most have become so apathetic out of fear of being unpatriotic if you speak out against the system when in fact the truth is just the opposite.

[Devils'Advocate]

It's been a bad year. First Kurt Vonnegut and now Mailer. The grumpy-old-men-intellectuals-against-Bush are dying off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpQJ_cz364

[sadora]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

It's been a bad year. First Kurt Vonnegut and now Mailer. The grumpy-old-men-intellectuals-against-Bush are dying off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfpQJ_cz364

Thanks for posting that video. It's funny, how he desbribes the relationship between one and a mate as being similar to the relationship one has with their country. Great find.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by troutman

The Fight, about the Ali - Foreman fight is one of the best sports books written.

His appearance in "When We Were Kings" on that topic is the first thing that I thought of.

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

I guess this means there won't be a follow up to Harlot's Ghost.

I loved The Naked and the Dead. I read it a long time ago, but I remember I couldn't put it down.

[Magnum PEI]

Wow, that is too bad. I read The Executioner's Song a few summers ago, and thought it was one of most personal and saddening books ever. Haven't read anything else, but I woul like to read Naked and the Dead.

[Canada 02]

Originally Posted by sadora

"There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will." -Norman Mailer

I like learning where pop culture references come from

There are two kinds of balls: There are big brave balls, and there are little mincey f****t balls. - Bullet Tooth Tony

[Fuzzy McGillicuddy]

Mailer wins the 2007 Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Posthumously of course.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...cle=1&catnum=9