aha, news alert
I should have known from the tone of the NPR thing that Mailer was dead. I didn't listen long enough to figure that out. Bye, Norman Mailer. Thanks for the Village Voice. Other than that? Dunno.
No snark. Bad puppy. No. (Review stuff.)
A two star Amazon review on His American Detective: "Bodice ripper about gay men by a woman." and I'm longing to comment "don't you mean a waistcoat ripper?" God, no. Stop me. The reviews rarely rattle me any longer -- except when I spot a truth in a bad one. When that happens, I actually lose sleep. This means I still care about writing. Speaking of reviewers and writers: A couple of days ago, a writer said she was tired of getting white ladies writing reviews of her books. She had an excellent point in the long run: her stories are meant for a particular audience and she wants them to resonate with those people and get more reviews from them. But that first line was just....horribly obnoxious. I say this from my POV of course. Not a white lady who writes reviews -- but as a review grubber. Anyone who disses any reader (especially ones that give honest reviews) deserves to be cast into the pit of being ignored. ...
I met Mailer in my freshman year when he visited our college campus to speak to the student body. He was drunk, lewd, obnoxious and smelled bad. We booed him soundly, which he seemed to find amusing. Which...you know...he could've thrown his glass of scotch at us, so I guess that's a point in his favor.
ReplyDeleteHis writing? Meh. I'd rather read Hemingway, and only if there's not a cereal box or a car maintenance manual handy.
Ohh Kate! "I should have known...Mailer was dead." Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor. ROTFL!
ReplyDeleteMichelle
Selah, I had a middle school teacher who LOVED the man. That teacher was a Man's Man and boy howdy, he was obnoxious.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, yeah, well the solemn, hushed tone really should have tipped me off, except I was already tipped off the edge. Blahblahblah, as my kid said.
and Selah, some of today's best writing is on cereal boxes. And there's really good writing in some of those Cheerios boxes (the kids' books).
ReplyDeleteMeh, who cares. Not one of my idols. I drank a toast to Vonnegut, but Mailer, I'll take an extra gulp of water with my evening meds.
ReplyDelete