Advertisement for Himself
Posted by Ron Coleman on October 17, 2007
Norman Mailer is in the hospital. “He’s not in very good shape. It’s breaking my heart,” his ex-wife Carol Mailer told the New York Post yesterday.
I hadn’t thought of the old man in a long time, until the picture above started glowering at me on all the newsstands in New York, from the cover of New York magazine, which announces thereon that Mailer has started his own new religion, kind of:
In a six-decade career, Norman Mailer has written thirteen novels, nineteen works of nonfiction, two poetry collections, and one play. He’s directed four movies. He ran for mayor of New York, and in the living room of his Brooklyn Heights home, he built, in three weeks, with two friends, a vast Lego city, incorporating some 15,000 pieces, known as the city of the future, seeming to take as much pride in it as in any of his other creations. But even at 84, he has a vast ambition. And now he has created something like a religion. In a new book, On God, a dialogue with one of his literary executors, Michael Lennon, he lays out his highly personal vision of what the universe’s higher truths might look like, if we were in a position to know them. But his theology is not theoretical to him. After eight decades, it is what he believes to be true. He expects no adherents, and does not profess to be a prophet, but he has worked to forge his beliefs into a coherent catechism.
I doubt it. But it appears he may find out very soon.
Bob Miller said
Mailer’s 1969 campaign for Mayor of NYC, along with Jimmy Breslin as his running mate/sidekick, was memorable and great entertainment.
See:
This is from a campaign button auction ad at http://www.politics1.com/auction.htm :
Mailer — a Pulitzer Prize winning author and acclaimed journalist — has been a prominent figure on the New York literary scene for decades. Often, as with Armies of the Night and many of his non-fiction magazine articles, his writing focused upon current events and politics. A colorful, beligerent, egotistical and outspoken figure, Mailer decided to jump into the crowded Democratic race for New York City Mayor in 1969. Adding more celebrity power to the ticket, Mailer selected newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin as his runningmate for Council President. Liberal John Lindsay (R) had been elected Mayor in 1965, ending decades of Democratic control at Gracie Mansion. By 1969, the Democrats wanted to retake the office and had a field of several major mayoral candidates. Quickly labeled a joke by the media, Mailer’s campaign responded with a colorful slogan: “The other guys are the joke!” By primary election day, Mailer was calling for NYC to become the 51st state and using buttons emblazoned with slogans like “Power to the neighborhoods!” It didn’t work, as Mailer finished fourth place with 5% of the vote. In the race for Council President, Breslin finished a few points better than his mayoral runningmate. Incumbent John Lindsay — who lost for renomination to a conservative challenger in an upset in the GOP primary — went on to win re-election as the Liberal Party nominee by a 7-point margin over the conservative Democratic nominee. A fantastic collector’s item — for both political junkies and literary fans!
$13
[TN]
Norman Mailer keeps his appointment with God « Likelihood of Success said
[…] November 11th, 2007 Here’s a very good obituary about Normal Mailer, on whose imminent death I commented a short time […]