THE NORMAN MAILER POST

This is too difficult a job for me to do properly because the man, his work, and his bizarre politics have been such a touchstone on so many levels for me and my family. And I'm not up to the task. We don't say the name "Norman Mailer" too often in the great Kelso manse because his mention begins hours-long conversations and arguments that we've had over and over again.

There are things, obviously, I can't write, but a couple of stories to start with. My first cognitive and conceptual awareness of politics and being a New Yorker came when I went with my parents to a fund-raiser for the Mailer-Jimmy Breslin mayoral ticket whose main issue (aside from presenting a LEFT! alternative to LINDSAY!) was the secession and new statehood of New York City. I'll never forget my parents' patience in answering me like an adult every time I asked "why this?" or "why that?" I came away with a legit understanding for an elementary school kid of what municipal politics were all about.

The other story is Kelso family legend and I know I'm not getting it right exactly. I'm only sorry I missed this one. I was either a senior in H.S. or a freshman or sophomore in college at the time. My parents had gone to Provincetown for a party for some author or agent. I was doing whatever adolescents do in NYC when their parents aren't there. Norman Mailer whose home-base at the time was Truro or Wellfleet was there. He approached my old man and said something to the effect of "you look like you can take care of yourself; feel like boxing a few rounds with me?" My dad answered "no way, you box all the time and take lessons, I don't know the first thing about it. You'd really hurt me. If you want to brawl, however, I'll do it but I don't want to because I'll really hurt you. I have hate in my heart and you don't." As the story was told to me, Mailer shook his head, laughed and said to the old man "you're crazy...you know that?" They had a few drinks together and talked books instead of macho bullshit. Just one of the reasons I couldn't be prouder of my old man.

For various reasons, my favorite works of Mailer's are in no particular order: The Deer Park, The Naked And The Dead, Tough Guys Don't Dance, Harlot's Ghost, and Armies Of The Night. If anyone's looking for opinions, take this one. I strongly recommend those books. Each are beautifully written and elegantly constructed, long on detail, and have many fine lessons to teach. I read The Deer Park when I was 16 and I only wish I'd had the good sense to re-read it four years ago. Perhaps, in tandem with Nathanael West's Day Of The Locust. Velly, velly nice literary support of Dorothy Parker's quip (could also have been Perelman or deVries) that Hollywood folks need to strip away the fake tinsel and show us the real tinsel underneath. As for the other four: I'm not going to fight a war or let my son do so; I'm going to be very careful whom I let in my life if i'm tipsy; the U.S. national security state scares me to death but I'm never going to natter on about smashing of the state because those that do are both bullshit artists and heavily out-gunned. In sum, all of Mailer's work must be read. Some are better than others but most will always carry currency. That he was an egomaniac and insane and ofttimes impossible to stomach won't and don't change that. A tougher question is where do you fall on the work of Louis-Ferdinand Celine? Well, where do ya, punk?

As good a segue into the goofy politics. Commenter "Anita" wanted my take on Mailer's calling himself a "Left Conservative." Anita, darling, that is a dissertation topic! So, I'll keep it simple and take it at its most literal, revisiting something we discussed on this site some months ago: the dispute over Mailer's selection of George P. Shultz as PEN keynote speaker in the late 1980s. You could argue it either way. With more and more of tangible America going into far-right hands, especially the media, why should the few organizations steadfast in their opposition to the worst of the Reagan agenda celebrate one of its avatars? That was Grace Paley's point of view: "Why, Norman?" read her placard. It was a persuasive argument. Shultz was the insider's insider and was not opposed to making money no matter whom it hurt.

On the other hand, the political game seemed lost, and as the subsequent two decades have shown, the left indeed has lost. So, why not get ahead of the curve and honor one of the true free-thinkers on the right? After all, among the weirder crowd in Reagan's inner circle, Meese, I suppose being the boss, one's test of loyalty was how much you hated George Shultz. Yes, he was (is) a Bechtel man. But he was also the strongest advocate in the Reagan administration for dealing with Gorbachev. Funnily enough, as the drug issue has created such a contretemps here, in a time in which Nancy Reagan's "Just-Say-No" and the Partnership-For-A-Drug-Free-America created the toxic political atmosphere around this question in which America finds itself today, George Shultz was steadfast in his pro-legalization viewpoint and never backed down. Hell, he and former Baltimore mayor, uber-liberal Democrat, Kurt Schmoke raised plenty of Cain over this while Reagan and GHWB were President. Shultz was also a law-and-order dove way ahead of his time. Way ahead of the present time. Wait a second. Screw it. I've been tarred as the equal of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter for mis locuras so, shit, I'll nail my colors to the mast. I like George Shultz. I like him more than I like Al Gore, Jr. And now I'm going public.

Back on PlanetNYC c1988, it was a very healthy debate, which Mailer ultimately won. I'll always give Mailer contrariness and creativity points for the choice. I don't recall whether Paley and Mailer ever patched it up or not. The Kelso family still have the debate from time to time with various voices changing sides and picking it apart from different angles. Such was the cleverness of Norman Mailer. Somehow, I don't think the literary shaman of the Right, Tom Wolfe, in word and deed, ever had or ever will have Mailer's power to keep everyone thinking.

R.I.P.

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