{"id":1773,"date":"2007-11-10T09:44:24","date_gmt":"2007-11-10T14:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mailers-ghost\/"},"modified":"2007-11-10T15:12:36","modified_gmt":"2007-11-10T20:12:36","slug":"mailers-ghost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mailers-ghost","title":{"rendered":"Mailer’s Ghost"},"content":{"rendered":"

I guess “Norman Mailer, Outspoken Novelist, Dies at 84,<\/a>” is better than “Norman Mailer, Novelist Who Stabbed His Wife<\/a>, Dies at 84.”<\/p>\n

I found Charles McGrath’s obit<\/a> more entertaining than any of the Mailer I’ve tried to read, and I hope someday I can “reliably be counted on to make oracular pronouncements and deliver provocative opinions, sometimes coherently and sometimes not.”<\/p>\n

(Update: the NYTimes has changed the headline on its main page from “Outspoken Novelist” to “Towering Writer”! And the obit<\/a> itself has gone to “Towering Writer With Matching Ego”!)<\/em><\/p>\n

(Update #2: Two of the contemporary writers I respect most have implied that I’m sort of a bonehead for making that remark, and that I need to read An American Dream and Executioner’s Song, as well as Mailer’s early essays. I’ll put some on my wishlist<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess “Norman Mailer, Outspoken Novelist, Dies at 84,” is better than “Norman Mailer, Novelist Who Stabbed His Wife, Dies at 84.” I found Charles McGrath’s obit more entertaining than any of the Mailer I’ve tried to read, and I hope someday I can “reliably be counted on to make oracular pronouncements and deliver provocative … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mailer’s Ghost”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-sB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17574,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-642-david-denby","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":0},"title":"Episode 642 – David Denby","author":"Gil","date":"June 9, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 642: David Denby \"What if Jews had freedom they never had before, and they had it in the United States?\" With his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS (Holt), writer and critic David Denby explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/denby2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/denby2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/denby2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/denby2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/denby2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C706&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1693,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/norm","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":1},"title":"Norm!","author":"Gil","date":"October 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing in this \"interview\" budges me off my long-held opinion that Norman Mailer is a relic of the cold war. (Update: your gnostic-y views on reincarnation notwithstanding, get well soon!)","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4151,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mooning-over-you","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":2},"title":"Mooning over you","author":"Gil","date":"July 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone read Norman Mailer's Of a Fire on the Moon? I came across it in this neat article about the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. This article about the book hasn't convinced me either way to buy it or avoid it.","rel":"","context":"In \"Norman Mailer\"","block_context":{"text":"Norman Mailer","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/norman-mailer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0394620194","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7865,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-euphonic-sounds","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":3},"title":"Podcast: Euphonic Sounds","author":"Gil","date":"April 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 4 episode 16 - Euphonic Sounds \"In the late 1970s, I wanted to write against the grain, so I wrote about a marriage that lasted a long time, with all the strife and stresses.\" Novelist, essayist, poet, short story writer, and translator Lynne Sharon Schwartz\u00a0sat down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lynne Sharon Schwartz on The Virtual Memories Show","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3820\/13900377185_e71c63ee5e.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1835,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/downtime","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":4},"title":"Downtime","author":"Gil","date":"December 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sorry for the lack of new posts, dear readers! It's sorta inconvenient to write here at my in-laws' home. That means no year-end Unrequired Reading post till this weekend, and probably no pix from our today's (overnight) New Orleans trip till then. But I bet they'll both be worth it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7527,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-whimsical-barracuda","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: The Whimsical Barracuda","author":"Gil","date":"December 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 3 episode 31 - The Whimsical Barracuda \u201cWith my brothers, it was like \u2018Resistance is futile! You will enjoy horror movies! You will go to comic book conventions! You will learn to love B-movies and worship Tor Johnson and Plan 9 from Outer Space! Shemp Howard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11391972886_93d0ca1dbd_k.jpg?fit=1163%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11391972886_93d0ca1dbd_k.jpg?fit=1163%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11391972886_93d0ca1dbd_k.jpg?fit=1163%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11391972886_93d0ca1dbd_k.jpg?fit=1163%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11391972886_93d0ca1dbd_k.jpg?fit=1163%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}