(Leonhard Foeger/Files/Reuters)
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Norman and Me
Norman Mailer(American author) died Saturday, November 10, 2007.
Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit. Norman Mailer
"Hip, Hell,and the Navigator"
Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.
Norman Mailer, Armies Of The Night
Years back, I received a note from Norman. I messed up. I should have kept it.
I was somewhat sad to hear that he had "hit the road." I'm sad when anyone does.
Death is so very final. To eulogize an eighty-four year old, we would have to say ,"he lived a long and rich life." But, as a celebrity author, it's hard to know. It is all so public. We even know about his six wives. You have got to be kidding me. Six! What was it with Norman?
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There are four stages to marriage. First there's the affair, then there's the marriage, then children, and finally the fourth stage, without which you cannot know a woman, the divorce. Norman Mailer
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Obviously, he was a brilliant writer, but in terms of love, well... He might have been like a best bud of mine, Jack. After his third marriage and not yet thirty, I said to him "There is no rule that says just because you have sex with someone, you have to get married." I think he got it as number three was his last. Norman kept going and even stabbed number two. Now, even William Faulkner said that a good man should have only two wives.I am not even sure that two is a good idea.
Like I said, I received a note from Norman, probably thirty years ago. I had collected enough rejection slips to wallpaper a good size house.
No one ever told me I was a writer. In fact, quite the opposite. I just had it in my soul. I had to write-letters, various scribblings, stories-so I naturally thought I must be a writer as I was writing.
I saw an advertisement in a magazine that, for a fee, would send
your manuscript to an agency and a famous published author for critique. Norman Mailer was mentioned. I sent them my manuscript and three hundred bucks (lots of money in those days).
A few weeks later I got my manuscript back, marked up with a page or two of critique and a note from Norman. Basically, he said, "Forget it and don't give up your day job." It was not quite that cold, but close. Too bad I didn't save it. Damn, I could have put it on Ebay.
KT
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