Why do I get the feeling that the author of this Daily Texan article wrote it ahead of time and then attended Mailer's lecture just waiting for him to say something controversial. Because, come on, its Norman Mailer right? He is historically controversial.
I imagine the author was disappointed when the only hint of controversy was an anti-Bush comment that made one woman in the audience (who identified herself as the only Republican in the room) mad. Reeeeaaaal controversial there Norm. The other part of the speech cited as controversial was a section Mailer read from an upcoming article on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Jean Paul Sartre's birth:
"Sartre was a kind of genius, with an exceptionally fine mind, but he had one serious flaw," Mailer read. "He gave too wide a berth to the work of Heideker, which sat somewhere in the crack of humanity's buttocks."
I bet that got the underclassmen really riled up. "Dude, Mailer just totally dissed Heideker! Or Sartre! Or something! Or... I'm not sure what, but I know its controversial!"
According to the article, the only other controversial thing Mailer has done in the past few years was appear on The Gilmore Girls. Maybe he is losing his touch.
No wonder he sold his papers to the HRC for 2.5 million dollars -- he had to cash in those controversy points while he still could.
3 comments:
He was pretty controversially grumpy on the "Gilmore Girls" though.
I like how the article is trying to figure out how he transformed from mild-mannered to controversial. It is like they think that Norman Mailer was a real sweetheart until he turned fifty or something and then he went ape-shit.
I'm baffled that the author of the article points out how many hippopotamuses equal the weight of Mailer's archives when the real question is how many macaques' worth there are in Mailer's papers.
With all due respect, Josh, who gives a damn about macaques? To put it in terms I can understand, they should figure out how many trips from my bed to my toilet I would have to take to cover the same distance as a single layer of his papers laid from end to end.
Poor Daily Texan. Even UT's journalism department uses it as a teaching aid in what not to do.
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