Why I'm Reading Mailer

Because Mailer beat up Gore Vidal. And ran for Mayor of New York. And got drunk and stabbed his then wife. Wait--what? Who does that?! Mailer does. I read an interview with him in Esquire this past month and decided that this guy--besides his bouts of mental instability and forays into rabble-rousing--is from another era where writing and writers were vitally important. That's not to say that Hornby and Eggers aren't good, but that there's simply a different relationship between the written word and the public psyche today. Yet Mailer is still plugging away, refusing to recognize that Americans no longer recognize his name and writing a book that suggests Hitler was weaned by Satan in the same manner that Jesus was watched over by God. He's still got big ideas, but I've decided to start with some of his first, those in The Naked and the Dead.