Norman Mailer dies less than a month after his book on God is published.
Novelist and New Journalist Norman Mailer died Saturday morning of renal failure at age 84. A controversial but highly recognized writer, Mailer pushed the boundaries of content and style, even tackling the subject of God and religion in his last work, “On God: An Uncommon Conversation.”
ABC said,
“In probing, amusing, and uncommon dialogues conducted over three years but whose topics he has considered for decades, Mailer establishes his own system of belief, one that rejects both organized religion and atheism,” according to a statement issued Monday [September 24, 2007] by Random House.
“He presents instead an artistic God who often succeeds but can also fail in the face of contrary powers in the universe, with whom war is waged for the souls of humans.”
For more on this writer who helped changed the landscape of both fiction and non-fiction while garnering great praise and criticism, visit these links.
New York Times: “Towering Writer with a Matching Ego Dies at Age 84”
CNN: "The Death of the Literary Lion"
The Guardian: “Mailer’s Talent Never as Big as his Ego”
National Post: “The Failed Career of Norman Mailer”
Publisher’s Weekly: “On God”
Posted by Kristen Scharold on November 12, 2007 11:26AM
Comments
And for more on Mailer's malevolence and confusion see this link: http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/009193.html Sample:
"Mailer had famously written that the sterile 1950s were "totalitarian"--a sensibility that had a lot to do with the creation of the Sixties. But how did Mailer respond to this oppressive sterility? By looking for the vitalizing truth of our culture that had been lost? No. By evoking criminality, murder ("The White Negro"), sexual adventure, perversion, and the glorification of ego and power. And so it is, I realized, with all leftist rebellion. It claims to be protesting the loss of some good. But, proving its bad faith, it doesn't seek the good, it only seeks, in one way or another, to destroy the existing order of society, along with its good."
The author of the linked article quotes Carol Ianonne, writing in Commentary Magazine, that Mailer is "evil." So, obviously, as Ms. Scharold notes, Mailer's works elicit wildly diverging reviews. Whilst acknowledging that Mailer was an important literary figure, my point in commenting here with these thoughts and providing the above link is that Ms. Scharold's viewpoint as revealed by the links she provides appears decidely favorable toward Mailer.
Posted by: DiverCity at November 13, 2007
That's an opinion I've never heard of before... Did he ever give any reason to believe it, or was it just speculation?
Posted by: Jesdisciple (Chris) at November 16, 2007
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