RIP Normal Mailer

[Steve]

Norman Mailer died today.

 

In a 2003 interview with NPR, he talks about why being a "plotter" can get you in trouble, why smoking pot is good for editing but bad for writing, and how, as a novelist, he hopes that he isn't one of the "last of the Mohicans".

 

Give it a listen.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

R.I.P. Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 - November 10, 2007) - The fearless two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital early Saturday morning.

 

List Of Books By Norman Mailer. It's worth a look if only to see what we might aspire to.

 

-Thoth.

[Steve E]

In a 2003 interview with NPR, [Norman Mailer] talks about why being a "plotter" can get you in trouble, why smoking pot is good for editing but bad for writing, and how, as a novelist, he hopes that he isn't one of the "last of the Mohicans".

 

I was rather intrigued by this last part, especially since I've been seeing some articles of late which suggest that reading for pleasure may become a dead pastime, drowned in the wake of such devices as the video iPod. Of course, someone still has to write the scripts (once the TV writers strike ends).

 

I've been looking for historical statistics on regional, national and global fiction unit sales (not cash sales). If anyone can find this please put up a link. One interesting trend though, the demographics are shifting younger and younger. Kids are reading more. And not just graphic novels -- full honest-to-god books. Teens and twenty-somethings are reading progressively less. Of course, all the numbers may be skewed as more people are reading more online. The Internet may prove to be the future of publishing. Something Norman Mailer might have written a book about.

 

Your Observant,

-Thoth

[pjl]

Never been a fan of Mailer, but no doubt it is a sad day when we lose someone of his eloquence and character in the writing world.

 

Thanks for the interview link, Steve, fascinating to hear his ideas on plotting.

 

PJ

[marguerite]

Never been a fan of Mailer, but no doubt it is a sad day when we lose someone of his eloquence and character in the writing world.

 

Thanks for the interview link, Steve, fascinating to hear his ideas on plotting.

 

PJ

 

Not really connected to Norman Mailer, but perhaps reassuring to those of us who toil in the trenches. My local newspaper this morning (on the front page, no less!) featured an author, now on book 8, who started writing at 50, gathered rejection slips for 10 years, published her first book at 60, and is still going strong at 73.

 

Being among the, ahem, over-30s whom we were all not supposed to trust back in the day, I've already forgotten the woman's name, but she's written a series of mysteries about a cardiologist, based on her husband. Maybe she needs Storyist if she's to make it through book 9!

Marguerite

[astillac]

My local newspaper this morning (on the front page, no less!) featured an author, now on book 8, who started writing at 50, gathered rejection slips for 10 years, published her first book at 60, and is still going strong at 73.

 

Oh boy. That means I could be at this for a long time.

I guess that's the idea, though, right?

 

- Calli

[astillac]

Oh man, the universe in each sentence. I don't know who this guy is, but that was somehow startling.