As most of us slept
in our safe warm beds, last night
one more legend died
Henry Mailer died last night. His name is very familiar to me and so is Norman Miller. Wait, I think I have that backwords (sp. error intended because it makes more sense that way). Is it Henry Miller and Norman Mailer or the other way around? The Mailer one (who died last night) was quoted in USA Today as saying this:
Poetry: A "natural activity ... a poem comes to one," whereas prose required making "an appointment with one's mind to write a few thousand words."
That's pretty right on if you ask me. If I had space in my mental appointment book for anything other than nightmares and worrisome mind weeds these days, I make an appointment for those few thousand words.
I also heard on the radio that N or H Mailer said that writing while stoned on pot was a bad idea. Pot was great for editing because it is then the enormous feeling and sensitivity comes in handy. If a writer is in a state of heightened sensitivity and attempts to write, it is nearly impossible. He said this was due to the fact that a writer needs to define and state the surface, the big idea, but if they are stoned on pot, its as if each thought and feeling were larger than the universe and impossible to define.
I can't smoke pot anymore; I am hypersensitive to the universe as it is. I guess I will have to pay M@ to edit my writing or some other stoner writer, from now on.
I know he was considered a chauvinist; I don't think so. I think he loved women in the way a god worships a goddess, but I never met the man. I've never even read his books. I would have, but I could never remember who the cooler author was. Did I want to read Miller or Mailer? I am serious. Help me out here, if you can.
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6 comments:
Hmmm, we may be able to work something out considering that I'm an unemployed professional writer, Stacy. Let's talk.
:)
I posted about Mailer, too. I think you're right about him not being a chauvinist. He stabbed his second wife because he CARED. Now that's a lover. When passions run deep, people sometimes have a bit too much to drink and carry on.
Nothing wrong with that.
I, too, favor repealing the 19th Amendment.
Right o M@, that's a man after my own heart, even though he's dead. How about that Barney Miller guy, he living?
Henry Miller. Norman Mailer. Never read the latter; wasn't smitten by what I read of the former.
But sometimes my mood significantly impacts my perception.
Funny, Stacy. Very funny.
Third W-(picture that meaning), digression. . . Thanks for helping me out. I don't think I will use any precious time looking into either, not usually a fan of the male pen.
Jerri-thanks, sometimes I need to laugh at myself.
I read...er, skimmed some of Mailer's stuff, but it was too esoteric for me. Meaning boring. Miller - Eh. All sexed up in the man way that doesn't always appeal to us lady readers. Though, reading about the stabbing suddenly piques my interest in Mailer. Barney Miller has a great theme song!
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