changeyourstars8 | Ummm . . . ew.

So, Norman Mailer died. And reading the Yahoo article about it, I started feeling ill-- not because of any sense of loss, but because of the fond, 'awww, lookit the shenanigans' tone to it. Which normally wouldn't bug me; that's something to be expected from obituaries. Except that in Mailer's case, said shenanigans include things like stabbing his wife.

But that's okay, it was just a sign that his "personal life was as turbulent as the times"!

"He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against women's liberation.

But as Newsweek reviewer Raymond Sokolov said in 1968, "In the end, it is the writing that will count."

Now I'm not sure of the original context of the Sokolov quote, but the way it's set up here makes it sound like, 'did all this stuff, including using his influence to argue against freedom for half the population, but that's okay because he was a good writer and that's what counts'.

Feh.