The Presidential Papers
The Presidential Papers is a collection of essays, interviews, poems, open letters to political figures, and magazine pieces written by Norman Mailer, published in 1963 by G.P. Putnam's Sons. It is, by Mailer's own admission, similar in structure and purpose to Advertisements for Myself, albeit with a relatively stronger focus on contemporary politics, although many other topics are touched upon. The book covers such topics as scatology, totalitarianism, aesthetics, fascism, the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, Jean Genet's 1958 play The Blacks, juvenile delinquency, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Fidel Castro, masturbation, and others.
Reception
In 1964 Midge Decter published a review in Commentary which praised Mailer's earnest observation but criticised his "intellectual brashness." Despite chastising Mailer for not being "sufficiently respectful toward the history of man's difficulties with the problems raised in [The Presidential Papers]," Decter nonetheless concluded her review by claiming "no one else is telling us more about the United States of America."[1]
In reviewing Mailer's personal political stance of 'left-conservativism,' Cyrus Zirakzadeh concluded that The Presidential Papers's most significant insight was that the United States has remained formally democratic but nonetheless developed a 'totalitarian culture,' a discussion found in The Ninth Presidential Paper. The primary culprit for this totalitarian culture is a technology-centered 'corporate capitalism' where employees become 'sycophants' for their employers, representing a serious threat to individual freedom. What results is a managed, predictable economic order that threatens the United States' unique history of opportunity, risk and fluid social structure.[2]
References
- ^ Decter, Midge (February 1964). "The Presidential Papers, by Norman Mailer". Retrieved 26 June 2013.
- ^ Zirakzadeh, Cyrus Ernesto (2007). "Political Prophecy in Contemporary American Literature: The Left-Conservative Vision of Norman Mailer". The Review of Politics. 69 (4): 625–649. doi:10.1017/S0034670507000988. S2CID 143821180.
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- The Naked and the Dead
- Barbary Shore
- The Deer Park
- An American Dream
- The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer
- Why Are We in Vietnam?
- A Transit to Narcissus
- The Executioner's Song
- Of Women and Their Elegance
- Ancient Evenings
- Tough Guys Don't Dance
- Harlot's Ghost
- The Gospel According to the Son
- The Castle in the Forest
- The White Negro
- Advertisements for Myself
- "Superman Comes to the Supermarket"
- "In the Red Light"
- The Presidential Papers
- Cannibals and Christians
- The Bullfight
- The Armies of the Night
- The Idol and the Octopus
- Miami and the Siege of Chicago
- Of a Fire on the Moon
- King of the Hill
- The Prisoner of Sex
- Existential Errands
- St. George and The Godfather
- The Faith of Graffiti
- The Fight
- Genius and Lust
- Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots
- Pieces and Pontifications
- The Spooky Art
- Why Are We At War?
- Marilyn: A Biography
- Oswald's Tale
- Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man
- Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963-1969
- The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer
- Beyond the Law
- Wild 90
- Maidstone
- Town Bloody Hall
- Tough Guys Don't Dance
- The Executioner's Song
- American Tragedy
- Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story
- Strawhead (play)
- The Deer Park (play)
- Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (poetry)
- Some Honorable Men (anthology)
- The Time of Our Time (anthology)
- Modest Gifts (poems and drawings)
- The Big Empty (conversations)
- On God (conversations)
- Lipton’s: A Marijuana Journal (journal)
adaptations
- The Naked and the Dead
- An American Dream
- Marilyn: The Untold Story
- Adele Morales (second wife)
- Jeanne Campbell (third wife)
- Beverly Bentley (fourth wife)
- Norris Church Mailer (wife)
- Kate Mailer (daughter)
- Michael Mailer (son)
- Stephen Mailer (son)
- John Buffalo Mailer (son)
- Norman Mailer Prize
- Stabbing of Adele Morales by Norman Mailer
- New York City: the 51st State
- In the Belly of the Beast
- J. Michael Lennon (biographer)
- The Norman Mailer Society
- Norman Mailer bibliography
- The Mailer Review
- River of Fundament