Stormin' Norman holds forth on his favorite subject--himself:

[...] "When I started out, one could really take the vocation most seriously -- Hemingway, (William) Faulkner, (John) Steinbeck, (John) Dos Passos. ... You had the feeling you could really change the nature of the country," he says.

"To this day, when you hear a Russian say the word 'Pushkin,' they don't say 'Pushkin.' They say 'Poooshkin,' as if they're about to kiss a baby's bottom, because they love (Alexander) Pushkin so much." [...]

And when Americans say "Mailer," they think of a envelope with a peel-and-stick strip on the flap. And maybe some of that bubble stuff on the inside.

[...] For years, Mailer has brought reporters to his window and pointed in despair at the skyline of lower Manhattan, a view worth far more to real estate agents than to the author, who likens all the glassy skyscrapers to so many boxes of Kleenex.

Well, I suppose there are a few less tissue boxes blocking his view now, thank goodness.

Mailer once wrote public letters to heads of state,

Wow! Just like the kids in my son's 3rd grade class!

and even met President Kennedy,

One wonders if he put on Marilyn's dress and sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President."

but now believes those in power have little reason to bother with him. He laughs at the idea of a meeting with President Bush -- "Would he listen?"

Would Mailer listen to Bush? Yeah, I know, dumb question. 'Cuz when you is the smartest, everyone else gotta be dumber.

-- and remembers a 1972 lunch with then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan and some fellow reporters.

"He was like a public relations man from a medium-sized, Midwest corporation -- kind of clean, neat, slightly pleasant, slightly dull," he says.

The horror..the horror. How dare the governor of California be neat and clean and pleasant and dull! The sorry bastard!

"But he never once looked into my eyes. He knew there was nothing he could gain from a conversation with me.

Well, maybe Norm is teachable after all.

I realized that's why this man has risen so high. He's never made the mistake of talking to a man who was of no use to him."

That's just the way of all medium-sized, Midwest corporation public relations men, Normie baby.
posted by Terry at 4:46:00 PM