#the fight by norman mailer

[embossross]

2024 in books: fiction edition

literary fiction published 2014-2024

Nefando by Monica Ojeda (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) - book of the year but warning it is the most triggering book i've ever read. i sobbed and could barely function for a full day. it's so painful. csa tw

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Tentacle by Rita Indiana (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Toño the Infallible by Evelio Rosero (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Outline by Rachel Cusk (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (⭐⭐⭐⭐) - rating this was the biggest challenge of the year because the highs are extraordinary but the lows are miserable. i literally hated it while reading it but then returned to it more than almost any other book this year.

black moses by alain mabanckou (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

crooked plow by itamar vieira junior (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

behold the dreamers by imbolo mbue (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

the north water by ian mcguire (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

dr. no by percival everett (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

birth canal by dias novita wuri (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

transcendent kingdom by yaa gyasi (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh (⭐⭐⭐)

the gospel according to the new world by maryse condé (⭐⭐⭐)

manhattan beach by jennifer egan (⭐⭐⭐)

the archive of alternate endings by lindsey drager (⭐⭐⭐)

the inheritance games by jennifer lynn barnes

(⭐⭐⭐)

the aunt who wouldn't die by shirshendu mukhopadhyay (⭐⭐⭐)

deacon king kong by james mcbride (⭐⭐⭐)

four minutes by nataliya deleva (⭐⭐⭐)

blood red gy gabriela ponce padilla (⭐⭐⭐)

boulder by eva baltasar (⭐⭐⭐) - i appear to be the only person not dazzled by this book and feel left out of the party, but i just don't get it.

burnt sugar by avni doshi (⭐⭐)

you glow in the dark by liliana colanzi (⭐⭐)

the pisces by melissa broder (⭐⭐)

our wives under the sea by julia armfield (⭐⭐) - another beloved sapphic book that left me bored out of my mind. the writing about bodies felt very 2018 tumblr (non-complimentary)

the touch system by alejandara costamagna (⭐) - just pointless. one star is probably harsh though.

divided island by daniela tarazona (⭐) - i will admit i might be too dumb for this book

fiebre tropical by juli delgado lopera (⭐)

a door behind a door by yelena moskovich (⭐) - and the razzie goes to...!

literary fiction published 1971-2013

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Kassandra and the Wolf by Margarita Karapanou (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Ahab's Wife, or the Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

My Tender Matador (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Happiness As Such by Natalia Ginzburg (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

The Transmigration of Bodies by Yuri Herrera (⭐⭐⭐⭐) - the way he nails how people would react to the covid pandemic 7 years early is wild in an otherwise pulpy mob thriller

shalash the iraqi (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

the disaster tourist by yun ko-eun (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

mother to mother by sindiwe magona (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

the route of ice and salt by josé luis zárate (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

pussy, king of the pirates by kathy acker (⭐⭐⭐)

awake by harald voetmann (⭐⭐⭐)

the raven king by nora sakavic (⭐⭐⭐)

touch by adania shibli (⭐⭐⭐)

cold nights of childhood by tezer ozlu (⭐⭐⭐)

the foxhole court by nora sakavic (⭐⭐⭐)

akhenaten: dweller in truth by naguib mahfouz (⭐⭐⭐)

the rooftop by fernanda trías (⭐⭐⭐)

tell them of battles, kings and elephants by mathias enard (⭐⭐)

sea of lentils by antonio rojo benitez (⭐)

literary fiction published start of time-1970

The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Masks by Fumiko Enchi (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Girl Upon Heaven's Pier by Eeva-Liisa Manner (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Final Exam by Julio Cortázar (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Two Novels: J and Seventeen by Kenzaburö Ōe (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) - J is an easy 5 star but Seventeen is more of a mixed bag

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

night on the galactic railroad and other stores from ihatov by kenji miyazawa (⭐⭐⭐)

the wild geese by Ōgai mori (⭐⭐⭐)

the phantom of the opera (⭐⭐⭐) - despised this while reading but my god did it leave an impression. the phantom swimming around with his reed just lying in wait makes me burst out laughing once a quarter "do you choose the GRASSHOPPER, Christine???" he's so stupid

madame bovary by gustave flaubert (⭐⭐⭐)

orlando by virgnia woolf (⭐⭐⭐)

mr. president by miguel ángel asturias (⭐⭐)

four stories by h.p. lovecraft (⭐) - the racist stench is just emanating off these stories and they're boring too for good measure

the mysterious correspondent: new stories by marcel proust (⭐)

[blackros78]

Just as a man serving a long sentence in prison will begin to live in despair about the time he recognizes that the effort to keep his sanity is going to leave him less of a man, so a fighter goes through something of the same calculation. The prisoner and the fighter must give up some part of what is best in him (since what is best for any human is more designed for prison - or training - than an animal for the zoo). Sooner or later the fighter recognizes something in his psyche is paying too much for the training. Boredom is not only deadening his personality but killing his soul.

Norman Mailer (The Fight)

[travsd]

The Norman Mailer Centennial

100 years ago today saw the birth of Norman Mailer (Nachem Malech Mailer, 1923-2007). I was rash enough to seem dismissive of Mailer in my recent Gore Vidal post, including both authors among a small set of so-called public intellectuals of the television age who failed to impress me. In Mailer’s case, his public image tended to overshadow his literary one, but honestly my main point was more…

[mary-maud]

How his hatred seethed in search of a justifiable excuse.

Norman Mailer - The Fight

[dare-g]

Strange coincidence today ..my afternoon plans were to finish reading Norman Mailer's The Fight and watch the full Mohammed Ali VS George Foreman fight for myself which did ..but going into it I didn't realize that I had picked the day of the 50th anniversary of the event to do so

[justforbooks]

Harlot's Ghost (1991) is a fictional chronicle of the Central Intelligence Agency by Norman Mailer. The characters are a mixture of real people and fictional figures. At over 1,300 pages, the book is Mailer's longest.

At first it appears to be the autobiography of Harry Hubbard, which is made up of anecdotes of his life and actions with the CIA, covert operations in Uruguay, the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Mafia in the 60s and the assassination of JFK. The very beginning of the book starts with Harry being told by a friend that his mentor Hugh Montague (a top level CIA officer) has either been assassinated or committed suicide on his boat. He then is told by his wife, Kittredge (a CIA member), that she has been unfaithful and is in love with another high level CIA intelligence officer. Under perceived threat of his own assassination by the CIA he escapes to Moscow. It is there that he rereads in a hotel room the dense manuscript of his life at the CIA which he has documented and kept secret over his career. At that point, the book really begins. It details the life of a CIA intelligence officer who has connections to the highest levels of the CIA. It raises basic questions about the fight against Communism and goes into the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis and, perhaps most importantly, raises questions about the assassination of JFK and who was ultimately responsible.

Mailer had planned to write a sequel – Harlot's Grave – but other projects intervened and the sequel was never written. Harlot's Ghost ends with the words "To be continued".

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[hillside-dangler]

Gary Gilmore & The Death Penalty

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GARY GILMORE was the first person to be executed in the USA after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. At the time there were 358 other American prisoners on death row throughout the USA. His death publicly marked the resumption of capital punishment within certain states. A previous ruling in 1973 banned the practice altogether, declaring the act to be unconstitutional. Gilmores case sparked lots of media attention, dividing public opinion.

c)(c

Twenty-four states currently allow the death penalty. Twenty-three states have abolished capital punishment altogether. Three states, California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, have governor-issued moratoriums in place, halting executions in the state. Michigan became the first state to abolish, in 1846. Virginia is the most recent state to abolish the practice on July 1, 2021. Crimes eligible to receive capital punishment include murder, espionage, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and treason. Since, 1972, all executions performed have been for acts of homicide. Gilmore was found guilty of killing two young men during an armed robbery. The men were Max Jensen and Bennie Bushnell.

c)(c

Gilmore gained notoriety due to his insistence on being executed and his refusal to appeal his sentence. He thought he had a good case for 'insanity', given the lack of control he experienced leading up to these crimes. Gilmore's lawyers fought to have his death sentence overturned, arguing that he was mentally ill and therefore not fit for execution. This led to Gilmore firing both of them. Four separate psychiatrists examined Gilmore and stated in court that, while he did have an antisocial personality disorder, which may have been aggravated by drinking and the prescription drug Fiorinal, he did not meet the legal criteria for insanity.

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Gilmores brother claims that Gary had undergone earlier medical examinations during his previous 15 year incarceration. According to him, the results indicated that Gilmore suffered from psychopathic personality disorders and was deeply scarred from childhood abuse. He was highly intelligent and continually educated himself in prison. He was naturally creative and a gifted artist.

c)(c

Unfortunately, prison increased his tendency to resist authority and find conflict in social situations. He gained a reputation for violence, frequently attacking other inmates and guards. He was constantly subdued with prolixin, an antipsychotic drug. The days leading up to the murders, friends noted Gilmores' irrational and threatening behaviour. He was angry and somewhat disconnected.

c)(c

The courts ultimately upheld his sentence and the death penalty was administered. Upon hearing his guilty verdict, Gilmore told the judge: "it's been sanctioned by the courts and I accept that" He publicly denounced activists and religious spokespeople who protesting the death penalty. "It's my life, and my death" he told journalists. He rejected his own mothers efforts to appeal and get a stay. He quoting Nietzsche, saying " the time comes when a man should rise to meet the occasion"

c)(c

His attitude towards his impending execution was unusual, as most death row inmates fight their sentences through appeals and other legal means. Before his execution, Gilmore gave numerous interviews to the media, expressing regret for his crimes but insisting that he deserved to die for them. On the day of his execution activists protested outside the prison, opposing the death sentence. His story became the basis for Norman Mailer's book "The Executioner's Song" which won a Pulitzer Prize and was later made into a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.

c)(c

The execution itself was also controversial. Gilmore had chosen to be executed by firing squad, which was still legal in Utah at the time, but not common.

The night before Gilmour's sentence was fulfilled, the death row prisoner was granted permission for family to visit his cell. His uncle smuggled a bottle of booze into jail. Gary enjoyed a robust last supper in jolly drunkenness. Johnny Cash even called Gary to sing a song for him over the phone.

17/01/1977 At approximately 8:00 am Gary Mark Gilmore is escorted to a large padded room, historically named The Slaughterhouse. A small group of family, media & friends attend the event but won't witness the killing. The act is so brutal and performed by a voluntary firing squad. Strapped to a leather chair with a target across his heart, Gilmore sits motionless, showing no resistance. Despite earlier requests to keep his face exposed, Gilmores head is covered with a black corduroy slip. His last spoken words were reportedly "Let's do it". The killers death-wish was adapted by Nike, who changed it to "Just Do It" in the early 80's. The slogan became a positive affirmation encouraging confidence, spontaneity and personal empowerment. Gilmore was definitely fearless, hailed by some as an antihero, a martyr among outlaws 'sticking' it to the man.' Despite the city's Mormon influence, Gilmore was born a catholic. A priest was present to reads his last rites before the final countdown begins. From behind a curtain five shots are fired from 30-30 deer rifles. Four of them are loaded with steel-jacketed shells and the first one contains a blank. All effort is made to ensure the executioners conscience and identity are protected. The gunmen remain anonymous, permanently unaware of which gun fired a blank and which shot the fatal bullets.

c)(c

Gilmores body jerks upon impact as Thirty Six years of life bleed from a hole in his heart. Four bullet holes have passed through the man's body to become permanently lodged in the leather behind him. Two minutes pass before Gilmore is pronounced 'officially dead.' The heart must be silent and the blood flow must cease before doctors are permitted to undertake the organ removal procedure. The surgery is prompt, unsightly and undeniably final. There's no chance of return for an organ donor.

c)(c

In 1977 punk band The Adverts reference this in their song 'Gary Gilmores Eyes'. Imagined from the perspective of an organ recipient awaking to discover whose eyes they've just inherited.

"The doctors are avoiding me. My vision is confused. I listen to my earphones, I catch the evening news. A murderer's been killed and he donates his sight to science. I'm locked into a private ward. I realize that I must be...Looking through Gary Gilmore's eyes."

C)(C

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image IDs: Pictures of pages I-IV of a book, showing quotes.

I firmly believed we should not march in Baghdad. . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero . . . assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable guerrilla war. . . . Furthermore, we have been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handing aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. -Bush Sr., President of the United States, in his 1998 book, A World Transformed, on the Gulf War of 1991.

The United Nations served as an imprimatur for a policy the United States wanted to follow and either persuaded or coerced everybody else to support. The Security Council thus played fast and loose with the provisions of the UN Charter. -Stephen Lewis, Canada's Ambassador to the UN at the time, about the Gulf War.

Lesley Stahl: 'We have heard that a half million children have died [because of sanctions against Iraq]. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima and you know, is the price worth it?' President Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: 'I think this is a very hard choice, but the price . . . we think the price is worth it.' -On American TV programme 60 minutes in May 1996.

Dear President Bush, I'm sure you'll be having a nice little tea party with your fellow war criminal, Tony Blair. Please wash the cucumber sandwiches down with a glass of blood. -Harold Pinter, British playwright, in an open letter published in The Guardian.

George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States, he was appointed by God. -General Jerry Boykin, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, in charge of facilitating intelligence information for Donald Rumsfeld's 'High Value Target Plan', aimed at hunting down Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Mullah Omar.

[President George W. Bush is] the greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen. -Ken Livingston, Mayor of London.

And, before it is all over, democracy, noble and delicate as it is, may give way. . . . Indeed, democracy is the special condition that we will be called up to defend in the coming years. That will be enormously difficult because of the combination of the corporations, the military and the complete investiture of the flag with mass spectator sports has set up a pre-fascist atmosphere in America already. -Norman Mailer, American novelist.

Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power. -Benito Mussolini, founder of Italian fascism.

You call Donald Rumsfeld and tell him our sorry asses are ready to go home. - Pfc. Matthew C. O'Dell, a US infantryman serving in Iraq, as quoted in New York Times, June 15 2003.

We lack the metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. -US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a confidential memo, 16 October 2003.

The message is that there are known knowns, there are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns . . . things we do not know we don't know. And each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns. -Donald Rumsfeld, on why US charges against Saddam turned out to be false.

The trumped up reasons for going to war have collapsed. All the Administration's rationalizations as we prepared to go to war now stand revealed as 'double-talk'. The American people were told Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons. He was not. We were told he had stockpiles of other weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was involved in 9/11. He was not. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from Al Qaida. It was not. We were told our soldiers would be viewed as liberators. They are not. We were told Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction. It cannot. We were told the war would make America safer. It has not. . . . Before the war, wek after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie. -US Senate Statement by Senator Ted Kennedy.

Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business. -Michael Ledeen, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.

You've got to go where the oil is. -US Vice President Dick Cheney.

After all, this is the guy [Saddam Hussein] who tried to kill my dad. -President George W. bush, at Houston, September 26, 2022. /End IDs]

Aijaz Ahmad, “In Lieu of an Introduction”, from Iran, Afghanistan & The Imperialism Of Our Time

[boricuacherry-blog]

Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter is stepping down after 28 years in office, and his successor will be determined in next month's election, when Mary Keenan, who has worked in Hunter's office for fifteen years, faces Republican challenger Dave Sanderson. Keenan is expected to win the race, and Thomas, who now lives in Arvada, says he has little hope for significant change in justice, Boulder style.

"I'm not a resident of Boulder County," he says. "It's not my fight anymore. But I think should someone from within that office inherit the throne, nothing will change. It will be the same dynasty that we've seen for three decades, the same miserable failure of justice in Boulder."

Two of Thomas's maternal uncles were naval officers, and from the time he was small, he had planned to enter the Navy - though he does remember being transfixed by a visit from a police officer to his high school civics class. "This guy was such a hero in my eyes," he says. At the University of Arkansas, Thomas discovered that he had a vision defect that would rule out a Navy career, and his interest in law enforcement deepened. At the same time, he came across Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song and read it over and over again. "I did a paper and some oral reports on that book," he says. "I carried it around in my backpack."

During this time, he also received a medal for rescuing an elderly couple from a burning building.

But the frustrations of the Ramsey case took a serious toll on Steve Thomas. On a May morning, he found a mutilated cat outside his house; his garden hose had been sliced and his wife's flower garden wrecked. Newly married at the beginning of the investigation, he rarely saw his wife.

On August 6, 1998, Thomas wrote a long letter of resignation to Boulder's new police chief, Mark Beckner. "What I witnessed for two years of my life was so fundamentally flawed, it reduced me to tears," he said. "I cannot continue to sanction by silence what has occurred in this case."

Thomas's letter sparked a brief flurry of concern about the operations of the Boulder County District Attorney's Office. But the DA's office struck back, noting that the Ramsey case was Thomas's first murder investigation, and labeling him a rookie cop who had gotten in over his head and whose own failure had made him bitter and vengeful.

Many of Thomas's colleagues would disagree with this depiction. "He's one hell of an investigator and a good cop," says Jim Kolar, now working in Telluride.

"The best police officer I have ever worked with," says Greg Idler, who's also left the BPD. "Excellent in investigations and at interviewing. Steve never let anything die; he always worked it to the end. And he's an expert when it came to deceptive responses from suspects. Steve has never been the one to take the easy or the most popular route. He's the one who wants to get justice."

The attacks escalated. Hints surfaced that Thomas was mentally unstable; according to Jeff Shapiro, these rumors were coming from the DA's office.

And once Thomas had written his book - which enjoyed a brief sojourn on the New York Times bestseller list - he faced accusations that he had acted out of greed and betrayed the case. But Thomas has a response for this: Thanks to Hunter, he says, there were few secrets left in the investigation when he began to write. "The facts are the facts," he adds. "They in no way, shape or form change because, two years later, I write a book about my experience..."

[whatsonmedia]

Wednesday Wisdom:Top 5 Best Norman Mailer Books

Wednesday Wisdom celebrates Norman Mailer’s birthday on January 31 by delving into his top 5 best books. “The Naked and the Dead” exposes the raw reality of World War II, while “The Armies of the Night” navigates the chaos of the 1967 anti-war march. “An American Dream” offers a dark exploration of success, “The Fight” thrusts you into the boxing ring, and “The Executioner’s Song” unveils the twisted mind of a murderer. These powerful narratives redefine literature, challenging readers to confront humanity’s darkest corners.

The Naked and the Dead

Norman Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead” plunges into World War II, stripping soldiers bare. No heroes, just men like you and me. Fear, exhaustion, and death cling to them like sweat. They fight on a Pacific island, jungle a suffocating enemy. Brutal battles shatter minds, brotherhood blooms in blood. Mailer doesn’t flinch, showing war’s raw ugliness and heartbreaking humanity. It’s a gut punch, forcing you to face what men become when stripped naked by battle. Read it, but be warned: It’s a powerful, unforgettable journey.

The Armies of the Night

“The Armies of the Night” is a wild ride through the 1967 anti-war march on Washington. Mailer throws himself headfirst into the chaos, mixing personal doubts with vivid portraits of hippies, politicians, and cops. He’s not afraid to ruffle feathers, questioning everyone from war protestors to himself. It’s messy, opinionated, and honest. You won’t agree with everything, but you’ll be glued to the page as Mailer wrestles with the soul of America in a time of upheaval. It’s history as a rollercoaster, leaving you breathless and maybe a little changed.

 An American Dream

 Mailer’s “American Dream” takes you on a wild ride with Stephen Rojack, a war hero turned TV star with a dark side. He’s got money, fame, women, but nothing satisfies him. Driven by rage and booze, he spirals through murder, paranoia, and existential crises. Prepare for shocking twists, mind-bending metaphors, and a brutal look at the dark side of the American dream. It’s not for everyone, but if you like gritty, disturbing reads, buckle up!

The Fight

“The Fight” throws you into the ring with Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) – not just the champ, but a young man fighting for respect in a racist America. Mailer’s words crackle with energy, like punches landing. You sweat with Clay in training, feel the fear and fury before the big fight. No fancy footwork, just raw emotion and power. It’s a story about beating the odds, both inside and outside the ring. Not just a boxing match, but a battle for the soul of a nation.

The Executioner’s Song

Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” takes you inside the twisted mind of Gary Gilmore, the first man executed in America after a decade. It’s not a pretty journey. Mailer avoids fancy words, mimicking Gilmore’s rough voice, telling the story through interviews and flashbacks. You feel the ache of his lost dreams, the anger that explodes into murder. But Gilmore’s not a hero, just a flawed man drawn to violence. Mailer doesn’t judge, just lays bare the brutal truth. It’s a tough read, but unforgettable. Makes you question justice, free will, and what it means to choose death. Not for the faint of heart, but a powerful look at a dark chapter in American history.

[inghrafn]

HOOOORAY @stelly38 you got so many right! I'm kvelling over here! (Spectators, please click to see enlarged and legible versions.)

The man whose name escapes you is NYC Mayor Ed Koch. He did not escape Henry Kissinger, who apparently attended one of his birthday bashes. The image of them is a composite of my own devising, but I like to think of those two opposites sitting down together to spill the political tea...

The youngster with the megaphone is actually only 20 as we speak! She is known for her social activism against gun violence. Amazing!

The man with the mike under Natalie Portman is reggae singer Matisyahu. I saw him at Bonnaroo in 2006, about a year before he parted ways with Hasidism.

So I'm not sure how George Eliot picked a fight with Norman Mailer. I think it was over Daniel Deronda, the idea of which evidently tickled me so much that I forgot to swap her for Carrie Brownstein for the final montage.

How could I, how WOULD I deny us the suave stylings of Mr. Goldblum? Perish the thought! :D

RE: "Count the Jews" - for us, it was knowing which famous people had Anglicized their names and solemnly intoning their original names out loud. Looking for Kirk Douglas? Would you take Issur Danielovich? Paging Gene Wilder? Oh, you want Jerome Silberman!...

@flow-it-show-it    Here we go.  I saw your change next to Mailer; I didn’t recognize him, the first person next to him, and now, the new lady comedienne.  I don’t know who they are.  

But I think I’ve done pretty well with the rest of them.  The one that’s killing me is the guy next to Kissinger–I KNOW his face; I can’t come up with a name.  

Still unsure on several, and in a few, people’s��“props” gave them away.  (I wouldn’t have gotten Irving Berlin had he not been seated at a piano).  The girl with the megaphone is obviously a political activist from the 1960s, but I couldn’t tell you who.  

I should know the singer guy under Natalie Portman, but I just can’t place him.  

Thank you for including Jeff Goldblum, one of my long-time crush objects.  

I don’t know if your family loved doing this, but mine (my dad especially) loved to play a game I called “Count the Jews,” wherein we would sit in the theater after a movie and point out all the jewish surnames in the credits.  Same for TV shows.  It was an exercise in pride, I guess.  I still do it to this day.  My father always took extra interest in someone if they were jewish, even if they were someone he wouldn’t usually care for.  

I also don’t know if you’ve seen this site or not: jewornotjew 

I have spent way, way too long on there, reading their entries and laughing my ass off (and learning who is and who isn’t jewish)!

[musemanorinspirations]

"Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing."

Norman Mailer

[ramseyesscom]

Issue One Hundred and Forty-Six

Hey! More over here! Hey!

Longtime readers of Sincere, Positive Things know that in addition to ingesting all things modern media, we are often looking backwards as well. Well allow me at this late date to be the first person of 2022 to inform you that the best thing to listen to while doing the dishes are celebrity interviews from Dick Cavett's vast archives. Should you never have encountered the interview stylings of Mr. Cavett, the experience could be rather jarring if you're only familiar with the modern talk show. The host isn't constantly interjecting with a segue to a pre-planned anecdote, there aren't games, and the audience isn't reacting constantly. Instead, there is space to discuss, argue, and debate. There are laughs, but they aren't a constant requirement. Instead, there's room for thought and depth. That's not to say "aw shucks, they just don't make them like this anymore." I mean, they don't, but this is, at times, slow television. This would absolutely not get made today, but it's not a show for today. Rather than extol the virtues of a show you'll never click on and explore, I'm going to link to a number of worthwhile interviews to tickle your fancy. There's something here for everyone (over 30).

Mel Brooks

Janis Joplin

Gore Vidal / Norman Mailer (FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT)

Ray Charles

Groucho (and another for good measure)

Bette Davis

And so many more at his official YouTube channel!

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher and Werner Herzog a German film director. They both have very distinctive voices and have recorded many hours of themselves speaking. Obviously, the next step was to feed many examples of their voice and their words into an AI to have them speak to one another on philosophy forever.  

The Infinite Conversation

[mary-maud]

For if we are our own force, we are also a servant of the forces of the dead. So we have to be bold enough to live with all the magical forces at loose between the living and the dead. That is never free of dread. It takes bravery to live with beauty or wealth if we think of them as an existence connected to the messages, the curses, and the loyalties of the dead.

Norman Mailer - The Fight

[whattoreadnext]

Catch-22

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

(the lunacy of war, seen in a USAF base on a fantasy Mediterranean island during the second world war)

The Craziness of Command (you"ll laugh till you die)

Richard Hooker, M*A*S*H  (US doctors in Korea fighting insane conditions, boredom and gung-ho top brass)

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

Peter George, Red Alert  (chain of command follies and failures triggers World War III)

Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny  (crew court-martialled for mutinying against insane World War II minesweeper captain)

Leslie Thomas, The Virgin Soldiers  (over-sexed, bewildered British conscripts in Far East)

Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Svejk  (World War I batman obeys every order, believes every lie, keeps out of trouble)

Thomas Pynchon, Gravity"s Rainbow  (what is top secret World War II establishment for? What is meaning of life? Should war (and sex) not be more fun than this?)

The World Gone Mad (laugh or cry, we live in an insane asylum)

Jersey Kosinski, Being There  (lame-brain gardener taken for political guru and saint)

Budd Schulberg, What Makes Sammy Run?  (Sammy claws his way to the top; scum always floats)

Günter Grass, The Tin Drum  (nazism as an insane circus-parade watched by a gleeful, baby-brained adult)

Terry Southern, Candy  (virgin innocent abroad - neither innocent nor virgin for long)

Richard Condon, Mile High  (US power politics; a farcical orgy of sex, drugs, blackmail and murder)

Andrew Sinclair, Gog  (giant from past washed up in Scotland, travels to London, horrified at 20th-century "civilisation")

War Kills Our Young Men (war at the sharp end: brutal, unglorious, and pointless)

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front  (lives of four young men disrupted and ruined by brutality of World War I trench warfare)

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage  (young volunteer horrified but exhilarated by battle conditions in American Civil War)

Len Deighton, Bomber  (meticulous planning for a bombing-run over Germany in World War II)

Neville Shute, Landfall  (breakdown of young pilot who sinks "one of ours" by mistake)

Mario Vargas Llosa, The City and the Dogs/The Time of the Hero  (farcical tragedy of young cadets in 1950s Peruvian military academy)

Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead  (World War II US conscripts brutalised by conditions of service on a hopeless Pacific mission)