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Norman Mailer, a dissenting view
Woah. Norman won't need an autopsy after this. A highlight...After Gilmore had been executed, Mailers attention was captured by Jack Abbott, a violent convict and self-declared Communist who began writing Mailer long existential letters about life in prison. Mailer loved them. He helped Abbott have them published, first in The New York Review of Books and then as a book, called In the Belly of the Beast (1981). In his introduction, Mailer described Abbott as an intellectual, a radical, a potential leader, a man obsessed with a vision of more elevated human relations in a better world that revolution could forge. It seems clear that Mailers interest helped to expedite Abbotts release from prison: Culture, Mailer declared at one point, is worth a little risk. Abbott had scarcely set foot in New York when he stabbed and killed Richard Adan, a twenty-two-year-old Cuban-American waiter. Mailer testified on Abbotts behalf at the ensuing murder trial. Asked about Adans family at a press conference following his testimony, Mailer said: Im willing to gamble with a portion of society to save this mans talent. A reporter from The New York Post then asked who he was willing to see sacrificed. Waiters? Cubans? Questions to which Mailer had no response but bluster: What are you all feeling so righteous about, may I ask? Clearly, he did not know the answer to his own question. Well worth the read. Posted by: tu3031 2007-11-12 |
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