Are You Open-Minded Enough for Norman Mailer on Iraq?
An internet-only first-hand account of Mailer's April 2004 talk at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, reading from Why Are We at War? and his Playboy essay and answering questions on Iraq, Bush, Kerry, novel-writing, and old age.
Read an excerpt (rights pending)
An internet-only, first-hand account (posted on Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground) of Mailer’s April 2004 talk in Madison County, Illinois, hosted by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The 81-year-old Mailer, walking on two canes, read from Why Are We at War? and from his Playboy “Immodest Proposals” essay, then took questions, on Bush (“obscenely unsuited to be President, but I don’t think it’s his fault… supreme brain fatigue”), Kerry, the Iraq war (“They were so fucking stupid”), novel-writing, and the pleasures of old age. Not in Lennon’s print register; recorded here as a post-Lennon internet-only item (the editor’s working designation is 04.4a).