Norman Mailer

[Robinson]

Hey guys,

You Yanks would no doubt be more familiar with him than I, apart from seeing him in some boxing docos, and reading interviews of his plugging his novels and life theories, oh and his fight on YouTube in some acidic 70s flick, what makes this man so revered to some in the boxing media ?


Is it because he is a writer who has an interest in boxing, say a 70s Jack London or Arthur Conan Doyle ?

In any case aside from his book about Ali what else has he done.

Thanks again

Id rather here your opinions, than bother to google the man :)
Kym

[EriqS]

I don't know that he's absolutely revered for his writing on boxing (not by me anyway), but he did pen several articles in magazines like the New Yorker and others during the sixties and seventies. His coverage of the Ali-Foreman fight in '74 was one of his most famous pieces. He spent a great deal of intellectual energy writing on masculine topics and trying to cultivate a certain macho persona, and so in that context the topic of fighting was a natural one for him to take on. In a lot of this work, he seemed to like to compare the raw physicality of boxing matches to his own conflicts with other literary figures like Vidal, William Buckley, and others--which I always found laughable. I always saw him as a talented but otherwise somewhat comical figure who tried to build a reputation as a tough guy within the weany, artsy, literary bubble where it was sort of safe to do so. I read somewhere that he struck a deal with Jose Torres (former light heavyweight champion and then aspiring writer) where he would help him with his writing if Torres would teach him how to box. But I don't think much came of it as evidenced by the pasting he took from Rip Torn in that video you mentioned. Don't let my personal opinion taint yours, however, Much of his other writing is quite good. I just never bought into that manly-tough guy image when all he ever did was punch out effeminate book reviewers and other people like that.

[Robinson]

Thanks for that. What was the Torn fight about
?

I take it was some form of method acting gone wrong..

"do you trust me baby, come on daddy, come on"

[EriqS]

Thanks for that. What was the Torn fight about
?

I take it was some form of method acting gone wrong..

"do you trust me baby, come on daddy, come on"

I think so, more or less. It was during the end of shooting "Maidstone," Mailer's final foray into avant garde filmmaking. He and Torn disagreed on how the film should end, and it sort of escalated from there.

[Robinson]

Ok Baby

Thanks again for that Daddy.

[Jaclem]

....once mailer and jose torres appeared on the dick cavett show and they actually put on gloves and sparred for a round or two. mailer was in his middle years by that time and i forget how old torres was. when they were through torres said mailer was as good as any amateur middleweight in the world...and mailer said that no one could beat ali except TORRES.....BECAUSE HE HAD ONE PUNCH POWER!!!!

mailer's literary gifts...career...whatever ..are beyond this area of discussion.

i will add mailer wanted to be hemingway so bad i kept waiting for him to commit suicide by sticking a shot gun in his mouth.

[Ezzard]

Mailer was a good writer who became something of a cultural barometer in the media age. He had his finger on the pulse of the cultural changes taking place in the US for a decade or so. he was also quite instrumental in the new journalism movement.

He's no expert on boxing and I doubt he'd have claimed to be. He was a fan like us who because of his successful writing career had access to the media, newspapers and boxers etc so he could write about them.

Jaclem is right in that he really did fancy himself as the heir apparent to Hem's throne of the macho intellectual and boxing was a perfect articulation of that.

Hem of course, used to spar with the poet Ezra Pound (no kind of boxer) and was always quick to praise others' endeavours.

I'd take Hem to stop Mailer in the mid rounds though...

[granberry]

Mailer wanted to be Hemingway so bad I kept waiting for him to commit suicide by sticking a shot gun in his mouth.

Great comment.

That sums up Mailer perfectly and succinctly.