Advertisements for Myself

by Norman Mailer

Overview

Advertisements for Myself, a diverse and freewheeling tour through Mailer’s early career, covers the many subjects with which he’d grapple for the rest of his life: sex, race, politics, literature, and the systems of power that shape American life. There are lists, interviews, poems, confessions, postscripts, two Tables of Contents (one chronological, one thematic), undergraduate short stories, fragments from a one-act play—and of course, Mailer’s classic, groundbreaking essays, including “The White Negro (Superficial Reflections on the Hipster)”, perhaps Mailer’s most prescient early polemic, and “Mind of an Outlaw”, which lends its name to Mailer’s latest, and first posthumous, collection. A playful, unclassifiable snapshot of American culture at the end of the fifties, Advertisements for Myself, is also a cornerstone of Mailer’s long and prolific career: “In this volume,” declared The New York Times in 1959, “Mr. Mailer, at 36, shows once again that he is the most versatile if not the most significant talent of his generation.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623730222
Publisher:	Odyssey Editions
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	532
Sales rank:	985,133
File size:	658 KB

About the Author

Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 16, he matriculated at Harvard University to study aeronautical engineering. After graduation, he was drafted into the army and served as an artilleryman in the Philippines, an experience that inspired his debut novel The Naked and the Dead. A gritty, realistic portrayal of the agonies of combat, the book resonated deeply with Americans in the years following World War II, topping the New York Times Bestseller list for eleven consecutive weeks and making Mailer a national celebrity. Critics hailed him as one of the great rising American writers of the post-war era.

Throughout his career, Mailer contributed more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction to the American literary canon. Considered the innovator of the nonfiction novel, he received several prizes for his books, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Armies of the Night, the National Book Award for nonfiction for Miami and the Siege of Chicago, and a second Pulitzer for The Executioner’s Song. In 1955 he co-founded The Village Voice; 50 years later, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Mailer died in 2007.

Hometown:

Provincetown, Massachusetts, and New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 31, 1923

Date of Death:

November 10, 2007

Place of Birth:

Long Branch, New Jersey

Education:

B.S., Harvard University, 1943; Sorbonne, Paris, 1947-48

Table of Contents

A NOTE TO THE READER

There are two Tables of Contents. The First lists each piece in sequence, and anyone wishing to read my book from beginning to end may be pleased to hear that the order is roughly chronological. The author, taken with an admirable desire to please his readers, has also added a set of advertisements, printed in italics, which surround all of these writings with his present tastes, preferences, apologies, prides, and occasional confessions. Like many another literary fraud, the writer has been known on occasion to read the Preface of a book instead of a book, and bearing this vice in mind, he tried to make the advertisements more readable than the rest of his pages.

Since such a method is discursive, and this is a time in which many hold a fierce grip on their wandering attention, a Second Table of Contents is offered to satisfy the specialist. Here all short stories, short novels, poems, advertisements, articles, essays, journalism, and miscellany are posted in their formal category.

For those who care to skim nothing but the cream of each author, and so miss the pleasure of liking him at his worst, I will take the dangerous step of listing what I believe are the best pieces in this book.

In order of appearance they might be:

• The Man Who Studied Yoga
• The White Negro
• The Time Of Her Time
• Dead Ends
• Advertisements For Myself On The Way Out
• and some of the writing in italics.

"Advertisements For Myself On The Way Out" is the title to the Prologue of a long novel. Since one of the purposes of this collection is the intention to clear a ground for that novel, I have taken the opportunity to use a part of the title as a name for this book.

Acknowledgment is made to Cross-Section, Story magazine, The Harvard Advocate, New World Writing, New Short Novels, The Independent, One Magazine, The Village Voice, the N. Y. Post, Modern Writing, The Provincetown Annual, Discovery, Esquire, Partisan Review, Western Review and Dissent, where many of these pieces first appeared. Acknowledgment is also made to Time magazine and Newsweek for permission to quote from their reviews of The Deer Park.

The date which comes at the end of some of these writings refers to the year in which the piece was written. Where a date does not appear, the material is new and was written during 1958 and 1959 for this book.

FIRST TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Note to the Reader

FIRST TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECOND TABLE OF CONTENTS

First Advertisement for myself

Part 1—BEGINNINGS

Advertisement for "A Calculus At Heaven"

A CALCULUS AT HEAVEN

Advertisement for "The Greatest Thing in the World"

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD

Advertisement for "Maybe Next Year"

MAYBE NEXT YEAR

Part 2—MIDDLES

Second Advertisement for myself

EXCERPTS FROM Barbary Shore

Third Advertisement for myself

Advertisement for Three War Stories

THE PAPER HOUSE

THE LANGUAGE OF MEN

THE DEAD GOOK

Advertisement for "The Notebook"

THE NOTEBOOK

Advertisement for "The Man Who Studied Yoga"

THE MAN WHO STUDIED YOGA

Advertisement for Three Political Pieces

OUR COUNTRY AND OUR CULTURE (Partisan Review Symposium)

DAVID RIESMAN RECONSIDERED

THE MEANING OF WESTERN DEFENSE

Postscript to "The Meaning of Western Defense"

Part 3—BIRTHS

Advertisement for Part Three

Advertisement for "The Homosexual Villain"

THE HOMOSEXUAL VILLAIN

Fourth Advertisement for myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park

THREE EXCERPTS FROM RINEHART AND PUTNAM VERSIONS OF The Deer Park

Two REVIEWS: Time AND Newsweek

Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for myself

Advertisement for Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers

SIXTY-NINE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Fifth Advertisement for myself: GENERAL MARIJUANA

The Village Voice: FIRST THREE COLUMNS

Postscript to the first three columns

The Village Voice: COLUMNS FOUR TO SEVENTEEN

Advertisement for the End of a Column and a Public Notice

A PUBLIC NOTICE ON Waiting for Godot

Postscript to a Public Notice

Part 4—HIPSTERS

Sixth Advertisement for myself

THE WHITE NEGRO

Note to "Reflections on Hip"

REFLECTIONS ON HIP

HIPSTER AND BEATNIK

Advertisement for "Hip, Hell and the Navigator"

HIP, HELL AND THE NAVIGATOR

Part 5—GAMES AND ENDS

Advertisement for "Games and Ends"

Advertisement for "It"

IT

Advertisement for "Great in the Hay"

GREAT IN THE HAY

Advertisement for "The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley"

THE PATRON SAINT OF MACDOUGAL ALLEY

Advertisement for a letter to the New York Post

A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK POST

HOW TO COMMIT MURDER IN THE MASS-MEDIA—A

HOW TO COMMIT MURDER IN THE MASS MEDIA—B

Advertisement for Buddies

BUDDIES, OR THE HOLE IN THE SUMMIT

Postscript to Buddies

Advertisement for "Notes Toward a Psychology of the Orgy"

THE HIP AND THE SQUARE

1. The List

2. Catholic and Protestant

3. T-Formation and Single Wing

A NOTE ON COMPARATIVE PORNOGRAPHY

FROM SURPLUS VALUE TO THE MASS-MEDIA

SOURCES—A RIDDLE IN PSYCHICAL ECONOMY

LAMENT OF A LADY

I GOT TWO KIDS AND ANOTHER IN THE OVEN

Advertisement for The Deer Park as a play

THE DEER PARK (Scenes 2, 3, and 4)

AN EYE ON PICASSO

EVALUATIONS: QUICK AND EXPENSIVE COMMENTS ON THE TALENT IN THE ROOM

Last Advertisement for myself Before the Way Out

A Note for "The Time of Her Time"

THE TIME OF HER TIME

Advertisement for "Dead Ends"

DEAD ENDS (a long poem)

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF ON THE WAY OUT

SECOND TABLE OF CONTENTS
FICTION

A Calculus at Heaven-short novel

The Greatest Thing in the World-story

Maybe Next Year-story

Barbary Shore-excerpts from the novel

The Paper House-story

The Language of Men-story

The Dead Gook—story

The Notebook-story

The Man Who Studied Yoga-short novel

The Deer Park-excerpts from the Rinehart and Putnam versions of the novel

It-story

Great in the Hay-story

The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley-story

The Time of Her Time-section from a novel in progress

Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out—Prologue to a Novel in Progress

ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
Our Country and Our Culture—a contribution to a Partisan Review Symposium

David Riesman Reconsidered—criticism

The Meaning of Western Defense—political article

Postscript to "The Meaning of Western Defense"

The Homosexual Villain—article

A Public Notice on Waiting for Godot—criticism

The White Negro—essay

Reflections on Hip—polemics

Hipster and Beatnik—article

How to Commit Murder in the Mass-Media (A and B)—article

The Hip and the Square—notes for an essay

A Note on Comparative Pornography-article

From Surplus Value to the Mass-Media—political article

Sources—a riddle in psychical economy

An Eye on Picasso—critical note

Evaluations: Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room—criticism

JOURNALISM
The Columns for The Village Voice

First three columns

Columns Four to Seventeen

A Letter to the N.Y. Post

INTERVIEWS
Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers

Hip, Hell, and the Navigator

POETRY
The Drunk's Bebop and Chowder

Lament of a Lady

I Got Two Kids and Another in the Oven

Dead Ends

PLAYS
Buddies, or The Hole in the Summit—a fragment

The Deer Park-Scenes 2, 3 & 4

BIOGRAPHY OF A STYLE
First Advertisement for myself

Advertisement for "A Calculus at Heaven"

Advertisement for "The Greatest Thing in the World"

Advertisement for "Maybe Next Year"

Second Advertisement for myself

Third Advertisement for myself

Advertisement for Three War Stories

Advertisement for "The Notebook"

Advertisement for "The Man Who Studied Yoga"

Advertisement for Three Political Pieces

Advertisement for Part Three

Advertisement for "The Homosexual Villain"

Fourth Advertisement for myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park

Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for myself

Advertisement for "Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers"

Fifth Advertisement for myself: General Marijuana

Postscript to the first three columns

Advertisement for the End of a Column and a Public Notice

Postscript to a Public Notice

Sixth Advertisement for myself

Note to "Reflections on Hip"

Advertisement for "Hip, Hell, and the Navigator"

Advertisement for "Games and Ends"

Advertisement for "It"

Advertisement for "Great in the Hay"

Advertisement for "The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley"

Advertisement for a letter to the New York Post

Advertisement for "Buddies"

Postscript to "Buddies"

Advertisement for "Notes Toward a Psychology of the Orgy"

Advertisement for The Deer Park as a Play

Last Advertisement for myself Before the Way Out

A Note for "The Time of Her Time"

Advertisement for "Dead Ends"

What People are Saying About This

Karal Ann Marling

Combining fictional fragments, autobiography, journalism, polemic...with a running commentary tracing the ups and downs of a novel-in-progress (Dos Passos for our times?) and asserting the author's place in the batting order of GREAT AMERICAN WRITERS, the book contains some of the best stuff Mailer ever produced.
— Karal Ann Marling, University of Minnesota

Jay Cantor

At the very time that he is perhaps too insistently trying to recall the audience and himself to the importance of the task of the novelist, he is creating another public persona, part clown, part vulgarian, fool and genius, whose arena is not the imagined story, but the imagined life, led first in the pages of newspapers or on television screens, and then (giving us the story behind the spectacle) turned into essays (or are they stories?) whose main character is this endlessly revised 'Norman Mailer'--a kind of expository confessional poetry.
— Jay Cantor, author of Krazy Kat

Editorial Reviews

Combining fictional fragments, autobiography, journalism, polemic…with a running commentary tracing the ups and downs of a novel-in-progress (Dos Passos for our times?) and asserting the author’s place in the batting order of GREAT AMERICAN WRITERS, the book contains some of the best stuff Mailer ever produced.

Karal Ann Marling

At the very time that he is perhaps too insistently trying to recall the audience and himself to the importance of the task of the novelist, he is creating another public persona, part clown, part vulgarian, fool and genius, whose arena is not the imagined story, but the imagined life, led first in the pages of newspapers or on television screens, and then (giving us the story behind the spectacle) turned into essays (or are they stories?) whose main character is this endlessly revised ‘Norman Mailer’—a kind of expository confessional poetry.

Jay Cantor

This is a wonderful exercise in American autobiography, and in that self-mocking, self-glorifying, cynical, naive, outrageous, intelligent, uniquely his own and uniquely American autobiographical voice of which Mailer is the modern master.

Wendy Lesser

Anyone with a serious interest in American and in twentieth-century literature will applaud the reprinting of Norman Mailer’s Advertisements for Myself. No single work of his, before or since, is as important to an understanding of his literary career or of his emergence as an authentic public personality, and none is as fully representative of the range and variety of his concerns.

Richard Poirier

This is a wonderful exercise in American autobiography, and in that self-mocking, self-glorifying, cynical, naive, outrageous, intelligent, uniquely his own and uniquely American autobiographical voice of which Mailer is the modern master.
— Wendy Lesser

Threepenny Review

Anyone with a serious interest in American and in twentieth-century literature will applaud the reprinting of Norman Mailer's Advertisements for Myself. No single work of his, before or since, is as important to an understanding of his literary career or of his emergence as an authentic public personality, and none is as fully representative of the range and variety of his concerns.
— Richard Poirier

Rutgers University