10/02 – 16/02 – An American Dream, Norman Mailer

merzouga, morocco, march 2024

10/02 – 16/02 – An American Dream, Norman Mailer

This is bold—and to be honest, it’s refreshing to read something like this right now, because practically no-one writes like this right now. And I mean that in every sense. Sure, the content is graphic, —some of it obscene—and almost all the protagonist does is soliloquize in an overly long monologue that verges on facetious at times—but damn it feels good to read someone so unashamed. Like yes, he will murder his wife and shag the maid in the first chapter… And why not? Mailer quite clearly had that uniquely 20th century relationship with women where they represented both an near-ontological proof for utter evil and the only credible way to heaven. And it plays itself out incredibly in his strange and dark impressionism; in his ability to comfortably explore depravity. I’d recommend this simply as a means of being better in touch with our own dark sides.

And his faithful trawl through our darkness yields more than its fair share of reward. Mailer’s use of hypothetical, in particular. Take that brilliant conversation between Barney Shelly and Rojack—where Shelly details his view on the prospects for satanism after watching Rojack on television. In an almost socratic manner Shelly repeats what is surely Mailer’s own argument: If Satan is real, and really is in an eternal war with God, surely he must have a chance at victory? If that were not the case, then surely Satan would have been defeated? And if that is the case, is the Church not Satans’ agent? Do they not, by assuring us of the God’s inevitable victory, lure us into that false state of confidence that make space in our hearts for Satan and his ill-doings?

I for one, could not find issue with his reasoning.