I’ll be honest, I don’t know all there is to know about Norman Mailer and I haven’t read all of his works. But the tradition of recalling all that is positive about the recently deceased is something I am quite fond of, and to see it ignored here by Mr. Kimball saddens me. In an age where prolonged success only sharpens the focus on your faults, I find it comforting to see a rosy picture painted of a passed on celebrity; we’ll get our fill of dissenting views in a few months when the “tell-all” books start to come out. But now thanks to the birth of the blog, we can have those attention-starved, publicity hungry trolls post their “true feelings” the second the time of death is declared, and I find this really depressing.

If Mr. Kimball even reads this comment, I’m sure he’ll have some highfalutin response that will no doubt put me in my place; I mean after all, how could I possibly compete with that bowtie? And my heavens, look at all those books he’s authored that he so graciously advertises to the left of the page! The guy obviously knows what he’s doing. But I just want it to be known that I think it should be required that anyone who dies should get at least a frigging day–24 hours–of uncritical thoughts. Is that really so much to ask?