Russell, weren’t you the grad student teaching my required undergrad composition class?

I suspect the “courage to stab a dead novelist” is actually only a reaction to an uninvited mnemonic prompt: Mailer’s death. While he was alive, or at least pretended to be, he was easy enough to ignore and thus forget (I note the most recent work cited here was from 10 years ago). Even if one who detested the guy stayed constantly alert to Mailer’s existence, why would that person want to boost Mailer’s ego/career/rep by writing about him while he was alive?

Nice try, Russell, but (in my view) no cigar.

Moreover, are you suggesting that critics should not discourse on a certain author’s works and life with the authority that comes from having read and watched them but from a point of unsullied ignorance? You know: “I know it to be true because it feels so.” My, that sounds progressive.

I admit I’ve not read anything from Norman Mailer. Before reading this, I had little knowledge about him being anything other than a writer who was a vocal lefty, which is fine. Now, I’m curious to read him for entertainment; however, since he’s dead, maybe I’ll check him out from the library; I’ll read him in a way that won’t necessitate putting money into him or his estate.