This is not meant as defense of Mailer – I find your essay compelling and accurate – but, as one of the first baby-boomers, I remember my belief in the values that developed in the 1960s and my disgust with the utter absence of integrity or talent or even competence that was characteristic of so many of the “leaders” of that revolution. In many ways Mailer epitomized these poseurs, and I view your piece as justice at last.