Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Norman Mailer: A Cinema Reader consists of new and previously-published analytical essays written by an array of film and literary scholars, enthusiasts, and those with a personal connection to Norman Mailer, which in turn, discusses the author and film-maker's six films made between the years of 1947 and 1987. Mailer's films serve as visual companions to many of his written works as well. By re-examining his films through the new perspectives contained in this volume, one may be afforded a deeper understanding of his oeuvre of texts as well as find an alternative vision of Mailer himself, seeing him not just as a writer, but also, as one of the most prolific Post-Modern artists of the 20th Century who had deep roots in the cinema and allowed it to not only influence his writing, but often implemented in his mastery of metaphor. Mailer once said, Film is legitimately more interesting than books... . With that in mind, it's time his audience began to study his work through a medium that he was equally as passionate about working in as he was about literature itself."
Synopsis
The Cinema of Norman Mailer: Film is Like Death not only examines the enfant terrible writer's thoughts on cinema, but also features interviews with Norman Mailer himself. The Cinema of Norman Mailer also explores Mailer's cinema through previously published and newly commissioned essays written by an array of film and literary scholars, enthusiasts, and those with a personal, philosophical connection to Mailer. This volume discusses the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and filmmaker's six films created during the years of 1947 and 1987, and contends to show how Mailer's films can be best read as cinematic delineations that visually represent many of the writer's metaphysical and ontological concerns and ideas that appear in his texts from the 1950s until his passing in 2007. By re-examining Mailer's cinema through these new perspectives, one may be awarded not just a deeper understanding of Mailer's desire to make films, but also find a new, alternative vision of Mailer himself. Norman Mailer was not just a writer, but more: he was one of the most influential Postmodern artists of the twentieth century with deep roots in the cinema. He allowed the cinema to not only influence his aesthetic approach, but sanctioned it as his easiest-crafted analogy for exploring sociological imagination in his writing. Mailer once suggested, "Film is legitimately more interesting than books..." and with that in mind, readers of Norman Mailer might begin to rethink his oeuvre through the viewfinder of the film medium, as he was equally as passionate about working within cinema as he was about literature itself.