"I don't like Bob (Dylan)," says Norman Mailer

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:17 am

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pr ... 300840.ece

Norman Mailer: Brave heart

One of America's greatest living writers, Norman Mailer has survived six marriages, countless controversies and 50 years of fame. Now 82, he looks back on an extraordinary life.

Interview by Douglas Brinkley

Published: 23 July 2005

( extract)

For a writer so associated with Sixties protests, Mailer has little love for the music of that era, particularly Bob Dylan. "I don't like Bob," he tells
me over lunch. "He was over our house once at a party many years ago, and he was a snotty little son of a bitch - very taken with himself. I've always felt his lyrics, of course, were uncontestably good - no
argument there. But I think he really has one of the leanest, small voices I've ever heard on a major singer. His poetry's not that bad. No question he certainly had an influence on a whole generation. But that used to worry me, too. I thought with that sort of slightly nasty leer and that ill-founded confidence - the idea of 'the wind blowing' and 'it'll take care
of all you bad people' - all that nonsense was dangerous. It seemed very, very foolish."

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' Lean over on the bookcase
If you really want to get straight
Read Norman Mailer
Or get a new tailor
Are you ready to be heartbroken? '

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:20 am

Talk about taboo thoughts! Points for chutzpa.

And nice Lloyd quote, Foyle the John!

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:27 am

Yeah, well The Executioner's Song goes on and on and on and on like this endless gauntlet of dry ass breakfast-to-bed prose. And have you ever tried to sit through one of Mailer's films? Makes Masked & Anonymous look like Goodfellas. I'm just glad that The Independent was able to find Mailer on one of those rare days where he wasn't stabbing a girlfriend or something so they could get this piece on him....

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:51 pm

Touche, El Vez. Never actually read any Mailer, but I've always had mixed feelings about the guy. I've got "Naked and the Dead" someplace, and I'd like to read "Harlot's Ghost" at some point. He can be funny (he did a great trailer for that one thriller he directed with Ryan O'Neal, featuring him reading all the bad reviews, "this movie was made by the devil!" he ends the trailer).

This is not the first time, of course, that Mailer has gone after someone who is probably less of a jerk than himself. I'm thinking of his eternal enmity with Gore Vidal, one of my writing faves.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:13 pm

Probably? C'mon now....Dylan may or may not be in Ernest Borgnine's league as "Sweetheart to all who know him" but the only person he left a bloody pulp, A.J. Weberman, actually deserved it.

whar · Post by **whar** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:24 pm

"I don't like Bob (Dylan)," says whar.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:42 pm

Who givsa, about what this eejit sometimes thinks (?)

Not that I have any such self-delusiatory thoughts ..

mood swung · Post by **mood swung** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:11 pm

this was published in Rolling Stone as well. I read the article on the beach and just goddam fried my forehead from the reflection, thinking alternately 'I should read more of his books/ I should burn all of his books.'

They don't make 'em like that anymore.

and maybe that's a good thing.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:33 pm

Norman Mailer wrote:" 'it'll take care of all you bad people' "

What a spaz.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:39 am

Didn't he also just have his knives out for Michiko Kakutani?

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:47 am

My theory is that Norman Mailer is jealous. After all, Dylan probably has more influence on even literature than Mailer does.

There are few writers, and especially songwriters, who have achieved iconic status like your Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemingway, or in the film world Hitchcock. Whether you like him or not, at this point it is a given that our cultural perspective would be completely different if weren't for Bob Dylan's impact. The same cannot be said of Norman Mailer, I'm sorry to say.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:33 am

El Vez wrote:Probably? C'mon now....Dylan may or may not be in Ernest Borgnine's league as "Sweetheart to all who know him" but the only person he left a bloody pulp, A.J. Weberman, actually deserved it.

Is he the "science student" guy from "Don't Look Book" who Bob gleefully...I'm not sure of the verb, here...some combination of "attack" and "expose as an idiot" or perhaps "pressure into exposing as himself as an idiot"? I don't remember who he was, but he actually went on to do something kind of interesting/notable, but not in any science, if memory serves.

It's funny how differently I reacted to "Don't Look Back" between the two times I saw it. The first time, it was really just a more incisive than usual celebrity profile. The second time, about a decade and a half later, I couldn't help realizing what a (pretty likable) young punk/smartass Dylan was. A great film.

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:23 pm

Nah, your thinking of Terry Ellis ,Bobster. He went on to form Chrysalis records and make millions of dollars managing Jethro Tull.

Weberman is the nutso who started going through Dylans garbage and got a "Bob Beating" for his trouble.