William Buckley Interviews Norman Mailer on Firing Line (1968) Part 4

[headstock48]

Oh, God. Anyone who's ever earned an undergrad degree has read Marx. Big deal.

[ashburnhouse]

@headstock48 Exactly.

[headstock48]

@ashburnhouse I've never read Mailer, just based on his reputation as a person. Maybe I'm missing out?

[bread0666]

4:52 eyes

[xtrmsprts]

The buckley rudeness begins fully at 3:52 ... Calling banal a feature of mailer that mailer himself found great pride and uniqueness in really ended the courtesy that buckley was acquiescing till that point.

[pumkinpi2]

@xtrmsprts Both men had their knives out. It counts in their favor that they still had a conversation, even as they despised the ideas of the other. I wish we saw more of this today, and less of the habit of shouting down an opposing point of view, or resorting to mockery.

[darkcowboyhero]

Yes, the world is black and white. Castro is just a murderer and an oppressor, and taking that stupid retard logic to its ultimate conclusion. The United States is a vicious evil Empire responsible for the mass murder of millions of people around the planet.

[OKandNOWwhat]

@darkcowboyhero

If I may add to your comment: "The United States [government and media] is [the military and cultural arm of] a vicious evil Empire responsible for the mass murder of millions of people around the planet." That would not be an overstatement or oversimplification. Cheers

[pumkinpi2]

@darkcowboyhero Does the fact that the world is not black and white detract from the fact that Castro is a murder a thousand times over, and a despot? Are these not condemnation enough for any man, that rightfully put him past praise? No extreme view of mailer's words are needed to find them indefensible.

[pumkinpi2]

"I'm all for Castro. He is remarkable man." Murder and oppression didn't seem to bother Mailer.

[loggats]

@pumkinpi2 Mailer stabbed his wife and said "let the bitch die" when somebody tried to help her. He also helped release murderer Jack Abbot from jail, who murdered another person before committing suicide. Mailer was a terrible, wicked man and, if Ancient Evenings is anything to go by, a plagiarist.

[CARDUELIS999]

I just love the way Buckley studies his subject.

[tro1000]

"I think we had better stop and rescue that from banality"

Great line.

[countertreason]

'defies your conception on what it is to be a man'

what the fuck does that even mean?

Egad, I can imagine my fellow apes doing a genocide. It is a limit of imagination, and a dangerous one at that, not to recognize the hatred of the other as a very natural part of the human species. In recognition, we allow ourselves to moderate it...

[pumkinpi2]

@countertreason It was nice to see Mailer asked to defend his babbling attempts at being an oracle. Usually he was interviewed by fawning sympathizers, even them he was able to be disagreeable. I rather agree with Hitchens' observation that a man writes as he speaks. In that, I wonder at Mailer's success. Then again, a certain part of our society has always been easily entertained, as long as the dancing dog on stage circles to the Left.

[countertreason]

@pumkinpi2 Haha, ya. Buckey sure was a gem. I am sure Charlatans like Mailer didn't allow themselves to be interviewed by the man twice.

[edwdixon5]

Mailer's suit was very nice. Buckley's looks like he found it in a dumpster.

[Saoff]

I love how Buckley rolls his eyes and inhales deeply when Mailer says that he knows more about communism....haha, and i equally love how oblivious Mailer is to it.

[ahbevegede]

this is the first conversation i've seen with mailer and he's a little off the wall for me...and thats saying something. praising murderers for their "quality"? c'mon now.

[Conail23]

when he is questioned on his ideas about existantialism-he completely backtracks and says basically, well, you cant take it to ridiculous extremes! Well, if your ideology cannot be thought out to its end rationally, than it is a faulty ideology! Existentialism is immoral nonsense.

[jerryhello100]

NICE! I love how he compares Marx to Christ. That isn't facetious either, I think it's a worthy parallel.

[sd62t833]

jerry,

i think he was poking at buckley's views on the catholic church.

the whole interview seems to be a passive aggressive circus...

so much more interesting than celebrity interviews these days

[jerryhello100]

@sd62t833 I get that. It's a jab at any christian that doesn't act christ like.

[macsm]

Nothing new under the sun I guess...Very well observed thought by Mailer on conservatives and liberals in general, and amazingly the words are as true today as they were then. I cannot believe it, the general spirit of the interview sounds so familiar, yet so many years ago (particulars are different I guess, but the general spirit and ideas are not). These gems of programs should be televised every so years, so that people don't have to go through the same problems again and again...

[skins017]

Mailer looks like George W.

[xlilxandyx]

a mix between nixon and W is what I first thought. more nixon though

[septip123]

W. was a Stupid Shit Puppet, controlled by Rove and Rummie.

[polymath7]

I'm very surprised Buckley doesn't assert that he *has* read Marx.

For anyone who would be any kind of social theorist or political thinker, Marx is flatly inescapable.

Perhaps he has indeed read Marx and simply doesn't wish to be bothered to provide an explanation for those who would find this curiously incongruous.

It is after all astonishing how many people don't understand that attention does not imply approval; I once got a nasty look from a public librarian for checking out Mein Kampff.

[polymath7]

*Mein Kampf

[xlilxandyx]

i don't think that mailer is simply saying he has read the communist manifesto or anything like that. By "read" they both mean extensively studied. The way one "reads" chemistry at university