William Buckley Interviews Norman Mailer on Firing Line (1968) Part 3

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• Buckley
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[CaptPoco]

English grammar alone is not enough to guide you through to understanding a Buckley question: you have to pay attention to smiles, widening eyes for emphasis, and, of course, the monster pauses. It isn't easy, but at the end of the day you're a better person for it. I wish either of them were still with us...

[MattCich]

i love that they have completely different political views and they still seem to be having a fun time, i wish Buckley was still around

[MetrazolElectricity]

@mrdarcyme No, Buckley spoke better than he wrote... His books are lightweights, from God and Man to Miles Gone By...all more or less passed by without any major detection. Whereas, Mailer was a two-time pulitzer prize winner. That's no joke. With that said, Buckley was a class A debater. Same with Hitchens, his books aren't really scholarly or very interesting but he is a stage character.

[mrdarcyme]

They both get along so well because they're so different. Both write better than they talk, especially Mailer, who never comes off well in these interviews..

[JTHSanDiego]

@WhenLilacsLast

Some things never change, eh? Audiences for Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, et al are certainly "fair and balanced" huh! One can often see Maher cringe at the sycophantic chimps in his audience. Nobody seems to have an exclusive right to partizanship.

[Asskicker32294]

1968 was the real turning point...the so called "60's" spanned the LSD craze of 1965-1967, to the obscenity of the Chicago police attacking and beating the Vietnam War protesters effectually illustrating the state of democracy or rather the lack thereof in this benighted land...

[seedofvision]

Notice how loose the conversation is? Maybe it's the 1968 thing, but look at Buckley--leaning back, scratching his head with a pencil, winking like a madman at Mailer. It's all relaxed and allowed to be what it is. They're on the opposite side politically but you can see they enjoy each other, even respect each other. Life in general, especially talk shows, seems a lot more boring and predictable. I wish guys like these were still around.

[nilan3000]

Gore Vidal disliked this video. 

[xtrmsprts]

"Your point is that the political left takes its politics so seriously that it understands the necessity of abiding by the law?" .... that was a shrewd devious polemical mutation of mailer's point. Mailer : "No, sir" ...with a short smile. He knew Bill was up to his old tricks.

[jhop9898]

Buckley is better at taking a conversation about nothing and making it interesting & enjoyable than anyone I've ever seen.

[thespaceshipmartini]

Great interview. I love getting drunk in public.

[Jbeal666]

@MattCich Fun yes, but they aren't at ease, both respectful of the others ability to drown them should they step outside the boundaries of decorum