Norman Mailer talks about plastic and violence

In a brilliant French TV documentary, Mailer holds forth on the ways in which plastic represents the changes in American society, and how the deadening of the senses leads to violence. In the process, he reflects on the infamous incident in which he stabbed his wife in the early '60s. This has been posted to illustrate a blog entry on the Media Funhouse blog, which can be found here:
www.mediafunhouse.blogspot.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Norman
• Mailer
• plastic
• society
• America
• violence
• stabbing
• of
• wife
• novelist
• author
• pundit
• Media
• Funhouse

[jerryhello100]

This is an interesting man, in the best sense of the word.

[soulharvest2012]

This resonates with me completely. The shits are killing us. Couldn't agree more.

[TheManWithTVEyes]

Plastic is wood pulp.

[TheManWithTVEyes]

NIGGERLY NO-NO'S: Never to a nigger should one: tempt, tease, tantalize, lure, provoke, embrace, engage, enrage, stare at, lend money to, enter into a contract with, rent to, buy from, share rides or dance with, spare in line, give shelter, guidance, comfort and safe harborage to.

[nebraskafrankcourtny]

He's top smart, and a fun creative bullshitter. The kind of guy who'd make a good author, and someone to sit next to at the bar!!

[zachromero]

oh my god this man has been senile since the second world war.

[HumanStrategy]

He kicked the bucket in 2007. ^_^

[smokasomeweed]

that why their are cutters they cut to prove to themselves they actually exist

[DAreturner]

I'm envious he can be so tough and get away with it, I mean it's very hard to hear anything wrong in the way he says his words....his strained voice in general shows he was a very gentle man though.

I can fake toughness but I can't get the verbs right all the way like Mailer.

[unfortunatebeam]

Neat correlation he makes between increasing plastic and increasing violence, but it is probably a spurious one. Not all plastic products are made with waste byproducts from refining fuel. Much is just the natural gas solidified into pellets or some other form and then is manufactured from there. And I think plastic does have its own feel to it actually, and you can be as sentimentally attached to say a plastic toy as to a wooden toy. It's just another innovation. That's really all.