The job of journalism is to tell the story -- factually AND truthfully --and a mere recitation of governmental data does not inevitably render a faithful picture of reality.
As partial antidote, the thought-provoking Nieman Narrative director Mark Kramer convinced Norman Mailer to present to a thousand journalists at the 2004 Narrative Conference. And public radio listeners are the lucky beneficiaries of this further Nieman outreach through PRX, "A novelist in a time of war".
Mailer offers equal opportunity censure of parties in and out of power, and the media that purports to cover them. But the thesis for his presentation is a commonality -- the novelist and journalist each trying to find a better approach to "the established truth", which is skewed by the powerful. Perhaps some repeaters were fashioned into reporters as a result.
Mailer deploys the novelist's metaphoric insight on George W Bush, "neither an athlete nor a fighter pilot, but a cheerleader" -- but also recognizes W is not stupid. A secular Jew (his theological digression on the nature of small-g god the creator, and reincarnation as celestial editing, is but one glorious chapter here), Mailer challenges Democrats and journalists alike to consider how recognizing Jesus might be beneficial.
And, with a thud, Mailer poses our largest question as a divided country, "Why are we in Iraq?
"Like most large topics, [that] present[s] no quick answers."
Which for today's fast-media nation means the question isn't genuinely pursued.
But Mailer's approach to "brood along as a novelist" is close kin to public radio's ways of apprehending the world. Radio is suffused in narrative storytelling.
Mailer's closing benediction is, "Long may good questions prevail. They are imperiled."
However listeners answer Norman Mailer's good questions brooding through this hour, they will inform themselves far more than would a rollover of soundbites from those purveyors and repeaters of government data. "A novelist in a time of war" offers public radio the opportunity to commit leadership in journalism again. Crack the spine.
First, I would change the music and rewrite the intro and links.
Norman Mailer is, of course, one of the old lions of the literary left, and for anyone old enough he needs no introduction. But for most of the rest of us, more context is essential. In this case, in this setting, for this variation on his favorite subject, there should be a mention of Armies of the Night, which qualifies him as a narrative journalist, and long-time opponent of quagmire-qua-war and the growth of the American Empire.
I've listened to this three times, and I am not persuaded by the argument, which is rambling and difficult to follow. But listening to Mailer is rewarding, for the lion in repose, and the few hiccups and rustlings as he reads from his notes -which he does well.
It's in the QA section that we have a classic Mailer line: "The only way that the [Administration's] narrative could have been impugned [...] involves a very difficult job: and that is, you have to become an expert, a sayer, of highly developed, skillfully formulated, bullshit. It's no easy job." Sadly, it's not working.
Comments for Norman Mailer: a novelist in a time of war
Produced by Nieman Program on Narrative Jouralism, Benjamen Walker
Other pieces by Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism
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2 comments
Geo Beach
Posted on June 07, 2005 at 10:10 PM | Permalink
Review of Norman Mailer: a novelist in a time of war
The job of journalism is to tell the story -- factually AND truthfully --and a mere recitation of governmental data does not inevitably render a faithful picture of reality.
As partial antidote, the thought-provoking Nieman Narrative director Mark Kramer convinced Norman Mailer to present to a thousand journalists at the 2004 Narrative Conference. And public radio listeners are the lucky beneficiaries of this further Nieman outreach through PRX, "A novelist in a time of war".
"[Mailer] ambled into view, supported by two canes. Always short, now wizened, wearing his ears like sideview mirrors, he looked Yoda-like in every sense... the generosity and zest and heat of an old writer still fighting his fight, still practicing his spooky art." wrote Poynter Institute's Roy Peter Clark.
Mailer offers equal opportunity censure of parties in and out of power, and the media that purports to cover them. But the thesis for his presentation is a commonality -- the novelist and journalist each trying to find a better approach to "the established truth", which is skewed by the powerful. Perhaps some repeaters were fashioned into reporters as a result.
Mailer deploys the novelist's metaphoric insight on George W Bush, "neither an athlete nor a fighter pilot, but a cheerleader" -- but also recognizes W is not stupid. A secular Jew (his theological digression on the nature of small-g god the creator, and reincarnation as celestial editing, is but one glorious chapter here), Mailer challenges Democrats and journalists alike to consider how recognizing Jesus might be beneficial.
And, with a thud, Mailer poses our largest question as a divided country, "Why are we in Iraq?
"Like most large topics, [that] present[s] no quick answers."
Which for today's fast-media nation means the question isn't genuinely pursued.
But Mailer's approach to "brood along as a novelist" is close kin to public radio's ways of apprehending the world. Radio is suffused in narrative storytelling.
Mailer's closing benediction is, "Long may good questions prevail. They are imperiled."
However listeners answer Norman Mailer's good questions brooding through this hour, they will inform themselves far more than would a rollover of soundbites from those purveyors and repeaters of government data. "A novelist in a time of war" offers public radio the opportunity to commit leadership in journalism again. Crack the spine.
jason fordham
Posted on June 07, 2005 at 12:25 AM | Permalink
Review of Norman Mailer: a novelist in a time of war
I've listened to this three times, and I am not persuaded by the argument, which is rambling and difficult to follow. But listening to Mailer is rewarding, for the lion in repose, and the few hiccups and rustlings as he reads from his notes -which he does well.
It's in the QA section that we have a classic Mailer line: "The only way that the [Administration's] narrative could have been impugned [...] involves a very difficult job: and that is, you have to become an expert, a sayer, of highly developed, skillfully formulated, bullshit. It's no easy job." Sadly, it's not working.