Tag Archives: Norman Mailer

We the People, Stolen in Plain Sight

An essay in Curtis Mayfield’s time

Curtis Mayfield didn’t write anthems—he wrote indictments, love letters, cautionary tales. He summoned brass and bass to sketch the contours of a democracy that refused to hear its drumline. This essay riffs off Mayfield’s enduring question—“We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue”—to argue that the republic is not merely in peril, but being quietly repossessed by those who mistake governance for grift. “Are we going to stand around this town,” as Mayfield intoned, “and let what others say come true, … pardon me, brother, as I tell the whole story.” read more

From Armies of the Night to Armies of the State

A Tale of Two Washingtons

In 1967, Norman Mailer stood outside the Pentagon, half-participant, half-provocateur, chronicling the anti-war protest that would become The Armies of the Night. He cast himself as both historian and character, capturing the surreal theater of dissent in a city where symbolism and state power collide. read more

Norman Mailer, Bob Dylan, and the Prophet Isaiah On the Totalitarian State

There Must Be Some Way Out of Here

Norman Mailer, a towering figure in American literature, often explored the concept of totalitarianism as a creeping force within American governance. His perspective, particularly in works like The Presidential Papers and The Armies of the Night, was that totalitarianism in the United States was less about overt state control and more about cultural conformity and psychological manipulation. Mailer warned against the erosion of individuality and the rise of a homogenized society, where dissent was stifled not through brute force but through societal pressures and the dominance of mass media. read more