Re: JCO: RE: Talent vs Experience

On Oct 17, 2005, at 9:58 PM, LitAsk@aol.com wrote:

In many ways the Mailer quotation is quite flattering, in that he says that JCO's talent allows her to write about subjects about which she may not have very much personal experience. I cannot, however, see how his remark that a woman cannot be brave in the way a soldier is brave is anything other than blatant sexism. In other words, I get the sense he admires JCO genuinely, but from this quotation I gather he's a touch misogynist. To me, this is somewhat an unflattering characteristic. I heard Mailer speak last year and he was quite interesting. He got very political, and as I'm in the same camp as he I quite enjoyed it. (There was a woman in the audience, however, who got into a fight with him afterward saying that he was filling our college-student brains with propaganda or something.)

 

Andy

To be fair, Mailer was positing a particular woman, who happened to not be brave, or not to have experienced "bravery," but talented enough to still write about it. In a part I didn't excerpt, he imagined an old woman whose bones ached attempting to cross a busy street, knowing she may not make it before the light changes -- and noting that this act may well require more personal bravery than most activity in war.

Having said that, the section I did quote, while certainly meant to be complimentary, does come out rather condescending.

Randy