my age, I'm not ready to take on a war
with everyone I meet.
"I never thought I'd reach 40," he
admits. "So I've just sort of taken it
for granted since then that the end is
not necessarily near. Physically, it's
annoying not to be able to enjoy a
walk anymore, but as long as one's
mind remains reasonably clear, it's not
that bad" growing old, he adds.
So life's been pretty good? "On bal-
ance, yes," he says.
"I've always thought being a novel-
ist was very important," Mailer says,
but admits that it took "25 years
before I realized that all I'm ever going
to be is a writer, not a statesman, not
a political figure, not a world leader."
His writing remains relevant, he
says, because of his particular take on
society.
"I like to think that when I write
about something, I'm looking at it in
a way that's slightly different from the
way anyone else looks at it."
His latest effort is simply "an accu-
rate reflection of how one person saw
[the last half-century] at different
periods," he says. Even now, Mailer
still exudes a commanding presence
— a barrel-chested man with meaty,
bear-like hands, a shock of curly
white hair and fiery eyes framed by
bushy brows.
Despite the years, a passion still
burns in the novelist's soul. "I think
the basic anger is still there," he adds.
These days, Mailer directs that
anger at everything from modern
architecture ("cities are defacing them-
selves") to what he views as America's
lost potential.
"We're blowing it. I think we're
wasting it. America is a loutish coun-
try. We're technically still a democracy,
but it's just violated and corrupted and
unaesthetic and ugly all over the place.
If democracy fails, it's a catastrophe
for humankind," he warns.
Mailer's other passion is religion, a
theme he insists is intertwined in all
his writings over the last 50 years.
"I believe in an existential God who
is not all powerful and may not even
be all good, but it is the God who cre-
ated us and this God is doing the best
that he or she can do. As a novelist
I'm always looking for what makes
sense, and that makes sense to me," he
says.
His religious quest was never more
evident than in his 1997 novel, The
Gospel According to the Son. Mailer was
shunned in some quarters for having
the audacity to tell Jesus' story in the
first person.
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