Mailer's Psychology of Machines

The Alpha Bravo Universe is reported to be the title of a massive fiction that Norman Mailer has in hand, a three-part novel of which Ancient Evenings is the first part. The title has its origin, however, in a chapter cut from the final draft of a 1970 book, Of a Fire on the Moon. The discarded chap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 1991-03, Vol.106 (2), p.238-250
Main Author: Tabbi, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American literature
Analysis
Astronauts
Cluster on Modern Fiction
Criticism & critics
Dreams
Earths Moon
Ego
Literature
Machinery
Mailer, Norman
Portrayals
Psyche
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Social psychology
Technology
Unconscious mind
Vehicular flight
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Summary:The Alpha Bravo Universe is reported to be the title of a massive fiction that Norman Mailer has in hand, a three-part novel of which Ancient Evenings is the first part. The title has its origin, however, in a chapter cut from the final draft of a 1970 book, Of a Fire on the Moon. The discarded chapter, I argue, not only sheds light on the composition of the moon book but also clarifies the dualistic psychology that surfaced first in Mailer's 1957 essay "The White Negro" and that underlies all his subsequent writing. Fire represents his ambitious attempt to pare down his own stylized romantic personality and come to terms with contemporary technology. In the drafts and published text, we can follow his efforts to present American society in its totality and can distinguish between possibilities available to the romantic ego and those that no longer seem to be.
ISSN:0030-8129
DOI:10.2307/462660