Looking for inspiration for his new book, Mailer visits campus

For the first time in years, author Norman Mailer might be at a loss for words. In the first of a series of lectures this week by the Pullitzer Prize-winning author, Mailer told the audience in Meyerson Hall that he came to the University to see if "he has something to write about." Mailer read aloud a half page of a book he is writing. Aside from the title, "Toward a Concept of Spiritual Ecology," these few paragraphs are all the esteemed author has completed. "Communism taught us that when ideology, not profit, is placed at the core of society it behaves, in one manner, exactly like profit," Mailer read. People can be controlled by ideology and the search for profit, but ideology becomes much more "dangerous in its search for power than the profit motive," he said. Capitalism is then seen as a virtue, as if all freedom is dependent on the freedom of the market. But in fact, Mailer said, "the freedom of the market is rarely free." Refolding the notebook paper on which he wrote the passage, Mailer emphasized that he hopes to discuss the many issues he has thought about for his book. Throughout the evening Mailer addressed signs of "spiritual malaise" and the possibilities for improvement. Hoping to hear ideas from the audience members, he encouraged them to ask "disagreeable" and "accommodating" questions. "The prize will go to the person who asks the toughest question in the fewest words," he said, smiling, as he walked across the stage to join English Professor Robert Lucid. Opening the dialogue, Lucid and Mailer discussed the failure of communism in the former Soviet Union. Conducting research in Minsk, for his newest book, Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery, Mailer visited Russia several times during the 1980s. After witnessing the poverty and despair of so many Russians, Mailer said he felt a profound anger at the United States. "Here's the Soviet Union, this totally depressed third world country-- they have no more desire by now, in 1984, to take over the world than Panama or Guadalupe or Czechoslovakia has -- all they want is to have a somewhat better life," he said. "?and we're calling them the evil empire. I was outraged." After the Cold War ended, Americans lost the one enemy that could unite them, making any tension at home even more pronounced. Relations between blacks and whites are worse now than they have ever been, Mailer said. In the '60s, race relations seemed they might improve, but now they are only getting worse. And until the tension is resolved, he said "nothing else will get better." He added that America's only hope for revival, is a renewed Democratic party and a stronger president. "If Clinton would only say, 're-elect me and I will devote my next four years to one matter above all others and that's to bring whites and blacks together in a way they have not been together before,' " Mailer said. "That would require some very tough talking for whites and blacks both because they each would have to come half way forward. "That will divide whites and that will divide blacks, but I do believe that central core will come together," he added. "?Just think of the energy that they would release in people if they felt that they were voting for something." Corporations, which Mailer calls "the second government," have also proved a source of the country's problems. They disrupt the "intimacies of your life," bombarding the public with commercials that do not make sense. Children are now used to constant interruption -- and consequentially lack the concentration to even read a book for a few hours. "What if you were making love and you were interrupted every seven to 12 minutes?" Mailer asked the audience. "We ought to give our minds the same respect we give our genitalia."

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