What was it Mailer said about us, we are a combination of "ecstasy and violence?" A "concentration" of "ecstasy and violence;" "...[t]hat concentration of ecstasy and violence which is the dream life of the nation," that's the exact quote. Boy, I think that about nails it. We are the "orgasmatron" society, but that misses the essential violence. The concentration of ecstasy and violence is the "dream life" of America.
"...[i]t was almost as if there were no peace unless one could fight well, kill well (if always with honor), love well and love many, be cool, be daring, be dashing, be wild, be wily, be resourceful, be a brave gun. And this myth, that each of us was born to be free, to wander, to have adventure and to grow on the waves of the violent, the perfumed, and the unexpected, had a force which could not be tamed...[i]t was as if the message in the labyrinth of the genes would insist that violence was locked with creativity, and adventure was the secret of love."-Norman Mailer, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," Esquire, November, 1960.
"...[i]t was almost as if there were no peace unless one could fight well, kill well (if always with honor), love well and love many, be cool, be daring, be dashing, be wild, be wily, be resourceful, be a brave gun. And this myth, that each of us was born to be free, to wander, to have adventure and to grow on the waves of the violent, the perfumed, and the unexpected, had a force which could not be tamed...[i]t was as if the message in the labyrinth of the genes would insist that violence was locked with creativity, and adventure was the secret of love."-Norman Mailer, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," Esquire, November, 1960.
