House of Paine

advertisements for hiz willbury

 let me put
the   successive 
                installments  
                of ike era
                             norm in a bucket
                                        for you 


-------------------------------------------

           the mason dixon line between:

               before 
              and after  
                  the bomb shell essay:
                          "the white negro"


=====================================================

 


the norman  circle theatre presents


from impotence to orgasm

-----------------------

first  we get this background shot

its just 
         post war 
                   see the 
                             one book 
                                        wunderkind

an american fantasy indeed ......

but now we gotta 
 slide him ahead
some serious years later
                     after ike hits town 
                            we find him 
 
still very publically  
                    thrashing about 
                                 in sophamore waters 


 inside:
a harvard worthy  brained 
shrewdly ambitious 
decent 
jewish mommas boy.....

with a silly 
semi whacked semi desperate  
sometimes 
comically  mugs-ly
 but always deeply self contmeplating 
                                    persona   

a guy "tryin like sixty"

 to bust 
  his way  back
to the summit

back to
  that sweet "  guest star of toda'ys  show "
                                spot lite 

the place 
his first book
  vaulted him to
               for all too  few showtimes   

but a come back
                is not that..... ?

and with what ?

not much really
 
   two tiny fists
          and 
  a nice big  curlie head

a head 
             able to turn out 
                tons of well cobbled phrases 


but well 
   cobbled phrases smazees 

shit

manhattan has thousands of such headshops
ready to  tap out "fine crap"

                      a sea full of em in fact

                               to sink under ....


so where for
and how
 to make the move ?


well 
   this 
   upper story
  crossbreed

this healthy  mixup

       worth more
    then his several  parts
      
his  
irwin shaw
his 
phillip k dick 
 his
 god forbid  
mickey spillane 

but the whole 
is 
very lovable really

 and remember

in his mind
     he's always
    fighting to escape
          his shameful
                  dress rehearsal role
                     
          the role   of 
                  hemingway's cell wife    

but  then....

the lightening struck....

revealing his ....
               super hero identity

           nice  jew boy norm
becomes   


      "casper the blackamoors ghost ............... "

    

                    what idiotic self deluded
                              presumptuous  nonsense !


              but shit guys
            it  made him 
                      a village head liner again  ......
             
       the mugsly penman's 

                     new   marching orders:

forget the prole vault

go pale spadophile

 grow a little chin brush

smoke a little booo

  get dangerous bub dangerous  

and 
he did it

pulled it off
wrote it up

became his own " wanted poster "

      and it 
            proved
         a brilliant remake indeed


from   also ran
    gum shoed 
    mean street's 
               existential tipster
 
into 

  "that  gal slayin
  hip He-male  fella "
   
all his fellow four eyes 
                   dreamed to be 

the white urban darkie 

doc "danger prick" 

----------------------------------------
 what else could follow
from such self delusion

such dress up and pretend

but to see his contradictions
his lack of clarity


check out the infamous
                   cover shot
to  his  triumphal book
                 "   Self Advert"

see
  norm as   neuman (paul)
in a yatchsmens cap
 tipped back on his head 
fore curls exposed
eyes like leslie gore 
  complexion simonized

a ladies picture
         by a lady taken

but eh
where's
      the white  negro
white negros don't pose

in fact 
like vampire's
they don't even photograph

why ?

cause they're
          mind figments 

but this other
 advertised dream self 
hollywood norman....

that proved
  an  old maid's  dream 

   a whicked  dud 

"we told you it was wrong norm"


----------------------

so as we turn into the new fronteer 
what else

  mailer became 
 a complete klown

imagine that runt showin up

"lets swing "

a center stage   shrimp 
          with a stabbed wife 
              in his past

  a toy manfred   
               all too easily 
   bounced off his chair 
by  say
   the bearish boobery
              of a forest tucker 


he started to "be " there 
                        ...... everywhere


and no capote he 

"a turd in the soup"

in fact
norm became sort of a  zelig 
                        to the high sixties


my favorite shameless pose


him walkin to the pentagon 
                   in fall '67 

between the arms 
             of lowell and chomsky 


             
        thats him in the three piece
               the    ed asner
                            look alike ...

------------------------------------

as to his more intense 
inner rounds 

his 

" prisoner of my  willy needle "bits

well.....

okay 

at least 
he had "things" 
   beneath him 
                like
    "things "    mort sahl did
          mortwith heff
mort with nixon

mort 
    " thinking  swingers"
                               jerry lewis 

--------------------------------------

so where was norm 
by the  mid 70's ?

not forgotten
 
but all too clearly
            a very silly banged up
                              old hat 

" oh shit
i don't knowwhat to do with him
shit
    why don't ya  
                  go put him  
    on that 
                 snowman the kids built
                              out there 
                                    in the yard  "

------------------------------------
looking backover his twilight years 

"it had been 
     an era of over billed  bouts"


each a little lower then the last

 
all lost of course

what else is existential..


highlites:


the peak
   
  the embrace germaine set to 

a sweat early 
knock out that one 

norm in koo koo land



bottom feeders?

the vidal fights certainly


recall 
   vidal  one 's 
    gin fizz high ball 
talk on dick cavett no less 
        or 

vidal  two

with  
norman's " no mas " exit 
his sad leaving of his very own miss-trust-trix
to the evil gores 
  dickly do ministrations



oh i forgot

 the ultimate cross generational
                                 fiasco

comin out of retirement

to go up agin amis junior

norm as 
    
  unremoveable  dying horse fly


rounding the now empty ring 

still throwin air leather

 
" fuck
he don't even know 
he was  counted out 
              hours ago.... "

and on and on and on 

till today

  he's stooped 
     to being 
          as squalid
          as the late
                      joe louis 

the louis
     the mob used as 
           a travelling doorman 
       at their  top  vegas joints 


" wanna meet the champ
                mister and misses claus "

--------------------------------------------------


fuck
15 years ago at least

folks were saying 
stuff like 

" shit norm 
u  look  
  worse in there
   then liston's last shit

hey brothers 
somebody  gotta 
   stop  this thing now   ......."
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