Fighting for One’s Fiction

In his LitHub article, “Fighting for One’s Fiction: How Norman Mailer Taught Me to Defend My Plots,” Anthony Giardina revisits Mailer’s 1959 work, Advertisements for Myself. Giardina focuses on Mailer's candid “Fourth Advertisement for Myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park," where Mailer narrates his tumultuous journey to publish his third novel. Despite initial rejections due to its sexual content, Mailer secured a publisher but then grappled with dissatisfaction over his own prose, leading him to undertake extensive revisions. Giardina reflects on how Mailer’s unwavering commitment to his artistic vision serves as a powerful example for contemporary writers, emphasizing the importance of defending one’s creative choices in the face of external pressures.