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PARTISAN REVIEW
hard as we can .
In!:
Some of the forms you 've created, like the novel-history and the
novel-biography, seem to have more effect on those who are reading and
experiencing them than the novel .
Mader:
There 's no question that there 's more immediate impact.
In!:
More widespread , too.
Mader:
It 's a fashion, an intellectual fashion for a year or two. Maybe it affects
people's minds to a degree and then something comes along which is the
opposite of what I've done and changes their minds back. So that , in
effect , I'm out there pushing the waves in one direction and other people
are pushing the waves in another direction . If you transcend that, if you end
up with an absolutely remarkable work which may not have that much
impact in the beginning , it's still possible that you will at least have nailed
down your points in such a way that people can ' t keep using the same
arguments. I mean, the most disappointing reaction I find in my career is
that the criticisms made about me today are so close to the criticisms made
ten years ago. It's as if I never reached certain people at all.
Int :
Can you be more specific?
Mader :
Oh, well, the attacks on my ego . I mean , you'd think if a man has
been carrying on about his ego for ten years that finally they ' d say, " All
right , he's got an ego and his ego gives me a pain in the ass. Butlet ' sseewhat
he 's doing." Can you read a review about me these days that doesn ' t start
with those predictable first 150 words about my character , my nature
~
Did
it ever occur to them that I have less nature by now than they do? That I'm
just a serious , hardworking , somewhat dumb professional?
Int:
There are those to whom you 're a living legend .
Mazier :
There are days when I say to myself that I have to be the second most
unpopular man in America. Richard Nixon is first and I'm second. Who 's
more unpopular than me , really , leaving good Richard out of this?
Int :
You can ' t ask a midwesterner that.
Mader:
It's true I have no existence in the midwest. Nine out of ten people in
the midwest never heard my name . That's certainly true.
In! :
That 's right , unfortunately. I've been spreading the word but it hasn't
reached quite enough of the population . Perhaps you have a less
well-defined identity than we imagined ; perhaps you have more in
common with Marilyn Monroe than Ernest Hemingway , which is why you
can view yourself as a literary character and have used so many personae.
Mader:
I think Hemingway also had a gamut of identities.
It
was just that
coming from the midwest , he was considerably more focused in his attempt
to
build one identity. That is , he didn't try to go from A to Z like Monroe or
myself, he kept it pretty much, let' s say, between] and K on the one side
