Reply #8: Double irony

[Psephos]

The first irony is that progressives line up behind this misogynistic and violent man who's also infamous for treating the "little people" around him with contempt and worse. His prose is bloated and prolix, and has been for decades - clearly he's not been subject to an editor since the 60s. The real Mailer, the one whose literary gifts could make a splash, has disappeared. When he was hungry (say, around the time he wrote Cannibals and Christians), he was dynamic and worth reading. But that Mailer is long gone, a victim of his own excesses. What a wasted talent.

The second irony is that someone who calls himself Voltaire would use drive-by accusations of puritanism and sleaze against someone whose opinions he disagrees with. Perhaps it didn't cross your mind that such attacks of the person rather than the opinion, in an effort to police a discussion, are the real puritanism. Heh heh.

The real Voltaire wouldn't have any use for Mailer, except perhaps as a target of witty laceration. Voltaire was not one to suffer pomposity or meanness gladly. Nor am I.