Courtly Norman: The Legacy Derby (Norman Mailer) (Essay‪)‬

Some preliminary speculation on Norman Mailer's legacy reminds me of a media-fixed auto derby that has already predetermined a Mailer finish as a questionable non-winner at the starting-gate. Such derby flux began with the news of Mailer's recent demise and became fast-tracked into obvious truth that Mailer's Legacy Quotient (LQ) is unique in that his "character" supersedes and eclipses his canon of work A writer's behavior, in short, is all that matters to some critics. The LQ axiom, in Mailer's case, remains commonplace: character overshadows canon.