Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
Norman MailerRead
A political convention is after all not a meeting of a corporation's board of directors; it is a fiesta, a carnival, a pig-rooting, horse-snorting, band-playing, voice-screaming medieval get-together of greed, practical lust, compromised idealism, career-advancement, meeting, feud, vendetta, conciliation, of rabble-rousers, fist fights (as it used to be), embraces, drunks (again as it used to be) and collective rivers of animal sweat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A political convention is a chaotic mix of various human emotions and motivations rather than a formal or professional meeting.
Norman Mailer's quote highlights the vibrant and often tumultuous nature of political conventions, contrasting them with the seriousness of corporate board meetings. He portrays these gatherings as a blend of celebration, conflict, and raw human emotion, emphasizing the underlying motives of ambition and personal gain that drive the participants, creating an atmosphere that is both spirited and contentious.
Themes
PoliticsConventionEmotionsChaosHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used to critique the nature of political gatherings during a campaign speech.
More from Norman Mailer
All quotes βI no longer gave a sick dog's drop for the wisdom, the reliability and the authority of the public's literary mind, those creeps and old ladies of vested reviewing.
Norman MailerRead
There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.
Norman MailerRead
The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.
Norman MailerRead
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
Norman MailerRead
At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.
Norman MailerRead
Similar quotes
Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.
Frank HerbertRead
Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.
Henry A. WallaceRead
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston ChurchillRead
Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They are the birthright of every American.
George H. W. BushRead
Any attempts by any government to change Community legislation to its own wishes are doomed to failure following the extension of policy areas now subject to majority voting... In our opinion, this must have serious implications for the traditional view of Parliament as a legislative body sovereignty.
Margaret ThatcherRead