David Mamet, a playwright who won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for his plays Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988), has turned into a Grumpy Old Man. Most of the essays in Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch complain about something: equality, wearing face masks, Higher Education, the Left, etc.
However, within these essays are nuggets of interest. Here’s one: “…the only works I have found helpful in writing drama: Aristotle’s Poetics, Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces, Opie’s Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, and, be it what it may, [Bruno Bettelheim’s] The Uses of Enchantment.” (p. 63)
I especially liked Mamet’s analysis of Time Travel stories. Mamet has been an actor, playwright, and director of movies. His analysis of TV shows is also revealing: “The extent of television shows is essential undifferentiated. Not only are all the cop shows interchangeable, they interchangeable with the medical shows. (Swap out the shoot-outs and the ER scenes–the action sequences–and they are all just bad narrative about offscreen characters.)” (p. 158)
My favorite chapter in Recessional is “Humility” where Mamet writes about the authors he loves…and the ones he doesn’t. Here’s a sample: “I am particularly fond of twentieth-century genre writers. They have brought me a great deal of happiness over the decades. I name Frederick Forsyth, Patrick O’Brian, George V. Higgins, and John le Carre. I’ve read all their books many times, because they are infinitely re-readable… I can reread my beloved Trollope’s forty-seven novels again and again…” (p. 174)
If you can put up with Mamet’s crankiness and conservative perspectives, the insights into Broadway, movies, actors, writers, and television are worth the hassle. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction 1
The Fountain Pen 5
Cause and Effect 11
Reds, Pinks, and Goo-Goos 17
What’s in a Name 23
Pippa Passes 29
King Kong 33
Some (Mainly) Musical Revelations 37
Two Hangings 41
Various Discoveries 45
Farther Along; or, The Accident Chain 51
On the Passivity of Jews 55
Bruno Bettelheim and the Broke-Down Cowboy: Two American Stories 61
Attention Must Be Paid 67
Experts and Oligarchs 71
Slave Lessons 75
Belinda Raguesto Returns from Switzerland 81
Hamlet and Oedipus Meet the Zombies 89
A Message from Schpershevski 95
Chelm; or, No Arrest for the Wicked 101
Some Linguistic Curiosities 105
The Nazis Got Your Mom 113
Demotic, a Confession 119
Grief and Wisdom 127
Time Travel 133
Moby Dick 139
Real Live 143
Rainy Day Fun for Shut-Ins: Xmas 2020 147
Give My Regrets to Broadway 155
Broadway 159
Gags 167
Humility 173
Max the Hamster 177
Disons le Mot 183
Art, Time, and the Madness of the Old 189
Tug-of-Peace 193
The Awl Through the Ear 197
Goodnight, Irene 203
Recessional 209
Acknowledgments 215
Index 217
Saw him on Bill Maher. He likes Trump. That kills it for me.
Steve, Mamet likes many of the policies Trump promoted. But I’m pretty sure Mamet recognizes that Trump is a grifter.
What Steve said. I have no desire to wade through some rich entitled white guy’s navel gazings just because he likes Trollope!
Deb, Mamet likes Trollope and Frederick Forsyth, Patrick O’Brian, George V. Higgins, and John le Carre. I’m a fan of all those writers, too. Sam Rockwell, Laurence Fishburne and Darren Criss are starring in the Broadway revival of American Buffalo.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/theater/american-buffalo-review.html
I have to say you have raised my interest despite my dislike of him.
Patti, I focused on the plays, books, and movies Mamet writes about in RECESSIONAL…and ignored his politics.
I’m with the majority here. I’ll admit he has good taste in writers, and I really liked some of his directing and screenwriting work back in the 80s and 90s, especially “House of Games”. But even a drop of Trump poisons the whole stew. Pass.
Michael, I agree that Trump is toxic, but whenever he showed up in RECESSIONAL…I just turned the page.
What Steve and Deb said go for me too. I’ve see several of Mamet’s plays – SPEED-THE-PLOW, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, a revival of A LIFE IN THE THEATRE – and movies, and I don’t care if I never see another. Getting in bed with Trump was the final straw.
Jeff, I showed GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS to a Summer School class in MARKETING. The classes were 3 1/2 hours long three days a week for six weeks. I used mostly short videos to break things up. But this class was exceptional with several students from four-year schools taking my class to “get ahead” in terms of credits and graduating early. The reaction to GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS electrified the class. I consider GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS the best play about salesmanship since DEATH OF A SALESMAN.
Damn that Trump with his low gas prices, strong economy, secure borders, strong international stance! Damn him! Damn him!
Bob, and don’t forget the Pandemic!
Yeah, that’s all his fault! He should stay out of Chinese labs! And that Russian collusion!
His machismic jerk attitudes, expressed in nearly everything he writes and says, kind of make Trumpism rather natural. I have the same problems with him that I do with Norman Mailer, who might tend to vote differently. Maybe.
Todd, I was a mild Norman Mailer fan back in the 1960s and early 1970s. I still consider THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG brilliant. But the later Mailer might fit the profile you suggest.
You need to learn how to write comprehensively!