Mailer and Conrad

Part One—Tradition and Narrative

Abstract

The intersection of Mailer and Conrad appears elusive. Is Polish-born Conrad part of an English literary tradition, as F. R. Leavis has argued? So it would seem. Spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, Conrad is an English modernist, helping to create “the modern sensibility” (Meyers). In Lord Jim (1900), Conrad creates Charlie Marlow, a complex narrator telling his tale through multiple voices, using a profusion of words to reveal the inadequacy of language, set in the matrix of time itself. Marlow believes that Jim, despite a fall of biblical proportions, is “one of us.” The phrase encapsulates loneliness (the one) and the search for solidarity (us). Lord Jim is a geographical and epistemological odyssey: unlike Odysseus, Jim can never return home. How do themes of tradition and narrative relate to Mailer? While there are interesting parallels, Mailer operates largely in a different universe of discourse. Yet, in complementary ways, both writers appear very relevant to the dilemmas of our age.