What sort of readers do writers hope pick up their book? Norman Mailer said his ideal audience "has no tradition by which to measure their experience but the intensity and clarity in their inner lives. That's the audience I'd like to be good enough to write for."
Mailer's goal for such an audience is to raise their experience to a higher level. Thus, he sets for himself the standard of writing to enlighten readers whose intellect and insight exceed what have attained merely from their formal education, a depth of wisdom that comes from a continuously examined life. If writers can't take their job that seriously, then they should do something else.
Mailer's goal for such an audience is to raise their experience to a higher level. Thus, he sets for himself the standard of writing to enlighten readers whose intellect and insight exceed what have attained merely from their formal education, a depth of wisdom that comes from a continuously examined life. If writers can't take their job that seriously, then they should do something else.
