Mailer’s mayoral campaign was a media performance, not a policy bid

Evidence

A year after the Yippies’ political theater, art-world activism was endemic. The same issue of the Voice that ran Joe Flaherty’s account of the Crazies carried an editorial endorsement of the paper’s co-founder Norman Mailer, who had announced his candidacy for mayor and was running in the June 16 primary. An elaboration on his three movies, Mailer’s campaign was a performance, made by and for the media. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1443

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter’s core thesis that avant-garde practice collapsed into politics and media spectacle; also resonates with the later observation that all politics became theatrical performance.