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“It’s the Way that You are With Your Children”: The Matriarchal Figure in Mamet’s Late Work

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Gender and Genre

Abstract

“It has been said,” writes David Mamet, “that the difference between a fairy tale and a war story is the one begins ‘Once upon a time,’ and the other, ‘This is no shit’” (“Make-Believe Town” 185). Two recent Mamet tales, “The Room” (1995) and “Soul Murder” (1996), begin with neither, but clearly these are “war stories” from the front. Both are no more than a few pages, but despite—or possibly because of—their brevity, the poignant portraits, like most of Mamet’s shorter works, acquire a piercing depth. “The Room” recovers a personal memory of youthful daring and threatened punishment sparked by a man’s chance association while awaiting an appointment; “Soul Murder” narrates the story of a boy in a state of distress from the perspective of a man awaiting a train who helplessly observes a child’s inhumane treatment.

“It is not a carved animal It is a story: Things by their name” —David Mamet, “Zaa” “Love is the mucilage that sticks the tattered ribbons of experience— the stiff construction-paper Indians and pumpkins of experience—to the scrapbook of our lives.” —David Mamet, A Sermon

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Authors
  1. Leslie Kane
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Editor information

Christopher C. Hudgins Leslie Kane

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© 2001 Christopher C. Hudgins and Leslie Kane

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Kane, L. (2001). “It’s the Way that You are With Your Children”: The Matriarchal Figure in Mamet’s Late Work. In: Hudgins, C.C., Kane, L. (eds) Gender and Genre. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230109209_10

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