January 17, 2020

The Faith of Graffiti Notes

1974 Publication

1. “Life is an image”

Mailer, as the A-I, accepts the assignment to write about graffiti, interviews several retired graffiti artists, and discovers the importance of the name.

• Rather than take on the “chore” of journalism, NM assumes the persona of the “Aesthetic Investigator” (A-I)
• Graffiti artists, like CAY 161, see themselves in the lineage of the great chapel painters of the Renaissance
  • Something spiritual about it: CAY 161 “has the power of his own belief.”
• “Life is an image”
  • The artist taps into something spiritual—tempting (or pleasing?) the gods
• “The name is the faith of graffiti”
  • This refers to NM’s essay (cf, ¶s 6–8), and something more profound
  • the name is a “hit,” linking graffiti to death
    • Implicit here is the challenge to authority and the possible consequences of “your name is over their name”
    • The “peril of the position” is important: getting your name in dangerous places—both literally and metaphorically (i.e., over authority)
• Poverty and crime are integral to the process?
  • friendship, too?

Works Cited

• Mailer, Norman (1978) [1974]. "The Faith of Graffiti". Pieces and Pontifications. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 134–158.