NAMES IN THE NEWS : Norman Mailer Uses Tact Tactic

PROVINCETOWN, MASS. — Some folks get crochety as they age, but Norman Mailer may be getting more polite. At a weekend event in Provincetown billed as a “literary soiree,” the 67-year-old Pulitzer winner gave his $50-a-ticket audience of 150 a chance to vote on whether he should read certain passages containing descriptions of female genitalia.

“I don’t want to inflame any sensibilities,” said Mailer, who is now 2,500 manuscript pages into a new book on the CIA. No one objected, but one woman said as she left the room: “I wouldn’t vote against it, but I don’t have to listen to it. Now, where’s the champagne?”