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Marilyn Monroe
This book is more than simply another biography of Marilyn it analyzes the ways in which her life was interwoven with the images that were constructed of her and the myths that were spun around her. The book's claim to originality lies in its attempt to analyze in a serious way her life, her films and her relation to modern culture. Drawing on critical theory, feminism and film studies, the author re-examines the life and representations of Marilyn Monroe, from her first studio appearance in 1947 to her last tragic performance in "The Misfits". He analyzes the writings of the (mostly male) biographers who, he argues, represent Monroe as other than she was or wanted to be and thus brings another Marilyn Monroe to he shows how this perceptive, intelligent and sensitive person was denied her own image. This book should appeal to a wide audience, and be used on courses in film and cultural studies. It is an analysis of the sexual politics and cultural mythology of our time. The work is aimed at a general readership interested in Marilyn Monroe, film and contemporary culture, as well as students and academics in media and cultural studies, sociology and social theory.
200 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2024
I don't really enjoy digging through the detritus in the Goodwill Outlet store, but it was pretty hard to resist this gook with a really sharp black and white picture of Monroe with her hair pulled back wearing a black blow-out dress with one arm crossed and holding her shoulder while the other hand is holding up her chin and covering a good part of the profile we're seeing of her face. It's a compelling shot, and one unlike the photos I've seen hundreds of times in my life.
Even better, once I started reading, I realized this is a late 80s cultural studies expert taking a deep dive into Monroe the person but also the icon. Written just when I was first hearing the term "deconstruction," this is not an especially jargon-filled book, though McCann likes to quote from Benjamin, Barthes, and Foucault, among others. He really got me thinking about someone I've not thought that much about - I've seen Some Like It Hot a couple times, and Niagra once, and parts of The Seven Year Itch and The Misfits. Oh, and Love Happy, the last Marx Brothers film and the first spoken word by Marilyn Monroe - she says "Hello" to Groucho.
I have much respect for Monroe's skills as an actor, something she worked hard on until she died. She comes across here as a very thoughtful and inquiring person, which is not the caricature most people have of her. There is a lot here about her role as a "star" and how that kept her from many of the ordinary things she wanted to do. Nothing's sadder than her trying to go to actors classes and having to stop because too many people would show up looking for a glimpse of her.
McCann is careful to put his own personality into this book, especially when he discusses her biography. McCann is aware that it's impossible to get to the "real" Monroe, even after so many books had been written before his. He also tries hard to put a feminist spin on things, which is very different from the likes of Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller who wrote about her earlier.
Even better, once I started reading, I realized this is a late 80s cultural studies expert taking a deep dive into Monroe the person but also the icon. Written just when I was first hearing the term "deconstruction," this is not an especially jargon-filled book, though McCann likes to quote from Benjamin, Barthes, and Foucault, among others. He really got me thinking about someone I've not thought that much about - I've seen Some Like It Hot a couple times, and Niagra once, and parts of The Seven Year Itch and The Misfits. Oh, and Love Happy, the last Marx Brothers film and the first spoken word by Marilyn Monroe - she says "Hello" to Groucho.
I have much respect for Monroe's skills as an actor, something she worked hard on until she died. She comes across here as a very thoughtful and inquiring person, which is not the caricature most people have of her. There is a lot here about her role as a "star" and how that kept her from many of the ordinary things she wanted to do. Nothing's sadder than her trying to go to actors classes and having to stop because too many people would show up looking for a glimpse of her.
McCann is careful to put his own personality into this book, especially when he discusses her biography. McCann is aware that it's impossible to get to the "real" Monroe, even after so many books had been written before his. He also tries hard to put a feminist spin on things, which is very different from the likes of Norman Mailer and Arthur Miller who wrote about her earlier.
February 16, 2019
Loved it!!
July 9, 2015
This is not really a biography of Marilyn Monroe, but rather a sociological study of Monroe's life, Monroe's afterlife, and--perhaps most effectively--the Marilyn Monroe "machine," which continues to churn out books, documentaries, mugs, notebooks, calendars, etc., that feature images of Monroe over fifty years after her death.
McCann divides his subject into three distinct personae: "Norma Jeane," the pre-famous icon; "Marilyn," the famous icon; and Monroe herself, the actual human being behind the icon. The first two personae ("Norma Jeane" and "Marilyn") are constructs, which Monroe built in collaboration with her fans, her critics, and the Hollywood system at large. These are the personae that most people think of when they think about Marilyn Monroe (e.g., the woman standing on a subway grate in a white dress, singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," posing nude against a red background, etc.).
The real Monroe, on the other hand, was the one who said things like, "It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who is she--who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any kind of nature--and it won't hurt your feelings--like it's happening to your clothing." This was a woman who understood the difference between appearance and reality only too well, because she struggled to balance that dichotomy every day of her life.
McCann's exploration of this division is fascinating, which results in probably the best book about Marilyn Monroe that I've ever read--and I've read an embarrassing number of them. It can be a bit dry, and there is some repetition, the occasional bit of social scientist/academic mumbo jumbo, and he sometimes stretches a bit too far to validate his various theses, but this is usually in the service of treating Monroe with the utmost respect--in fact, he treats her as respectfully as any author has ever treated her--so I can overlook it.
As a longtime fan of Monroe's, I've been looking for a book that understands the guilt I feel from buying a Marilyn Monroe bookmark, which exploits the image of a woman who is long gone and doesn't benefit one iota from its manufacture (if you want to bum yourself out, read this). I've long been hoping for a writer who is equally distressed by Anthony Summers's inclusion in his book of the photo of Monroe's body in the morgue--a picture that so traumatized me at the age of 15 that I felt a profound sadness for weeks afterwards. I have only seen the image that one time, flipping through Summers's biography in a bookstore, yet even now, nearly thirty years later, the appalling callousness of its mass-market publication still haunts me.
McCann is that writer. His condemnation of those who exploited Marilyn Monroe when she was alive (the Kennedys, Greenson, Fox studio executives), and those who exploited her when she was gone (Miller, Mailer, her more sensationalistic biographers), is unerring without being self-righteous (at least as far as I'm concerned--others might disagree). He's a fan, clearly, but tries not to let that fact cloud his scholarship too much. In the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, however, he does allow himself to take a personal approach to his subject, but in some ways this is the best part, or in any case the most honest part, of the book.
McCann divides his subject into three distinct personae: "Norma Jeane," the pre-famous icon; "Marilyn," the famous icon; and Monroe herself, the actual human being behind the icon. The first two personae ("Norma Jeane" and "Marilyn") are constructs, which Monroe built in collaboration with her fans, her critics, and the Hollywood system at large. These are the personae that most people think of when they think about Marilyn Monroe (e.g., the woman standing on a subway grate in a white dress, singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," posing nude against a red background, etc.).
The real Monroe, on the other hand, was the one who said things like, "It stirs up envy, fame does. People you run into feel that, well, who is she--who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, you know, of any kind of nature--and it won't hurt your feelings--like it's happening to your clothing." This was a woman who understood the difference between appearance and reality only too well, because she struggled to balance that dichotomy every day of her life.
McCann's exploration of this division is fascinating, which results in probably the best book about Marilyn Monroe that I've ever read--and I've read an embarrassing number of them. It can be a bit dry, and there is some repetition, the occasional bit of social scientist/academic mumbo jumbo, and he sometimes stretches a bit too far to validate his various theses, but this is usually in the service of treating Monroe with the utmost respect--in fact, he treats her as respectfully as any author has ever treated her--so I can overlook it.
As a longtime fan of Monroe's, I've been looking for a book that understands the guilt I feel from buying a Marilyn Monroe bookmark, which exploits the image of a woman who is long gone and doesn't benefit one iota from its manufacture (if you want to bum yourself out, read this). I've long been hoping for a writer who is equally distressed by Anthony Summers's inclusion in his book of the photo of Monroe's body in the morgue--a picture that so traumatized me at the age of 15 that I felt a profound sadness for weeks afterwards. I have only seen the image that one time, flipping through Summers's biography in a bookstore, yet even now, nearly thirty years later, the appalling callousness of its mass-market publication still haunts me.
McCann is that writer. His condemnation of those who exploited Marilyn Monroe when she was alive (the Kennedys, Greenson, Fox studio executives), and those who exploited her when she was gone (Miller, Mailer, her more sensationalistic biographers), is unerring without being self-righteous (at least as far as I'm concerned--others might disagree). He's a fan, clearly, but tries not to let that fact cloud his scholarship too much. In the closing paragraphs of the final chapter, however, he does allow himself to take a personal approach to his subject, but in some ways this is the best part, or in any case the most honest part, of the book.
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