The Mamet Theory of Everything

Reading David Mamet’s new book of essays, The Disenlightenment: Politics, Horror, and Entertainment, I was reminded of how loosely jointed and shape-shifting an essay can be. In this collection, a single essay can pivot from palindromes to springboks to why theatrical events always begin a few minutes after the hour. (Without fail, Mamet says, it takes six or seven minutes for the audience to become quiet with anticipation.) This same eight-page piece of writing then launches into an elaborate comparison of our current anxieties about race, sex, and the environment to the feelings that gave rise to the Salem witch trials.

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