Watts article

[Paul Mackin]

Nobody would want to suspect, I wouldn't think, that P didn't visit
Watts, even that he didn't get out of the car and walk around a bit, to
pick up on the mood and general feel of the place. Perhaps he even got
chummy with some of the residents but if he did it's odd he couldn't and
wouldn't want to say so. Could have referred to them as "Bill (not his
real name)" No statements like "a man walking along 107th Street told
this reporter such and such" are present anywhere. The thing sounding
most like a direct contact was what the people at the Youth agency were
saying. 

The main thing that distinguishes the Watts essay from P's other
non-fiction is the serious subject matter.  (as davemark I think alluded
to) The flippant style P tends toward, he must have figured, just didn't
suit a non-fiction depiction of tragedy.

Although P did talk a little about the true sadness of Watts, that
aspect could have been emphasized more (instead of the ideological pap
about real and unreal or the mythical black outlaw Mailer was so fond
of). The real story is the rejection and the not fitting in. The fear. I
thought of Roth's essay which we discussed recently. In R's new book he
wants to show how the American Jews might have reacted if their
situation in American had ever developed into total hostility.  He
didn't make direct comparison with the blacks but rather European Jewish
experience. However I think in the following quote the blacks are
plainly also present in his thoughts.

" I wanted my family to be up against it precisely as they would have
been up against it had history turned out as I've skewed it in this book
and they were overpowered by the forces I have arrayed against them."