gore vidal rip
He was a good guy, a great writer, and an even greater dinner companion.
Vidal was a rare intellectual author as celebrity.
He was a daring writer of gender politics but extremely varied as well.
He was said to have had an affair with Kerouac as a young man and knew everyone.
He is one of the few who could out wit and out argue Norman Mailer (tho Vidal was turgid as a writer and Mailer was a master).
Gore Vidal was a great one. Loved his series of novels on America, including Burr and Hollywood. Surprised more of his books haven’t been made into movies, but one has to mention Caligula,
RIP Mr. Vidal. Flights of angels, etc.
I’ll stand up for MYRA BRECKINRIDGE, one of the great American comic novels. I’ve never been able to get into the America series, there’s something about them that puts me off. I got a good bit of the way into CREATION and have often wanted to give it another go.
Along with Lewis Lapham, one of the most erudite critics of power and policy.
I am so sorry to hear this.
I have only read his autobiographies (“Palimpsest”, and the second one) and two of his political “pamphlets” (as he, himself, referred to them), and seen him interviewed on television a few times. He was obviously extremely well-read, highly cultured and extremely knowledgeable about a great many subjects. His passing is a great loss for America and the world. A great Man of Letters is gone. He was a legend and I had great respect for him (for the little I knew about him). He was a real patrician and a great commentator. Extremely erudite. And though we might not have always agreed with his views, at least he explained them in the most interesting and compelling fashion. The arguments he put forth were always well-considered, well presented and well thought-out. A great raconteur, he was. And he must have been the most fantastic dinner guest. A great speaker.
I’ll eventually find the time to read at least a few of his novels. I look forward to that.
Are there ANY 50s/60s/70s literary lions left?!?!?!?
GONE:
Mailer
Capote
Williams
Heller
Chayefsky
Miller
Baldwin
Vonnegut
Ellison
Styron
J. Jones
Philip Roth
gore vidal archive at vanity fair
interview from the paris review 1974
interview from the independent 2009
All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
thanks girlfriend, i do remember reading that he felt they had blacklisted him throughout the 50s and 60s
he was a one of a kind and i mourn the death of the american left. public intellectuals are out of fashion :\
Pynchon’s still alive. As far as I know.
@Dennis Brian
Seen that Cavett clip before, it’s really something. I only wish I had known Vidal better.
He was admired as much by radical libertarians and
paleocons as by the left.
In seven minutes he accuses Lincoln of being syphilitic, Hemingway of being a hack and says that “film auteur” is one of the most ridiculous expressions he’s ever heard.
Eh, fundamentally he probably feels people started taking film seriously to the detriment of ignoring literature. In other words, he probably just feels one was replaced with another and that if he acknowledged the merits of cinema as an art form he’d be giving in to what he perceives as the trend.
“Pynchon’s still alive. As far as I know.”
The thing that always worried me about Pynchon and Marker is that they might be dead for a while before someone discovered them. So I echo this sentiment!
—DiB
Malick as well probably
Darned reclusive artists. They get old and then what?
—DiB
Godard’s reclusive, but he’s not that reclusive. You just need to know where to find him.
Are there ANY 50s/60s/70s literary lions left?!?!?!?
The “Beat” poet Gary Snyder is still around.
Also, the whole idea of the reclusive artist is probably overblown. Just because a person does not talk to the media doesn’t mean that they don’t have a wide network of friends and family. Even Salinger was constantly around people. There are not too many real reclusive artists that I can think of, actually.
But as far as Gore Vidal goes, I guess we can thank him for turning Michelle Bachman into a Republican:
Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann told The Daily Caller Wednesday that author Gore Vidal’s “snotty, mocking attitude” helped her realize she was a conservative. Daily Caller
We need more reclusive artists, not less. Maybe it shoud be a prerequisite.
we can thank him for turning Michelle Bachman into a Republican
they can keep her. i’m sure she hated creation too.
how dare anyone question anything. just shut up and believe what they tell u
One has to read THIS to get a clear idea of the depth of his cultural and political knowledge. Yes, he was an iconoclast and curmudgeon, at times ill-tempered and bad-mannered, a bit of a scold, but he was so brilliant and funny and, unlike most talking heads abroad in our culture, right most of the time.
Gore Vidal in Bob Roberts,
Looks like Roberts inspired Republicans in the early 90s.
ruby stevens
iconoclastic author dies at 86
a powerful left-wing voice and one of the finest writers of the post-war generation.
i loved his historical novels, burr and creation probably my favorites