Comments on: Gore Vidal, 1925-2012

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:57:00 +0000

: D

Wish we had Dick Cavett instead of Don Lane…

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Mailer was dying a thousand deaths by then

Possibly proctitis due to having his own ego folded up five ways and shoved where the moon don’t shine.

By: DevinC

DevinC — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 21:00:00 +0000

+1 for Creation. It’s not as politically relevant as The City And The Pillar or Myra Breckenridge were, but it is a masterpiece. It’s long, but it’s one of those books you wish was longer. His whole American political family series is good, too.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:39:00 +0000

Vale Vidal.

May America find a replacement for your searing brilliance.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:36:00 +0000

A shame it cut off when it did… Mailer was dying a thousand deaths by then, very entertaining.

It appears telly used to be a lot more interesting.

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:12:00 +0000

He first came to my attention as a young lad perusing my old man’s Playboys; I’m afraid the imminent death of printed porn will take a lot of journalism with it… such mags seem to have been quite the haven for good writing: I seem to recall a lot of great stuff in Penthouse and Hustler as well.

By: David Howe

David Howe — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:54:00 +0000

He supported the Vietnam War, forced tatooing of homosexuals with HIV, apartheid, McCarthy, Franco, Pinochet. “Dirtbag” is a little juvenile I agree, but “crypto-Nazi” is clearly spot-on.

By: Melva Keyla

Melva Keyla — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:27:00 +0000

that good

By: Melva Keyla

Melva Keyla — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:24:00 +0000

Gore Vidal was one in all my idols growing up. It seemed like he could do something, and do it with therefore much style. I counted nowadays and I actually have read thirteen of his books. I loved all of his American chronicles and also the two plays (“The Best Man” and “Visit to a Small Planet” — made into a movie, with of all folks, Jerry Lewis) and “City & Pillar” and “Myra Breckinridge” and “Julian,” but I’d say my favorite novel is “Washington, D.C.,” which has some superb set items I can still keep in mind over forty years later, like this one, which I started to describe however then I remembered Gloria Steinem once noticed it too:

By: Conan Librarian

Conan Librarian — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:56:00 +0000

A great mind, a great guy. You will be missed, may your journey to Valhalla be swift, and may your star shine just as bright.

By: Nagurski

Nagurski — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:12:00 +0000

I haven’t read nearly enough, but some of his historical fiction is stunning. ‘Creation,’ narrated by a 5th century Persian diplomat, is impossible to put down. ‘Burr’ is a fantastically great chronicle of that period of American political culture.

By: dreadpiraterobert

dreadpiraterobert — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:02:00 +0000

Wow, that clip of the Dick Cavett show is amazing too… Norman Mailer was a giant douche too.

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Let’s see, he supported Mcarthyism, Francisco Franco, and Augusto Pinochet, and he isn’t a dirtbag?

Support for virulently nasty (so long as they are anti-communist) fascists isn’t exactly atypical in American circles; but that hardly makes it any less tasteless.

By: englischersprecher

englischersprecher — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Just been listening to some old radio interviews of Gore Vidal. He was sharp, eloquent and one of the world’s great liberal thinkers. RIP.

By: englischersprecher

englischersprecher — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:35:00 +0000

Just been listening to some past interviews of Gore Vidal. He was sharp and engaging, drawing plenty of parallels between foreign policy mistakes of the past and now. A great thinker. RIP.

By: Quiche de Resistance

Quiche de Resistance — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:35:00 +0000

William Buckley was a smug lying piece of shit. Though I do love his quick witted answer here:

A young man, “voice breaking with emotion” asks, “Mr. Buckley …. have you ever gone hungry?”

Buckley responded “Why, yes, my yacht experienced an unfortunate shortage of stuffed goose recently between Nassau and the Bahamas.”

By: Teller

Teller — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Intellectually, few of us could carry Mr Buckley’s dirt or bag. Nor Mr Vidal’s for that matter. Indeed!

By: rastronomicals

rastronomicals — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:36:00 +0000

William Buckley a dirtbag? I think not.

By: Pope Ratzo

Pope Ratzo — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Aw, man. I was a little boy when I sat next to my dad and watched Vidal and Buckley debate, during the Democratic Convention in my town.

It was one of the first times I realized how cool it was to be smart. But even then I could tell that William Buckley was an asshat and that Gore Vidal was a bad ass. Plus I thought having the first name “Gore” was totally great.

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:47:00 +0000

“I knew there was an inner ring! I bet they make jokes about the Atkins diet and do prank calls to Gore Vidal in Esperanto”. Via Peep Show.

Vale GV. Time to re-read Myra Breckingridge.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:06:00 +0000

He was the best the right has ever had to offer. Calling him dirtbag is absolutely wrong. Crypto-Nazi is fair, but not dirtbag.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:16:00 +0000

Or Americans would hear it but wouldn’t remember it 5 minutes later.

http://www.democracynow.org/2004/5/21/gore_vidal_on_the_united_states

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Yes, there was a time when conservatives were at least coherent to some degree.

By: semiotix

semiotix — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:46:00 +0000

Or that he committed and nearly got away with murder in a dystopian, genetically obsessed near-future.

Or that he’s probably kissed more boys than Lisa Simpson.

(Say, he was pretty good at making himself the object of pop-culture references, wasn’t he? Not bad for an intellectual!)

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Ah, Gore Vidal. You were as much of a heavyweight as Bill Buckley was a lightweight.

By: jhertzli

jhertzli — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 06:00:00 +0000

We must not forget Mr. Vidal’s running battle with Ernestine the Operator.

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:56:00 +0000

Buckley growling, “I’ll sock your face in” is priceless, the twit. And for all those who look at Buckley as the Golden Age of the GOP, it was just as disgusting then as it is now, but their grasp of the language was better .

By: rattypilgrim

rattypilgrim — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:52:00 +0000

Mr.Vidal said things most Americans (and it seems British tv hosts) don’t want to hear, but he spoke the truth.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:45:00 +0000

One of my friends recently said that in the first issue of Playboy he ever saw 30 years ago was an interview with Gore Vidal, and he opens a recent issue and there was Gore Vidal again.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:43:00 +0000

I first read Myron when I was about 15. Despite starting with the sequel, the book blew my mind. Not only did the plot make Alice in Wonderland read like a routine trip to the local supermarket, the clever use of replacing 'dirty words' with names of pornography censorship campaigners was an act of whizzer white burgering genius.