Gore Vidal U.K. Independent article

[SFG75]

A pretty good read about the devil himself. I was surprised to learn of his state of health, but we all get older....obviously.

 

[mehastings]

Thanks for pointing out this article. I wish it had been longer. I have to say that I think Gore Vidal is one of the most interesting living Americans.

 

[Shade]

Thanks for the link, SFG. I didn't know he was confined to a wheelchair now. I remember being incredibly disappointed when he cancelled a talk he was due to give as part of our local arts festival about ten years ago. Still, physical infirmity hasn't dulled his senses:

"Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror, but that is a metaphor, though I doubt if he knows what that means. It's like having a war on dandruff, it's endless and pointless. We are in a dictatorship that has been totally militarised, everyone is spied on by the government itself. All three arms of the government are in the hands of this junta.


"Whatever you are," he goes on, "they say you are the reverse. The men behind the war in Iraq are cowards who did not fight in Vietnam - but they spent millions of dollars proving that John Kerry, who was a genuine war hero whatever you think of his politics, was a coward.

"This is what happens when you have control of the media, and I have never known the media more vicious, stupid and corrupt than they are now."

I'll have to reread his memoir Palimpsest soon. Excellent book.

 

[SFG75]

I'll have to reread his memoir Palimpsest soon. Excellent book.

I really enjoyed Burr immensely. A great work of historical fiction if there ever was one. I read it a year ago and I still remember it detail by detail. I was quite struck with how he also did research on the minor figures associated with Aaron Burr and how he was able to weave in the different disagreements over things like taxes and important bills at the time. Palimpsest would definitely be an interesting read. I'll have to look into that next month......by the time the wife forgets our amazon.com bill.

 

[Shade]

Reading to the end of the article (which I hadn't when I posted earlier), I see he has written a new volume of memoirs, which is something to look forward to. I haven't read any of his fiction though.

 

[SFG75]

Wikipedia has an extensive write up on Gore Vidal, especially on the part where he and William F. Buckley Jr. get into it. I've seen a video of the two nearly getting into a fight, but the rest of the details is quite interesting. Here's some interesting commentary on the matter.

ABC News hired Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. as analysts for the 1968 Republican and Democratic presidential coventions, predicting that viewers would enjoy seeing two men famous for their acerbic wit and sarcasm engage in verbal combat on-air. Verbal combat was definitely joined, and very nearly physical combat as well. After days of bickering that often devolved into childish "ad hominem" attacks on both sides, Vidal referred to Buckley as a "pro-crypto Nazi," to which Buckley, visibly livid, riposted thusly: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a pro-crypto Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered." Buckley apologized to Vidal in a lengthy essay published in Esquire magazine in August 1969, entitled "On Experiencing Gore Vidal" (anthologized in The Governor Listeth, a collection of Buckley's writings from the period). In a key passage that attacked Vidal as an apologist for homosexuality, Buckley wrote that "the man who in his essays proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher."

The September 1969 edition of Esquire included a response by Vidal, in which Vidal variously characterized Buckley as "anti-black," "anti-semitic," and a "warmonger." The presiding judge in what became Buckley's subsequent libel suit against Vidal initially concluded that "[t]he court must conclude that Vidal's comments in these paragraphs meet the minimal standard of fair comment. The inferences made by Vidal from Buckley's [earlier editorial] statements cannot be said to be completely unreasonable." However, Vidal also heavily implied that Buckley and/or unnamed members of his family had vandalized a church in their hometown of Sharon, Connecticut, in 1944 after the wife of the pastor sold a home to a Jewish family. Buckley sued Vidal and Esquire magazine for libel, and Vidal counterclaimed for libel against Buckley, citing Buckley's characterization of Vidal's novel Myra Breckenridge as "pornography." Vidal's claim was dismissed by the court, and Buckley eventually settled for $115,000 in attorney's fees and a statement from Esquire magazine that they were "utterly convinced" of the untruthfulness of Vidal's assertion. However, in a letter to Newsweek, the publisher of Esquire stated that "the settlement of Buckley's suit against us" was not "a 'disavowal' of Vidal's article. On the contrary, it clearly states that we published that article because we believed that Vidal had a right to assert his opinions, even though we did not share them." As one of Vidal's biographers, Fred Kaplan, later commented, "The court had not sustained Buckley's case against Esquire. . .The court had not ruled that Vidal's article was 'defamatory.' It had ruled that the case would have to go to trial in order to determine as a matter of fact whether or not it was defamatory. [Italics in original.] The cash value of the settlement with Esquire represented only Buckley's legal expenses [as opposed to damages based on libel]. . . ." Vidal ultimately bore his own attorney's fees, estimated at $75,000.

The entire affair surfaced again in 2003 when Esquire imprudently published Esquire's Big Book of Great Writing, an anthology that included Vidal's libelous essay. Buckley again sued for libel, and Esquire again settled for $55,000 in attorney's fees and $10,000 in damages to Buckley personally.

Wikipedia link