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defrogI guess I should say something about Gore Vidal, who passed away last week, seeing as how I have some of his books on my shelf.
Granted, I don’t have very many of them. Just four, to be exact – two novels (Live From Golgotha and The Smithsonian Institution, both of which I’d recommend) and two of his post-9/11 books (Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated and Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, both of which I’d recommend if only to start an argument).
I’d already read the novels before reading the other two, and I admit his 9/11 material seems somewhat paranoid and overdone in retrospect. And while I appreciate the balls it took to portray Timothy McVeigh in a more realistic manner, comparing him to Dwight Eisenhower was admittedly pushing it.
Still, some of Vidal’s viewpoints were more dead on than most people wanted to admit then and now, and I admired the fact that he raised some uncomfortable truths about the true nature of the War On Terror and America’s role in the world at a time when no one really wanted to hear them.
Respect.
Undoubtedly, some conservatives will always put him down as being the very embodiment of the Liberal Intellectual Elite® that they hate so much. I can see a case for that. On the other hand, considering that modern conservatives have long since replaced their own intellectual elite with loud-mouthed hotheads and dingbats with a complete disregard for facts who just make shit up off the tops of their heads, I can't say being classified as Liberal Intellectual Elite® is a bad thing.
Anyway, in terms of Vidal’s novels, I probably should read more of him than I have. The problem is most of his work is historical fiction, which is not a favorite genre of mine. But a lot of people have recommended Lincoln and Burr and a few others. Maybe one day I’ll get around to them.
I should mention one other thing about Vidal that interests me – the fact that he was a bona fide celebrity, as the AP notes:
This is true. As a kid, I remember hearing about Vidal and seeing him on talk shows all the time, as well as Capote, even though I had no idea what they wrote. Which gets me to thinking how many writers you can say that about today. I can’t really think of any writer who has attained such a level of celebrity that they have become as much a fixture on the E! channel as, say, Brad and Angelina. Or Lady Gaga. Or J.Lo. Or that person from Jersey Shore. Or Miley Lohan. Or whoever.
Granted, we have Twitter, Facebook and blogs now, so “celebrity” can be defined a little more narrowly. Still, it’s not exactly the same thing. And maybe I’m waxing nostalgic here, but it does suggest to me that we used to have more regard for writers in Vidal’s heyday as part of the mainstream pop-culture landscape than we do now.
Man of letters,
This is dF
Granted, I don’t have very many of them. Just four, to be exact – two novels (Live From Golgotha and The Smithsonian Institution, both of which I’d recommend) and two of his post-9/11 books (Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated and Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, both of which I’d recommend if only to start an argument).
I’d already read the novels before reading the other two, and I admit his 9/11 material seems somewhat paranoid and overdone in retrospect. And while I appreciate the balls it took to portray Timothy McVeigh in a more realistic manner, comparing him to Dwight Eisenhower was admittedly pushing it.
Still, some of Vidal’s viewpoints were more dead on than most people wanted to admit then and now, and I admired the fact that he raised some uncomfortable truths about the true nature of the War On Terror and America’s role in the world at a time when no one really wanted to hear them.
Respect.
Undoubtedly, some conservatives will always put him down as being the very embodiment of the Liberal Intellectual Elite® that they hate so much. I can see a case for that. On the other hand, considering that modern conservatives have long since replaced their own intellectual elite with loud-mouthed hotheads and dingbats with a complete disregard for facts who just make shit up off the tops of their heads, I can't say being classified as Liberal Intellectual Elite® is a bad thing.
Anyway, in terms of Vidal’s novels, I probably should read more of him than I have. The problem is most of his work is historical fiction, which is not a favorite genre of mine. But a lot of people have recommended Lincoln and Burr and a few others. Maybe one day I’ll get around to them.
I should mention one other thing about Vidal that interests me – the fact that he was a bona fide celebrity, as the AP notes:
Along with such contemporaries as Norman Mailer and Truman Capote, Vidal was among the last generation of literary writers who were also genuine celebrities fixtures on talk shows and in gossip columns, personalities of such size and appeal that even those who hadn't read their books knew who they were.
This is true. As a kid, I remember hearing about Vidal and seeing him on talk shows all the time, as well as Capote, even though I had no idea what they wrote. Which gets me to thinking how many writers you can say that about today. I can’t really think of any writer who has attained such a level of celebrity that they have become as much a fixture on the E! channel as, say, Brad and Angelina. Or Lady Gaga. Or J.Lo. Or that person from Jersey Shore. Or Miley Lohan. Or whoever.
Granted, we have Twitter, Facebook and blogs now, so “celebrity” can be defined a little more narrowly. Still, it’s not exactly the same thing. And maybe I’m waxing nostalgic here, but it does suggest to me that we used to have more regard for writers in Vidal’s heyday as part of the mainstream pop-culture landscape than we do now.
Man of letters,
This is dF
