GORE VIDAL October 3, 1925 - July 31, 2012
The recent untimely passing away of Gore Vidal represents the cliched but no less true passing away of an era. Witty, acerbic, a thorn in the side of amoral slick entrepreneurs in all domains, he was never at a loss for words even when he was physically knocked to the ground. When a writer of the same caliber, Norman Mailer physically knocked him down during a purely verbal argument at a party, Gore Vidal responded "Once again words fail Norman Mailer." Ouch! As Mailer recalled later, the two writers had a "bad marriage" kind of relationship - they were simultaneously cruel and kind to each other.
In his role as a social critic, like C. Wright Mills, he believed in lucidly getting to the heart of the matter. Mills' scorn for "theory" unhinged from the real world is well known. Vidal mastery of words - in speech and writing - was deployed for dealing with substantial issues rather than wit and humour as ends in themselves. Not surprisingly, he admired Christopher Hitchens and even saw him as his intellectual successor of sorts until the contrarian decided to contradict and repudiated whatever he had stood for in the past.
RIP (ie. Return If Possible)
Some memorable interviews of Gore Vidal:
Gore Vidal on Democracy Now
Gore Vidal on Democracy Now part 2
Gore Vidal and William Buckley
Gore Vidal on CBC
Gore Vidal on CBC part 2
gore vidal on hard talk bbc
Gore Vidal Hard Talk BBC part 2
Gore Vidal
vidal and mailer insult each other
The recent untimely passing away of Gore Vidal represents the cliched but no less true passing away of an era. Witty, acerbic, a thorn in the side of amoral slick entrepreneurs in all domains, he was never at a loss for words even when he was physically knocked to the ground. When a writer of the same caliber, Norman Mailer physically knocked him down during a purely verbal argument at a party, Gore Vidal responded "Once again words fail Norman Mailer." Ouch! As Mailer recalled later, the two writers had a "bad marriage" kind of relationship - they were simultaneously cruel and kind to each other.
In his role as a social critic, like C. Wright Mills, he believed in lucidly getting to the heart of the matter. Mills' scorn for "theory" unhinged from the real world is well known. Vidal mastery of words - in speech and writing - was deployed for dealing with substantial issues rather than wit and humour as ends in themselves. Not surprisingly, he admired Christopher Hitchens and even saw him as his intellectual successor of sorts until the contrarian decided to contradict and repudiated whatever he had stood for in the past.
RIP (ie. Return If Possible)
Some memorable interviews of Gore Vidal:
Gore Vidal on Democracy Now
Gore Vidal on Democracy Now part 2
Gore Vidal and William Buckley
Gore Vidal on CBC
Gore Vidal on CBC part 2
gore vidal on hard talk bbc
Gore Vidal Hard Talk BBC part 2
Gore Vidal
vidal and mailer insult each other
If Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer have a fight in heaven, who will win?
ReplyDeleteprobably vidal...physical punches do not exist in heaven...words will probably yet again mailer. just a hunch!
ReplyDelete