An article that's making the rounds.

[uberreiniger]

Gore Vidal: Portrait of an American Douchebag.

For a guy who dismisses other writers as self-glorifying ol' Gore sure seems to have an inflated view of his own opinions. I don't disagree with him on things like Afghannistan or Conservativism, but I have serious issues with his entire attitude, not to mention his palling around with Timothy McVeigh.

Comments

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

but...but...he says 'fascism' like it's a bad thing....


Though to be honest, I've always considered Gore Vidal to be the guy who drives through the bad neighborhood and clucks his tongue saying "This is terrible. We need to do something!" then returns to his penthouse apartment for brunch. He was born rich, he will die rich, and he's been privileged his entire life, yet he thinks he knows the American people.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

No, Gore Vidal wasn't privileged - he comes from a black city. He totally gets the plight of those people. And because he watched his boyfriend die on Iwo Jima he is totally in touch with what Americans think about Swedes. Don't fuck with Gore Vidal because he'll just say "no sex" and make you collate his photographs.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

As he gets older he has the absolute STRANGEST mixture of libertarian and liberal attitudes in a way that is more than slightly incoherent. (And I say that being somewhat sympathetic to both, as you know).

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I think he's a lot like Orson Scott Card and Harlan Ellison: a decent novelist who has managed to extend his notoriety beyond his chosen literary sphere by being shocking and opinionated. Card and Ellison being genre writers don't make a lot of waves, but because he's the Great Gore Vidal, Master of the Great American Novel screeds like this get press time.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

Very trure. Although you could sort of say the same sort of thing about me, although I am not important (yet).

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Fine, you be Vidal and I'll be Ellison, although hopefully with fewer lawsuits :)

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

I want to be Ellison, but you don't hate gay people enough to be Card. Vidal would never tolerate the fact that even though I am pretentious literary poet, I still love horror and sci-fi genre fiction. And write it.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Well at the rate I'm going I'm more likely to be Kilgore Trout than anyone else and strangely, I'm okay with that too.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

Why Kilgore Trout?

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I anticipate being poor and obscure but hopefully people in bizarre, apocalyptic scenarios will derive great meaning from my work :)

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

Oh. I could only dream!