I saw that show, don't remember the year, but remember being semimesmerized by seeing brains talk...but went with Vidal though I thought Mr. Buckley commanded words.
I've read a lot of Gore Vidal myself since, and after that got to know - someone who knows him well. And so what, I haven't talked with him myself: - I wouldn't want to now, leave a guy in peace.
Generally I agree with him.
Billy, no one is saying that slavery was not an issue; of course it was. Lincoln, however, was primarily concerned with preserving the Union.
Correct, Letty. Lincoln's primary concern was preserving the Union.
If it had meant keeping slavery, he would have undoubtedly done that. However, the South as exampled by the speech Billy posted was not convinced he wouldn't free all the slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation was a blast across their bow (Lincoln had little to lose at that point) -- the South already had decided that they didn't want to be governed by Lincoln. Has the South really ever changed that much? They gave up on segregation like a snake fighting with an eagle. THe snake lost.
Ossobucco, I would say that threatening to sock someone in the face is very commanding!
no doubt, vidal's "burr" is the best fictional historical biography written, and is quite an eye opener about the first years of the republic, but my favorite work of his is his collected essays, "united states, essays 1952-1992" this work is such a window on US politics and culture of that time as to be a living documentation of america.
i note that the wizard and i agree that our top two liberal writers are chomskyand vidal. and if could have a small dinner party those two, along with richard feynman and joseph campbell would be my guests.
funny about gore vidal, he has predicted just about what has happened in this country and i wish he would ring in with the wrath of an old testament prophet about it, incessently. there are very few people with the reputation (earned) and intellectual and literary abilities to be a vocal force in the debates raging over the heart and soul of america, and gore vidal is at the top of that list.
he is a national treasure, and anyone who called bill buckely a nazi can't be bad at all.
I shall look for those essays.
dlowan, i just pulled the book off my bookshelf. it has 1271 pages of text. it took me a over a month to read and digest it... seems about time to read it again.
"United States," the collection of Vidal essay's is the finest book of analysis of what makes our government tick since the Federalist papers. It's almost a continuation of that document and it is valid criticism of how the kernel of the idea for the United States has been warped and twisted by politicians (also knows as attorneys).
Is Vidal popular in his own land?
He still maintains a U.S. citizenship as far as I know but resides in Rome. Would I like to live in Rome or Paris for a time even if I were a U.S. citizen? Yes.
Vidal/Charlie Rose
I enjoyed the interview tonight. Vidal is still vital and engaging.
I found myself agreeing with all he said. I believe that he is a Libertarian, I could be wrong. Even though I am not a Libertarian, I do agree with many of the concepts. Not the economic ones, however. Vidal has a new book which I will read. I have read several and enjoyed them. It's cool that he is still writing and granting interivews.
Since I contributed to the Howard Dean campaign, I sent an E- Mail to the Dean Campaign urging Dean to utilize Gore Vidal in his campaign. Vidal, as many people know, has been savagely ripping George W. Bush as incompetent and ill-advised.
I would hope the the right wing would let Americans, yes, all Americans( not only the Manhattan crowd or the Rodeo Drive crowd or the lovers under Coit Tower in San Francisco, but all Americans that William F. Buckley wrote to Vidal:
quote:
Please inform Gore Vidal that neither I or my family is disposed to receive lessons in morality from a pink queer.
I really don't know whether George W. Bush feels the same way.
However, we can't be too hard on poor old Gore.
One of the finest literary critics in America- Professor Harold Bloom wrote in his masterpiece tome. "The Western Canon" that
quote
"The historical novel seems to have been permanently devalued. Gore Vidal sonce said to me, with bitter eloquence, that his outspoken sexual orientation had denied him canonical status. What seems likelier is that Vidal's best fictions( except for the sublimely outrageous Myra Breckenridge) are distinguished historical novels - Lincoln, Burr and several more, but this subgenre is no longer available for canonization...History writing and narrative fiction have come apart and our sensibilities seem no longer to accomodate them one to the other."
end of quote
That may very well be why, Gore, the poor dear, is so bitchy. He feels he has been neglected. What he doesn't realize is that many people would not read his books, as good as they are, because some of the suspicious people fear that they will acquire some dread disease merely by touching his books.
How ridiculous!!!
Perhaps in the new world promised by Blatham, Sodomist novelists will be honored above all others.
I apologize. I take back everything I ever said about Gore Vidal. All of the quotes I listed were really nonsense. Buckley and Bloom really don't know anything about Vidal.
Vidal is one of our greatest American patriots and it is a shame that he has not been awarded the Nobel Prize yet/
It is simple a case of homophobia.
I apologize.
Gee, one bad review by one person -- stop being so coy. Your borrowed opinions are clogging up cyberspace.
My goodness...I just saw this thread, and reading through stumbled across...
Quote:Perhaps in the new world promised by Blatham, Sodomist novelists will be honored above all others.
I don't recall making this particular promise, but I admit I am a profligate promiser and hence, easily forget many (I'm bi-directional in my profligacy). So, either if I did not make such a promise, or did but have forgotten, I'd like to formalize it here now.
It's called being significant by your absence, blatham. The all pure and pristine have so decreed.
Pure and pristine. Did I tell you? Several months ago, a school bus pulled up to the front door of the hotel across the street. Clamboring out, in high giggle, came 30 or so teenage girls dressed all in white - blouses, sweaters, skirts, socks, shoes...all white, ponytails and bangs flouncy and shining in the morning sun. I suppose it was a choir, but it looked ever so much like a shipment of virgins.
And how would one manage quality control on such a delivery?
Not by preaching to the choir.
Quality control?!
That's like winning a lottery and wondering 'where did this money come from?'
I think someone needs to read some reviews of Buckley's "novels."
