In the essay anthology Armageddon Vidal explored the intricacies of power political and cultural in the contemporary U. His criticism of the incumbent U. President, Ronald Reagan , as a "triumph of the embalmer's art" communicated that Reagan's provincial worldview , and that of his administration's, was out of date and inadequate to the geopolitical realities of the world in the late twentieth century. According to the citation, "Whatever his subject, he addresses it with an artist's resonant appreciation, a scholar's conscience and the persuasive powers of a great essayist.
Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta and Imperial America , critiques of American expansionism, the military-industrial complex , the national security state and the George W. Vidal also wrote a historical essay about the U. In , he published a memoir Palimpsest and in its follow-up volume, Point to Point Navigation. Earlier that year, Vidal had published Clouds and Eclipses: The Collected Short Stories. Because of his matter-of-fact treatment of same-sex relations in such books as The City and The Pillar , Vidal is often seen as an early champion of sexual liberation.
We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality.
Notice I use the word 'natural,' not normal.
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In , he won the annual Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation , which called him a "prominent social critic on politics, history, literature and culture". In , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer hired Gore Vidal as a screenplay writer with a four-year employment contract. In , the director William Wyler required a script doctor to rewrite the screenplay for Ben-Hur , originally written by Karl Tunberg. As one of several script doctors assigned to the project, Vidal rewrote portions of the script to resolve ambiguities of character motivation, specifically to clarify the enmity between the Jewish protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur and the Roman antagonist, Messala, who had been close boyhood friends.
In exchange for rewriting the Ben-Hur screenplay, on location in Italy, Vidal negotiated the early termination at the two-year mark of his four-year contract with MGM. Thirty-six years later, in the documentary film The Celluloid Closet , Vidal explained that Messala's failed attempt at resuming their homosexual, boyhood relationship motivated the ostensibly political enmity between Ben-Hur Charlton Heston and Messala Stephen Boyd , that Boyd was aware of the homosexual subtext to the scene and that the director, the producer and the screenplay writer agreed to keep Heston ignorant of the subtext, lest he refuse to play the scene.
Two plays, The Best Man: A Play about Politics , made into a film in and Visit to a Small Planet were theatre and movie successes; Vidal occasionally returned to the movie business, and wrote historically accurate teleplays and screenplays about subjects important to him. Two such movies are the cowboy movie Billy the Kid , about William H. Bonney a gunman in the Lincoln County War , occurred in the New Mexico territory and later an outlaw in the Western frontier of the U.
As a public intellectual, Gore Vidal was identified with the liberal politicians and the progressive social causes of the old Democratic Party. Ernest Wharton , by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent. In , he campaigned against Jerry Brown , the incumbent Governor of California, in the Democratic primary election for the U. Senate; Vidal forecast accurately that the opposing Republican candidate would win the election.
He concluded that McVeigh a politically disillusioned U. Army had mistreated the Iraqis. Roosevelt provoked Imperial Japan to attack the U. He contended that Roosevelt had advance knowledge of the dawn-raid attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, To change the balance of power in the world. To declare war on communism. Perhaps we were starting a pre-emptive world war". As a public intellectual, Vidal criticized what he viewed as political harm to the nation and the voiding of the citizen's rights through the passage of the USA Patriot Act during the George W.
He described Bush as "the stupidest man in the United States" and said that Bush's foreign policy was explicitly expansionist. Vidal became a member of the board of advisors of The World Can't Wait , a political organization who sought to publicly repudiate the foreign-policy program of the Bush Administration — and advocated Bush's impeachment for war crimes , such as the Second Iraq War — and torturing prisoners of war soldiers, guerrillas, civilians in violation of international law.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst. Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. Even if they longed to. They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them. In a September 30, interview with The Times of London, Vidal said that there soon would be a dictatorship in the U.
Billy brings out the brat in all of us | The Standard
The newspaper emphasized that Vidal, described as "the Grand Old Man of American belles-lettres ", claimed that America is rotting away — and to not expect Barack Obama to save the country and the nation from imperial decay. In the interview, also up-dated his views of his life, the U. There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.
Despite that, Vidal said, "I think of myself as a conservative", with a proprietary attitude towards the U.
In Vidal sued Truman Capote for slander over the accusation that he had been thrown out of the White House for being drunk, putting his arm around the first lady and then insulting Mrs. After days of bickering, their debates degraded to vitriolic ad hominem attacks. In discussing the Democratic National Convention protests , the public intellectuals argued about the freedom-of-speech-right of American political protesters to display a Viet Cong flag, when Vidal told Buckley to "shut up a minute", after Buckley had interrupted him and in response to Buckley's reference to "pro-Nazi" protesters, said "As far as I'm concerned, the only sort of pro-crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself".
Buckley replied, "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered". Smith and they returned to providing the political analysis and commentary for which they had been hired. Buckley said he regretted having called Gore Vidal "a queer" yet said that Vidal was an "evangelist for bisexuality".
In , in Esquire magazine, Buckley continued his cultural feud with Vidal in the essay "On Experiencing Gore Vidal" August , in which he portrayed Vidal as an apologist for homosexuality; Buckley said, "The man who, in his essays, proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.
Gore Vidal
The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher". The essay is collected in The Governor Listeth: The inferences made by Vidal, from Buckley's [earlier editorial] statements, cannot be said to be completely unreasonable". The feud continued in Esquire and Vidal implied that in , William F. Buckley again sued Vidal and Esquire for libel and Vidal filed a counter-claim for libel against Buckley, citing Buckley's characterization of Myra Breckinridge as a pornographic novel.
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". 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. The cash value of the settlement with Esquire represented 'only' Buckley's legal expenses In , William F.
I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins, forever, those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred. The Buckley-Vidal debates, their aftermath and cultural significance, were the focus of a documentary film called Best of Enemies. Apparently, Mailer's umbrage resulted from Vidal's reference to Mailer having stabbed his wife of the time. In , Gore Vidal was one of thirty-four public intellectuals and celebrities who signed an open-letter addressed to Helmut Kohl , the Chancellor of Germany, published in the International Herald Tribune , protesting the treatment of Scientologists in Germany.
A characteristic of our present chaos is the dramatic migration of tribes. They are on the move from east to west, from south to north. Liberal tradition requires that borders must always be open to those in search of safety, or even the pursuit of happiness. But now, with so many millions of people on the move, even the great-hearted are becoming edgy. Norway is large enough and empty enough to take in 40 to 50 million homeless Bengalis. If the Norwegians say that, all in all, they would rather not take them in, is this to be considered racism?
It is simply self-preservation, the first law of species. Asked his opinion about the arrest of the film director Roman Polanski , in Switzerland, in September , in response to an extradition request by U. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she's been taken advantage of? Asked for elaboration, Vidal explained the cultural temper of the U. The [news] media can't get anything straight.
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Plus, there's usually an anti-Semitic and anti-fag thing going on with the press — lots of crazy things. The idea that this girl was in her communion dress, a little angel, all in white, being raped by this awful Jew Polacko — that's what people were calling him — well, the story is totally different now [] from what it was then [s] Anti-Semitism got poor Polanski. He was also a foreigner. He did not subscribe to American values, in the least. To [his persecutors], that seemed vicious and unnatural.
Asked to explain the term "American values", Vidal replied, "Lying and cheating. In response to Vidal's opinion about the decades-old Polanski rape case, a spokeswoman for the organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests , Barbara Dorris, said, "People should express their outrage, by refusing to buy any of his books", called Vidal a "mean-spirited buffoon" and said that, although "a boycott wouldn't hurt Vidal financially", it would "cause anyone else, with such callous views, to keep his mouth shut, and [so] avoid rubbing salt into the already deep [psychological] wounds of the victims " of sexual abuse.
In April , Vidal accepted appointment to the position of honorary president of the American Humanist Association ; he succeeded the novelist Kurt Vonnegut. In the s, Vidal migrated to Italy, where he befriended the film director Federico Fellini , for whom he appeared in a cameo role as himself in the film Roma He acted in the movies Bob Roberts , a serio-comedy about a reactionary populist politician who manipulates youth culture to win votes; With Honors an Ivy league college-life comedy; Gattaca , a science-fiction drama about genetic engineering ; and Igby Goes Down , a coming-of-age serio-comedy directed by his nephew, Burr Steers.
Veedul, this is the Phone Company calling! Veedle" also appeared in Tomlin's comedy record album This Is a Recording The Homosexuals , in which he expressed his views on homosexuality in the arts. In the s, in the stand-up comedy album Reality In the biographic film Amelia , the child Vidal was portrayed by William Cuddy, a Canadian actor. Vidal also said that he had an intermittent romance with the actress Diana Lynn , and alluded to possibly having fathered a daughter.
Krizan said she found the love letter while researching Mirages , the latest volume of Nin's uncensored diary, to which Krizan wrote the foreword. In , Gore Vidal met Howard Austen , who became his partner for the next 53 years. The Advocate Interviews , by Judy Wiedner, Vidal said that he refused to call himself "gay" because he was not an adjective, adding "to be categorized is, simply, to be enslaved. I have never thought of myself as a victim I've said — a thousand times? In an interview with Esquire in , Gore said "Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality.
Notice I use the word natural, not normal. In the course of his life, Vidal lived at various times in Italy and in the United States. In Vidal began to suffer from Wernicke—Korsakoff syndrome , a brain disorder often caused by alcoholism. The New York Times described him as "an Augustan figure who believed himself to be the last of a breed, and he was probably right. Few American writers have been more versatile, or gotten more mileage from their talent". The Guardian said that "Vidal's critics disparaged his tendency to formulate an aphorism, rather than to argue, finding in his work an underlying note of contempt for those who did not agree with him.
His fans, on the other hand, delighted in his unflagging wit and elegant style". Gore Vidal saw himself as the last of the breed of literary figures who became celebrities in their own right. Never a stranger to chat shows; his wry and witty opinions were sought after as much as his writing. The Killjoy of America , the French newspaper Le Figaro said that the public intellectual Vidal was "the killjoy of America" but that he also was an "outstanding polemicist" who used words "like high-precision weapons".
A Play About Politics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. West Point, New York , U. Los Angeles, California , U. United States Army Air Forces. Retrieved November 7, I Told You So: The Advocate Interviews Advocate Books p. August 25, — via YouTube. Gore Vidal, A Biography". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, Palimpsest , p. Archived from the original on April 14, Retrieved December 31, Archived October 16, , at the Wayback Machine.
The author must have nerves of steel. I released my Dealing with Xlibris, I managed okay - it's a matter of knowing what you want, not taking 'No' for an answer and sticking to your guns. I released my book 'Billy Bratwurst - Eyes on the Prize' in October after a year of wrangling with them, and declining their sales pitches. That allows me to make a 'profit' Ha! Reclaim costs, more like it after all the 'corrections' that I had to make to the illustrations and text through not being specific enough!
As mentioned previously, you must be VERY specific and spell out every little detail to them, and it's a matter of conditioning yourself to take nothing for granted i. Ultimately, you are responsible for what gets printed, and you can't expect any help from Xlibris as they don't care what gets put in the book - they just want your money.
In a nutshell, have your book ready to print when you contact them, and don't ask their help to put it together. Read the fine print of whatever publishing package they put together, and if you take it, remember what is in it - sometimes THEY forget!
I was lucky enough to have a wonderful group of friends and family with great grammar and spelling skills, so I never had to resort to utilizing Xlibris' proof-reading services, for which I am grateful for by the tone of this blog. I will publish with them again, but they still leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I know I will have to go through the same fight again.
I view it more as wrestling a crocodile as opposed to working as a team, but this time I know what I'll be in for, and I'll be ready for it! Feb 10, Jan 03, Search for a book to add a reference. We take abuse seriously in our discussion boards. Only flag comments that clearly need our attention. As a general rule we do not censor any content on the site.
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