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There are three definite things you could say about Gore Vidal. First, he was a tremendous writer; second, he was brilliant; third, and most importantly perhaps, he was interesting.
Author, playwright, politician and commentator Gore Vidal, whose vast and sharpened range of published works and public remarks were stamped by his immodest wit and unconventional wisdom, died Tuesday at age 86 in Los Angeles.
He was also a voice well-ahead of this time — which would have been well suited for this one:
Vidal made his living — a very good living — from challenging power, not holding it. He was wealthy and famous and committed to exposing a system often led by men he knew firsthand. During the days of Franklin Roosevelt, one of the few leaders whom Vidal admired, he might have been called a “traitor to his class.” The real traitors, Vidal would respond, were the upholders of his class.
And then there was this.
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Gore was also in one of my favorite movies, “Gattaca.”
A life well lived.
Gore Vidal, you will be MISSED! How I loved to see his acidic intelligence making so-called journalists crawl back under the corporate table with their fatuous falsehoods in tatters. He was too big, too informed, too compassionate, and too honest for any of them. And everything about Gore Vidal that America could not stomach will remain a painful measure of the ignorant, vicious, myopic consumer-dwarves that Americans have become.
Good morning, pups. Today we have Dowd and Friedman. MoDo loves alliteration. In “Gadding of a Gawky Gowk” she addresses The Marble Man: Wherever Mitt goes, whatever he does, he’s always posing as a statue of himself. The Moustache of Wisdom has a question: “Why Not in Vegas?” He says Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel shows just how much of a wedge issue the Republican Party has made of Israel. It also shows what a gaffemeister Mittens is.
Here they are.
The coffee and tea are ready, the cold drinks are in the fridge, and I’ve got a variety of bagels with cream cheese. Just in case anyone was in doubt about what Mittens said about the Palestinians (and his campaign has been trying to spin that all away) he’s doubled down and put his name to a thing called Culture Does Matter. WARNING — the link will take you to NRO and you’ll likely lose about 150 brain cells just by clicking. You’ll lose 500 more if you actually get out of the boat and read the thing. Have a great day.
Thanks, atta, the world’s a better place for Gore Vidal, which is something that can’t be said about many lives of the wealthy.
The radical right is usually able to mau-mau Obama into acting like a moderate Republican. But this doubling down is more proof they’ll mau-mau Rmoney into acting just as insane as them.
A big difference.
Thanks, Marion. He’d said the same culture stuff in written text earlier, too, no doubt it’s been his line on the difference in profit – between being born Israeli when dominant in the country and being born Palestinian in some one else’s country – for some time.
I read it. Only person losing brain cells is Mitt. But that story won’t hurt him. Arabs=bad, Israel=God, America=Superior. Just what his base wants to hear.
Boxturtle (I’m wondering if Mitt would be able to work with any country besides Israel)
There’re a scary number of nations that don’t think Israel is culturally worthy to dominate them. This could go badly.
Like Mel Gibson’s anti Semitic rants, Gore Vidal’s defense of Roman Polanski kinda ruined him for me.
’1876′ formed my opinion of him, didn’t give a lot of attention to his various quoted press statements, which were always outrageous. Unlike, say, the Cheneys, he liked to break with convention.
Vidal was full of glorious rage, and he expressed it so sharply, so entertainingly. It must’ve felt good to be hated by all the right people.
He has no literary successor. No one has his combination of bite, style, and wit married to an unimpeachable moral anchor.
Do yourselves a favor and read him. His essays are among the best by anyone over the last century. His novels are wry fun.
Other than us, what nations also think that Israel is worthy of culture dominance?
Boxturtle (Would love to see a debate on culture between Iran and less than 100 year old Israel)
Gibson’s body of work is insignificant, Vidal’s titanic. One doesn’t have to like or agree with everything he said to appreciate him. To dismiss him over something like that is petty. Besides, his defense of Polanski wasn’t even unreasonable.
Breaking with convention is one thing and mostly something to be desired but defending a child molester is, at least in my mind, not merely breaking with convention. Oh well. I can’t help how I feel, just how I react to it.
Gotta go to work.
And calling people you don’t know names isn’t? Biting my tongue hard right now.
REALLY hard…
Rmoney’s scripts are pathetic, if you don’t think about how this would affect your own life should voters wind up with him as leader of the ‘Free World’.
I dismiss ChickFilA over its choice of customer base, while no doubt its total work is significant too in some way. Okay, I’m being silly.
Yeah, I’ve been noticing that. Rmoney’s political ads in Ohio are weak at best, but the RNC ads seem very effective as does one of his superpac ads.
Boxturtle (this is another thing Rmoney has in common with Obama)
Do not think that any of us really thought so little of voters that we considered Raygun electable. (Cue spooky music.)
Raygun is running?!? Obama has just lost my vote!
Boxturtle (I said I’d support anyone to the left of Obama with a ghost of a chance)
Gore Vidal had guts and was a great political stick in the eye of the 1%ers. He knew the rich for what they are; spoiled, rotten, selfish, corrupt a-holes for the most part. Their inside-the-club business deals have destroyed the country twice and Gore was able to live long enough to point this out both times. He didn’t ” buy ” Economic Predestination and become a pariah to the people he knew best. The only type of traitor we should honor, btw. The phony marriage of bad religion and bad economic policy suffered his accurately aimed, nasty retorts. He knew the smell of the elites and knew it didn’t fit the vision of this country’s official paper work. Good for Gore Vidal. A true American anti-hero from the smart set. RIP, Gore.
RIP Gore Vidal. I read “Burr” as a bored HS junior in 1979 and started thinking about politics for the 1st time thanks to that book (and GV). His role in “Bob Roberts” was great.
Any nominees to replace GV?????
GV became famous thanks to his intellect and excellent delivery of his thoughts while on the national stage (which he did not occupy frequently enough to suit me). He was anti-Kardashian before Kardashian in that his intellect gave us a legitimate reason to listen.
It probably pained him to see the premise of Bob Roberts come true (the stupid elected in mass numbers, supported by the stupid masses, better known as tea-baggers). I’m sure he hoped Santorum would be the exception and not the rule in American politics.
Margaret has a point about Vidal and his defense of Polanski. It pained me, as well. That said, I cannot dismiss Vidal in total. RIP, Gore Vidal. You will be seriously missed, esp in this pathetic day & age, where intellect is decried & ignorant stupidity is King (the better to be manipulated & brainwashed).
Okay, I said his defense of Polanski “kinda ruined him for me”. Donald B characterized it as a dismissal, not me. Please don’t assume that person’s comments are my opinion.