-Caveat Lector-
Difficult to imagine Timothy McVeigh and his interest in Gore Vidal.
Once years ago Buckley and Vidal got into a public argument - Buckley
called Gore a "queer son-of-a-bitch", after Vidal goaded him into
reacting. Gore Vidal was a homosexual and wasn ot offended by the
remark.
So why Gore Vidal? From Turner Diaries to Gore Vidal? Maybe McVeigh
should have read a little less Vidal and a little more of a great work
called Crime and Punishment.
Gore Vidal liked to shock people; he held the American people in
contempt which was obvious, but then so did McVeigh.
After all it appears in the end McVeigh was just another Oswald who
considered himself superior to the American "sheeple"?????
So McVeigh was his own executioner but wonder, must wonder if he was a
latlent homosexual hence the curious interest in Gore Vidal .....
Makes one wonder if there was a little bit of Gore in McVeigh -
Saba
Credits and feedback
Gore (Eugene Luther) Vidal (1925-) - Original name Eugene Luther Vidal -
Detective novels under the pseudonym Edgar Box
Prolific American novelist, playwright, and essayist, one of the great
stylists of contemporary American prose, who has been active in
politics. Vidal made his debut as novelist with WILLIWAW at the age of
19, while still in US Army uniform.
"One understands of course why the role of the individual in history is
instinctively played down by a would-be egalitarian society. We are,
quite naturally, afraid of being victimized by reckless adventurers. To
avoid this we have created a myth of the ineluctable mass
('other-directedness') which governs all. Science, we are told, is not a
matter of individual inquiry but of collective effort. Even the surface
storminess of our elections disguises a fundamental indifference to
human personality; if not this man, then that one; it's all the same,
life will go on." (from 'Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars', in
Rocking the Boat, 1963)
Gore Vidal grew accustomed at an early age to a life among political and
social notables. He was born at the military academy in West Point, New
York, where his father was an instructor.
He was raised near Washington, DC, in the house of his grandfather,
Thomas P. Gore, a populist Democrat senator from Oklahoma.
Vidal learned about political life from him and when he was a teenager
he adopted the first name of Gore. Vidal also spent time on the Virginia
estate of his stepfather, Hugh. D. Auchincloss. After graduating from
Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he served on an army supply
ship in the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska.
Much of his time in the Enlisted Reserve Corps he devoted to writing.
Upon his discharge he worked for six months for the publishing firm of
E.P. Dutton. From 1947 to 1949 Vidal lived in Antigua, Guatemala. His
first novel, Williwaw, was based on his wartime experiences as first
mate on Freight Ship 35 in the Alaskan Harbour Craft Detachment. The
conventional seafaring story was written in the spirit Ernest Hemingway.
The novel was praised by the critics like the following books, although
THE CITY AND THE PILLAR (1948) shocked the public with its homosexual
main character. However, he became known as a serious writer at the age
of 21, and the novel also 'broke the mold' of gay American fiction.
The book was reissued in 1965 with a different ending. THE JUDGEMENT OF
PARIS (1953) was about a young man travelling with jet-set and wondering
how to satisfy his own part-cynical, part-romantic outlook. Several of
his following novels did not gain critical approval and Vidal started to
write plays for television, motion pictures and stage. Among his
best-known works from the 1950s is VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET (prod. first
for television in 1955).
In the 1960s Vidal returned to the literary scene by producing
historical or contemporary novels, including JULIAN (1964), written in
the form of a journal by the eponymous Roman emperor,
WASHINGTON, D.C. (1967), a political thriller spanning the years
1937-52, BURR (1974), in which its title character rises above the other
Founding Fathers, 1876 (1976), DULUTH (1983), and LINCOLN (1984), a
carefully reconstructed account of the life of the US president, who is
"almost diabolically unknowable in his use of power". CREATION (1981)
was the memoir of an imaginary grandson of Zoroaster who travels the
world in the service of Persian kings and plays with the ideas of
Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Anaxagoras and other thinkers. In LIVE FROM
GOLGOTHA (1992) Vidal portrayed events in the Bible as though they were
reported on television. Among Vidal's finest works are two novels which
deal with power and sex. MYRA BRECKENRIDGE (1968) was a transsexual
comedy parodying the cult of the Hollywood film star, dedicated to
Christopher Isherwood. Its sequel, MYRON, appeared in 1974. Myra is a
feminist and her alternate self, Myron, is her mirror image and bitter
antagonist.
The hero of Washington, D.C., Peter Sandford, apperared again in THE
GOLDEN AGE (2000), in which the reader meets a number of real,
historical people, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Alsop, Tennessee Williams,
and the author himself. '"Vidal's big sprawling novel about America's
transformation during and after World War II coats its ethical inquiries
with plenty of narrative sweeteners: the sweep of history, celebrity
walk-ons, conspiracy theories and reams of conversation, much of it
witty, some lumbering.
But the issue of power and who should hold it is never far form the
surface. Sanford confronts the scheming and ambitious Congressman Clay
Overbury, who also appeared in Washington, D.C., and asks, "Why must you
be President?" To Overbury, the answer is obvious: "Some people are
meant to be. Some are not. Obviously you're not."' (Curtis Ellis in
Time, Nov. 6, 2000)
As the grandson of the politician, T.P. Gore Vidal has been active in
liberal politics. In 1960 he ran unsuccessfully for the US Congress as a
Democratic-Liberal candidate in New York. Between 1970 and 1972 he was
co-chairman of the left-leaning People's Party. In 1982 Vidal launched
campaign in California for the US senate. He came second out of a field
of nine, polling half a million votes.
"Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies."
In the 1960s and 1970s Vidal lived in Italy and appeared as himself in
Fellini's Roma (1972). Vidal's house in Ravello, La Rondinaia, is
perched 60 m above the Amalfi coast. During the Reagan years, Vidal
published a collection of essays, ARMAGEDDON (1987), in which he
explored his love-hate relationship with contemporary America.
In 1994 Vidal co-starred with Tim Robbins in the film Bob Roberts. His
collected essays, UNITED STATES (1993), won a National Book Award. It is
a valuable introduction for those interested in American politics and
literature. In PALIMPSEST (1995) Vidal wrote of his early life and
friends, among them President Kennedy's family.
"Yet the myth that JFK was a philosopher-king will continue as long as
the Kennedys remain in politics. And much of the power they exert over
the national imagination is a direct result of the ghastliness of what
happened at Dallas. But the though the world's grief and shock were
genuine, they were not entirely for JFK himself.
[SABA NOTE: William Manchester used this idea in his work Death of a
President - the ritual sacrifice of the hero but he gave credit where
credit was due - The King Must Die]
The death of a young leader necessarily strikes an atavistic chord. For
thousands of years the man-god was sacrificed to ensure with blood the
harvest, and there is always an element of ecstasy as well as awe in our
collective guilt." (Vidal in 'The Holy Family', from Collected Essays,
1974)
As an essayist Vidal has dealt with a wide range of subjects from
literary to issues of national interest, and people he has known.
Vidal's family have provided him with a wealth of material, starting
from his maternal grandfather, former senator Thomas Pryor Gore and his
relation to Jackie Kennedy through one of his mother's marriages. Vidal
has also met and worked with prominent people, using freely these
connections in his essays.
Readers learn the habits of such persons as John F. Kennedy - 'not much
interested in giving pleasure to his partner - Henry James, Tennessee
Williams, Ana�s Nin, and many others. He once Ronald Reagan as "a
triumph of the embalmer's art." Often Vidal has been pointedly
controversial, as when he supported legalization of illegal drugs, on
the bases that it would remove the Mafia from the drug market. In Prague
Vidal attacked in the spring of 2001 his home country's bureaucracy,
health care, and educational system and so fiercely that V�clav Klaus,
Chairman of the Czech Parliament, considered it improper.
For further reading: Gore Vidal by Fred Kaplan (2000); Gore Vidal: A
Critical Companion by Susan Baker (1997); Gore Vidal by Robert F.
Kiernan (1982); Gore Vidal, or, A Vision from a Particular Position by
Stephen Macaulay (1982); Views from a Window by R.J. Stanton (1980); The
Apostate Angel by Bernard F. Dick
(1974); Gore Vidal by R.L. White (1968) - Suomeksi julkaistu my�s
kolme novellia kokoelmassa Naiset kirjastossa ja muita kertomuksia
(1986). -
Trivia: Vidal's attack on sexual norms have brought him into conflict
with such macho writers as Norman Mailer. - According to some sources
(Ruumiinkulttuuri 2/1993: Pentti Kirstil�...) Vidal has always wanted
to be the President of the United States. - James A. Michener on Vidal:
"Gore Vidal, who wrote Williwaw at only nineteen, was another whose
early book could well have been his last, but instead he wrote a series
of books that varied in subject matter from the critical days of early
Christianity to the dramatic eras of American history to outrageous
sexual games.
I envy him two novels on whose subjects I also did a great deal of work:
Julian, which deals with the apostate who tried to turn back
Christianity in ancient Antiochea, and 1876, which covers the amazing
incident in American history that year when the Republican Rutherford B.
Hayes stole the presidential election from the Democrat Samuel J.Tilden.
Vidal knows how to make the most of his material, whatever the source,
and I would have been proud to have written either these books I've
cited." (from The World is My Home, 1992)
Selected bibliography:
Williwaw, 1946
In a Yellow Wood, 1947
City and the Pillar, 1948
The Season of Comfort, 1949
Dark Green, Bright Red, 1950
A Search for the King, 1950
The Judgement of Paris, 1953
Messiah, 1955
Visit to a Small Planet, 1955
The Catered Affair, 1956 (film script)
The Left-Handed Gun (teleplay basis only)
I Accuse!, 1958 (film script) - based on Dreyfus affair, SEE: �mile
Zola
A Thirsty Evil, 1958
The Scapegoat, 1959 (film script - based on novel by Daphne du Maurier)
Suddenly Last Summer, 1959 (film script)
The Best Man,1960 (play)
Rocking the Boat, 1962
On the March to the Sea, 1962 (play)
Romulus, 1963 (play)
Rocking the Boat, 1963
Julian, 1964
Is Paris Burning? 1966 (film script)
Washington D.C., 1967
Sex, Death, and Money, 1968
Myra Breckinridge, 1968 - suom. Myra
Reflections upon a Sinking Ship, 1969
The Last of the Mobile Hotshots, 1969 (also: Blood Kin, film script,
dir. by Sidney Lumet, based on Tennessee Williams�s play)
Myra Breckinridge, 1970 (novel basis only)
Two Sisters, 1970
Homage to Daniel Shays, 1972
An Evening with Richard Nixon, 1972
Burr, 1974
Collected Essays, 1974
Great American Families, 1975 (with others)
Matters of Fact and Fiction, 1977
Caligula, 1977 (film script)
Kalki, 1978
Sex is Politcs and Vice Versa, 1979
Creation, 1980
The Second American Revolution, 1982
Duluth, 1983
Pink Triangle and Yellow Star, 1982
Lincoln, 1984
Empire, 1987
At Home, 1988
Armageddon? 1987
Hollywood, 1989
A View from the Diners Club, 1991
Screening History, 1992
Live from Golgatha, 1992
Screening History, 1993
United States: Essays 1952-1992, 1993
Palimpsest, 1995
The Smithsonian Institution, 1998
Gore Vidal Sexually Speaking, 1999 (ed. by Donald Weise)
The Essential Gore Vidal, 1999 (ed. by Fred Kaplan)
The Golden Age, 2000
Film scripts & detective novels: Tennessee Willams: SUDDENLY LAST
SUMMER, 1958 - �kki� viime kes�n� - film 1959, dir. by Joseph L.
Mankiewicz, script Gore Vidal - IS PARIS BURNING? - film 1965, dir. by
Ren� Cl�ment, written by Francis Ford Coppola and Gore Vidal, based
on international bestseller Paris, br�le-t-il? by Larry Collins and
Dominique Lapierre - In the 1950s Vidal published three detective novels
under the name of Edgar Box, which didn't gain any kind of success, from
critics or readers.
DEATH IN THE FIFTH POSITION, 1952
DEATH BEFORE BEDTIME, 1953
DEATH LIKES IT HOT, 1954
� 2000
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