I'm not alone

jaguar · 02-01-2002, 07:23 PM

Regardless of whether you agree with me, or not, take a look at this interview wiht Gore Vidal, facinating stuff, particualry towards the end.

Interview
I do love my ABC they do fantstic stuff.

This Washington Post article scared the hell outa me.

Griff · 02-02-2002, 12:46 PM

I really enjoy reading Gores take on events. He really seems to lament the death of the Republic, something you don't get much from American leftists. Its really fascinating to me, that he developed that relationship with McVeigh since, to me anyway, Vidal has always been the voice of the old American aristocracy, while McVeigh was the would be martyr for a rebellion to overthrow our present aristocracy. The Vanity Fair article is definitely worth a read.

Vidal is a lot more complex in outlook than most of our writers. He really seems to like FDR but at the same time recognizes his virtual dictatorship. He lays a lot at the feet of Truman,the rise of the military industrial complex, centralization of industry, and agriculture none of which would have proceeded at the pace it did without FDR priming the Federal pump. I wonder if he gives FDR the benefit of the doubt due to his position in society, while Truman gets nailed for being a merchant. In my own family, I had a grandfather and great uncles who, despite working to unionize farmers, despised FDR as a threat to land ownership and small scale farming generally and just maybe hated him for being an aristocrat, since our had people fled the same in kind of oppressor in Ireland.
Anyway random thoughts on a really good writer whose willingness to go out on a limb is rare and admirable. I wonder what he's written since 911?

02-02-2002, 05:49 PM

The problem with Vidal is that he fudges a lot of his facts. 180 innocents didn't die at Waco - some 83 did. And they <b>did</b> start the fires.

Oops. We'll just make that stuff up 'cause that way it adds to our argument.

That having been said, he's definitely an interesting character, and right about a lot of things.

Griff · 02-03-2002, 09:20 AM

Vidal is willing to present rumor as fact, which is not an unpardonable sin for a novelist. One that come to mind is his portrayal of John Hay as an opium head in his novel Lincoln. We don't know his source(s) for that, unless he revealed it in a later interview. We do know (this is from memory so I could be wrong), from other interviews, that he had relatives in Washington society in the period so he probably had access to the rumor mills of those days.

As far as Waco goes, I don't know who started the fire but I do know that the whole matter reeks of unacknowledged incompetence, which has opened the door to a lot of speculation and apparently to the murders in Ok city.

Nic Name · 02-03-2002, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Griff asked:
I wonder what he's written since 911?

Gore Vidal On September 11.

02-01-2002, 07:23 PM	#1
jaguar whig Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 5,075	I'm not alone Regardless of whether you agree with me, or not, take a look at this interview wiht Gore Vidal, facinating stuff, particualry towards the end. Interview I do love my ABC they do fantstic stuff. This Washington Post article scared the hell outa me. __________________ Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. - Twain Last edited by jaguar; 02-01-2002 at 07:29 PM.

02-02-2002, 12:46 PM	#2
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Vidal I really enjoy reading Gores take on events. He really seems to lament the death of the Republic, something you don't get much from American leftists. Its really fascinating to me, that he developed that relationship with McVeigh since, to me anyway, Vidal has always been the voice of the old American aristocracy, while McVeigh was the would be martyr for a rebellion to overthrow our present aristocracy. The Vanity Fair article is definitely worth a read. Vidal is a lot more complex in outlook than most of our writers. He really seems to like FDR but at the same time recognizes his virtual dictatorship. He lays a lot at the feet of Truman,the rise of the military industrial complex, centralization of industry, and agriculture none of which would have proceeded at the pace it did without FDR priming the Federal pump. I wonder if he gives FDR the benefit of the doubt due to his position in society, while Truman gets nailed for being a merchant. In my own family, I had a grandfather and great uncles who, despite working to unionize farmers, despised FDR as a threat to land ownership and small scale farming generally and just maybe hated him for being an aristocrat, since our had people fled the same in kind of oppressor in Ireland. Anyway random thoughts on a really good writer whose willingness to go out on a limb is rare and admirable. I wonder what he's written since 911?

02-02-2002, 05:49 PM	#3
dave Guest Posts: n/a	The problem with Vidal is that he fudges a lot of his facts. 180 innocents didn't die at Waco - some 83 did. And they <b>did</b> start the fires. Oops. We'll just make that stuff up 'cause that way it adds to our argument. That having been said, he's definitely an interesting character, and right about a lot of things.

02-03-2002, 09:20 AM	#4
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	Vidal is willing to present rumor as fact, which is not an unpardonable sin for a novelist. One that come to mind is his portrayal of John Hay as an opium head in his novel Lincoln. We don't know his source(s) for that, unless he revealed it in a later interview. We do know (this is from memory so I could be wrong), from other interviews, that he had relatives in Washington society in the period so he probably had access to the rumor mills of those days. As far as Waco goes, I don't know who started the fire but I do know that the whole matter reeks of unacknowledged incompetence, which has opened the door to a lot of speculation and apparently to the murders in Ok city.

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