Gore Vidal

[bridge too far]

Has died.

 

I'll confess I've never read any of his books but I did find some of these quotations funny:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19075751

[bridge too far]

Has died.

 

I'll confess I've never read any of his books but I did find some of these quotations funny:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19075751

[Saint_clark]

As you, I've never read any of his books but I've always wanted to try them out. Read this article earlier;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9443759/Gore-Vidal-the-last-of-the-greatest-American-generation.html

 

Which was interesting, and this quote caught my eye - "To be absolutely honest, our golden age was somewhat less than 24-carat”

Definitely going to get into reading some of his stuff. R.I.P.

[scotty]

He had a right spat with Norman Mailer, and was quoted as saying he hoped there is no afterlife in case he ran into him. Quality.

 

Also a lifelong Democrat, some of his anti-GOP rants are a joy to behold.....

[Hamilton Saint]

He used to be on the TV - the "chat shows" - quite often. He had quite radical political views and liked to take on arch-conservatives like William Buckley. Sometimes it seemed as though he was being deliberately provocative - just to be entertaining and challenge the consensus-view (what we'd call now a "wind-up merchant").

[RonManager]

"I'd be in favour of bringing back the birch but only between consenting adults" - Gore Vidal

[Hamilton Saint]

A few Vidal quotes I like:

 

 

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests."

 

"By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over."

 

"I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television."

 

"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent."

 

"What is in question is a kind of book reviewing which seems to be more and more popular: the loose putting down of opinions as though they were facts, and the treating of facts as though they were opinions."