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CLOSER TO GOD: Iconoclastic author of «Creation», Gore Vidal, dies age 86
01-Aug-2012
Gore Vidal, the iconoclastic writer, savvy analyst and imperious gadfly on the national conscience, has died. He was 86. He was also to pen a novel « Creation » set in ancient persia during the reign of King Xerxes 1st which ambitioned to present the Persian Empire in a more positive light than the one depicted by the deemed world’s first historian: Herodotus. (Source: persianrealm.com)
(See Related BBC News)
ABC World News Now : Gore Vidal, Celebrated Author, Playwright, Dies :
Al Jazeera Report:
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CLOSER TO GOD
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Gore Vidal: God is a Blackmailer :
Gore takes a meat cleaver to the folly of clericalism.
Gore Vidal has been a leader in American literary culture for six decades.
Al Jazeera One To One Interview :
Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia, said nephew Burr Steers.
Vidal was a literary juggernaut who wrote 25 novels, including historical works such as “Lincoln” and “Burr” and satires such as “Myra Breckinridge” and “Duluth.” He was also a prolific essayist whose pieces on politics, sexuality, religion and literature -- once described as “elegantly sustained demolition derbies” -- both delighted and inflamed and in 1993 earned him a National Book Award for his massive “United States Essays, 1952-1992.”
The author Christopher Hitchens, who once considered him a modern-day Oscar Wilde, criticised him for his more recent comments, saying they suffered from an "utter want of any grace or generosity".
Threaded throughout his pieces are anecdotes about his famous friends and foes, who included Anais Nin, Tennessee Williams, Christopher Isherwood, Orson Welles, Truman Capote, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Eleanor Roosevelt and a variety of Kennedys. He counted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Al Gore among his relatives.
He also wrote Broadway hits, screenplays, television dramas and a trio of mysteries under a pseudonym that remain in print after 50 years.
When he wasn’t writing, he was popping up in movies, playing himself in “Fellini’s Roma,” a sinister plotter in sci-fi thriller“Gattaca” and a U.S. senator in “Bob Roberts.” In other spare moments, he made two entertaining but unsuccessful forays into politics, running for the Senate from California and Congress in New York, and established himself as a master of talk-show punditry who demolished intellectual rivals like Norman Mailer and William F. Buckley with acidic one-liners.
“Style,” Vidal once said, “is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” By that definition, he was an emperor of style, sophisticated and cantankerous in his prophesies of America’s fate and refusal to let others define him.
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Controversial Screenwriter
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Gore Vidal partly wrote the screen adaptation of William Wyler’s epic Ben Hur but was ousted halfway through production for trying to suggest a homosexual Relationship in the main protagonists past ( Ben Hur and Messala). He later wrote the script for the Mega Porn Production Galigula co produced by Bob Guccione the editor of the Men’s magazine Penthouse. A passionate advocate for Gay Rights, Gore Vidal also expressed great admiration for Oliver Stone’s bold attempt in depicting the Bi Sexual macedonian conqueror in his movie Alexander.
Gore Vidal on Ben Hur:
Caligula Starring Malcolm McDowell (Rated R):
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VIDALS MEMORABLE FEUDS
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Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal Feud on the Dick Cavett Show:
William Buckley Vs Gore Vidal:
This is the well know incident between William Buckley and Gore Vidal that occurred during ABC's coverage of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago
Buckley vs Gore Vidal After 40 years :
Gore Vidal on Christopher Hitchens:
Recommended Photo Essay :
Photos of Gore Vidal through the years 1925 -2012
Related Blogs:
In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011
FAHRENHEIT 451: Author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) dies, aged 91
MYSTIC RED: Shahbanou Farah & Controversial French philosopher Roger Garaudy (1977)
Related Literary Blogs:
IMMORTAL: Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf joins elite French Academy
Azar Nafisi in bed with Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, Jane Austin
EMPRESS OF THE ARTS: Shahbanou Farah and Brazilian Author Paulo Coelho
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He was a great essayist with a huge ego
by anglophile on Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:28 PM PDTand a sorcerer of words.
Thanks Darius jaan.
Gore was interested in understanding the big picture
by amirparvizforsecularmonarchy on Wed Aug 01, 2012 08:15 PM PDThe knew why,
On Obama authorizing covert means to help extremists come to power.
//www.rt.com/news/us-support-syrian-rebels-ob...
Brian Becker, director of the ANSWER anti-war coalition, believes the
revelation of Obama’s order doesn’t represent any shift in terms of US
strategy towards Syria.
“All that does is reveal that the
so-called diplomacy, the so-called looking for a negotiated settlement
is a fraud – that the diplomacy is, in fact, a form of perjury,” he told RT. “The
reality is that the US government – the Obama administration with the
Pentagon and the CIA – has been neck-deep coordinating military
operations to overthrow a sovereign government in Syria.”
He noted that there would have been no civil war going on in Syria if not for foreign intervention.
“The decisive factor in the equation for civil war is US intervention,” he said. “And
would say, frankly, the Obama administration is guilty of war crimes
against the Syrian people having cynically manipulated the situation.
They have the blood of the Syrian people on their hands.”
In Gore Vidals case, He didn't die,
by amirparvizforsecularmonarchy on Wed Aug 01, 2012 07:27 PM PDTLike all the Hero's of The Period of History we experienced. He Lives for Ever. As do his generous opinions.
He showed a magnificent conscience and could really explain in words what was so disgusting about opinion being propogated by indivicuals and the organizations who betrayed the late shah of Iran as a Dictator, Corrupt, Repressive and Helped bring Khomeini to power. He taught people with the mind to receive in order to think for themselves. He despised the undermining of the most democratic leaders of our life time in certain regions and in the name of freedom, democracy and human rights bringing in in humanity, war, tyranny and bloodshed.
Darius.... your support in favor of Syrian Rebels and against Assad would have disappointed him. He would ask you to give him a single case where the USA had ever intervened to bring democracy, human rights and freedom? He taught, the USA only ever intervenes to remove these. In Light of some of your views, Its a wonder you wrote a blog to honor him. And then Zendanian another shocker, your opinions show zero understanding of this authors views and beliefs.
A good blog......
by First Amendment on Wed Aug 01, 2012 02:12 PM PDTThe United States of Amnesia
Thank you for this timely tribute to a great writer.
by Zendanian on Wed Aug 01, 2012 01:01 PM PDTGore Vidal came from an extended line of American aristocracy. He is probably the greatest American Historical novelist. One could say he has written a novel for each period of American history, from Revolurionary Wars all the way up to 20th century, highly recommended for all student of history. As you mention he wasn't only interested in Western history.
"Creation" which is a novel about ancient Persian, is wrriten from a perspective deeply sympathetic to Persians and their culture. As all reviews of "Creation" have mentioned Gore Vidal has turned Orientalism upside down in that great, rather lenghty novel. "Creation" was translated into Farsi and published in Iran a few years back, don't recall the publisher at the moment; the title is translated as " Aafaarinesh."
People like Buckley and Vidal as opposite as their politics were, had a significant common character; love of culture and arts. They are from a generation that we could correctly call "the endangered generation"; true men of letters and politics.
He will surely be missed, his works shall last an eternity.
Author must tell truth......
by Aliafandi on Wed Aug 01, 2012 08:44 AM PDTGreat quote,
I heard it differently (not Vidals quote),
You must always speak the truth unless if you're a Politician.
DK, Thanks for
by Azarbanoo on Wed Aug 01, 2012 06:59 AM PDTPosting this great blog about Gore vidal. He was certainly very interesting, bold & somehow strange.
Gore Vidal: In quotes
by Darius Kadivar on Wed Aug 01, 2012 05:12 AM PDTMy Favorite one:
On the press
"A writer must always tell the truth, unless he is a journalist."
;0)
More below:
Acerbic take (bbc)
Some of the late great writer Gore Vidal's best quotations