Gore Vidal: Lunacy Can Wither Him

Because the effete white elitists see "black fundamentalists" as charming tribal primitives performing folk art.

It's always amazed me how left-wing audiences will readily accept Christian music, e.g., if it is perceived as "folk music". Gospel, for example, gets enthusiastic applause from the Prairie Home Companion audience, while they would throw tomatoes at a preacher saying the same words.

You're right, of course.

"Interestingly, while "gay"-dom and the litterati are traditionally leftwing, there is the example of Tennessee Williams (who was both) but who, so far as I know, was not terribly political, at least publicly. How does one explain that?"

I think that politics wasn't that interesting to Williams who had a greater love for individuals and their tragic situations. I don't even think his "gayness" shows through his writing or in anything converted from the stage to film. He seemed to be the apolitical poet with longings that didn't fit into an established order but which never led him to the conclusion that the solution is something political in nature. In fact, he transcends the modern or postmodern politically charged hetero vs homo categories and looks at universal character types and their dilemmas within life. If anything, human solutions would border more on religious sympathies than anything political. The true poet is always on the outside of social norms and you just can't legislate something that makes him "normal."

Interestingly, while "gay"-dom and the litterati are traditionally leftwing, there is the example of Tennessee Williams (who was both) but who, so far as I know, was not terribly political, at least publicly. How does one explain that?

You don't need to be straight to just not care.

A brilliant, but decadent and morally corrupt old queen.
Makes his cousin, AL GORE seem almost rational by comparison.
The hate-America Left will welcome back and embrace one of their own.

I thought Lincoln was a interesting portrait.

I thought it was brilliant. What a very strange fellow Vidal is - capable of that sort of insight toward Lincoln, a man who risked national and international opprobrium to save his country, and incapable of applying the lesson to the present day. I believe Vidal when he says that he is in favor of freedom for the masses, but I do not forgive him for acting against it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.