Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer [Gore Vidal Dead]

NYT ^

[Perdogg]

Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization, died on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, where he moved in 2003, after years of living in Ravello, Italy. He was 86.

[SMARTY]

Rabidly Anti-American Liberal as well..... too bad.

[AU72]

He was consistent, he hated America and he left.

[moonshot925]

The man was great propagandist.

I hope he meets Goebbels in hell.

[ScottinVA]

The hardcore lefty Gore Vidal died, huh?

Oh.

[rlmorel]

I thought he had been dead for a while. If the NYT thinks it is a great loss, it isn’t.

Easy rule.

[AU72]

Check out the debate between Gore Vidal and WFB during the 68 convention in Chicago from PJ media:

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/08/01/it-goes-on/

[Tainan]

The homosexual websites are all wearing fashionable black armbands.

[Nervous Tick]

>> I thought he had been dead for a while.

Nah, he just stank as though he were dead. :-)

[Clara Lou]

He will not be missed by anyone I know.

[nathanbedford]

Mr. Vidal recalled that Mr. Austen asked from his deathbed, “Didn’t it go by awfully fast?”

His life one of sound and fury, or at least a life of calculated provocations signifying nothing, certainly nothing permanent, Gore Vidal from beginning to end is a token of the homosexual impulse toward nihilism. A young writer on the make, a celebrity who took on Andy Warhol dimensions as a political commentator famous for being famous and he got to be famous by being contentious and provocative.

Analogous to a young but ambitious homosexual fashion designer who must contrive a way to make his mark, he does it by pushing past the bounds of civility and comity. So a new and more bizarre look is introduced for this year's line. We see the same phenomenon in dance at the high culture level of ballet or at the base level of Lady Gaga. Each performance demands greater deviation from societal norm than the last. This is a calculated and cynical exploitation of the senses which desensitizes them and requires ever more and more sensationalism to break free of the pack careers.

The problem for us conservatives is that Gore Vidal exploited this technique in the political arena where he found a media eager to play a symbiotic game with him by which the media fed the beast with more and more sensational meat. The media was eager to play the game for another perhaps subconscious reason. The cynicism of Gore Vidal matched perfectly the inevitable nihilism of the Critical Theory, a Weltanschauung which is as been systematically implanted in the chattering classes in the course of acquiring their journalism degrees.

[.45 Long Colt]

Too bad Buckley only threatened to sock that marxist queer in his G.D. face.

http://tinyurl.com/chazhmh

[ontap]

Dumb ass Commie!! So he’s dead.....I lost one of my socks ....guess which one I care about more!!!

[the invisib1e hand]

If the presider over Americas decline is dead, does that mean that Americas decline is dead?

[driftless2]

They forgot totally deranged. Vidal did have an interesting style comprised by his insane political beliefs. Like virtually all leftist artistes, Vidal thought he had some sort of secret info about the evil U.S. witheld from the rest of the population. Only geniuses like himself knew the extent of the perfidy. In the end, Vidal’s literary output was almost unreadable blinded as was to his hatred for his own country. He probably never got over getting turned down for some political prize because he was a homo.

[driftless2]

correction: comprised is supposed to be compromised.

[texson66]

Good riddance!

[.45 Long Colt]

“Live From Golgotha,” for example, rewrites the Gospels, with Saint Paul as a huckster and pederast and Jesus a buffoon. John Rechy said of it in The Los Angeles Times Book Review, “If God exists and Jesus is His son, then Gore Vidal is going to Hell.”

Though I found him loathsome, I pity him today because God does indeed exist and Jesus Christ will be his judge.

[LibLieSlayer]

gore vidal knows what the surface of the Sun feels like today. I started being a Conservative as a child... when William Buckley left gore sitting is a chair covered with his entrails after Bill slaughtered him on Firing Line.

LLS

[moovova]

” Gore Vidal...declared to be the end of American civilization, died on Tuesday...”

America - 1
Mr. Vidal - 0

[LibLieSlayer]

Have no pity on his evil soul... he was warned the same as all of us. He turned his back on GOD... now it is HIS turn.

LLS

[PowderMonkey]

"He probably never got over getting turned down for some political prize because he was a homo."

Actually, I'd long suspected his caustic demeanor and anti-American attitude probably originated with having his heart broken by the loss of some lover during during his service in WWII, and he never got over it. That coupled with the backlash from publication of "City and the Pillar" in 1948, reportedly dedicated to James "Jimmy" Trimble III, killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Vidal later said that Trimble was the only person he had ever loved.

[AppyPappy]

He was also one of the many people taken in by Truman Capote.

[.45 Long Colt]

I understand your sentiment, but I don’t think you understand grace. If you are a born-again believer, it’s only because of God’s grace. But for the grace of God, Vidal’s fate would be my own. That’s the message of Scripture.

[refermech]

I remember seeing that broadcast live! It was really something. I was pretty young then...

[JewishRighter]

Brilliant and articulate analysis, NB. It makes me ponder whether the nihilism followed his ideology or his homosexuality. Was he a nihilist because he started out hating morality as a matter of conscience or because it justified being gay? I suspect the latter. After all, where does a young person find hatred against a decent society absent some underlying antagonism? One may cite the nihilism prevalent in today’s hard left, which is not (known to be) universally gay, as proof that it is ideologically driven in most cases. But today’s left came of age after Gore and his ilk made hatred of America and decency fashionable.

Either way, when I read that Gore died, I said Thank G-d! He was a truly evil man.

[.45 Long Colt]

I was pretty young then, too. I hope I don’t look as old as that film.

[LibLieSlayer]

True... but when Lot led his family out of Sodom... GOD ordered them not to look back. In looking back, one ponders what was and what could have been. JESUS also ordered his disciples that when they were shunned in a town... to wipe the dust of that town from their feet. Pray for his soul and pity him if you wish. I leave his eternal fate to GOD alone.

LLS

[Dick Vomer]

he leaves behind a great legacy, large family and the respect of honorable men....... oh.... nevermind. I was thinking of someone else.

This guy wrote odd fiction,was a homosexual and a disgusting anti-American quisling propagandist who grew up in the cesspool of DC and educated at Sidwell Friends and St Albans..... ugh...

don't really care, my car needs a new radiator and some belts changed. NOW that's important.

[LibLieSlayer]

capote is also a Sun sitter.

LLS

[LibLieSlayer]

capote is also a Sun sitter.

LLS

[Toddsterpatriot]

Another one bites the pillow dust.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters

Who bored people silly.

I don't understand why boring is considered "profound literature". Boring is boring. And GV raised boring to new heights.

[Moltke]

From the movie In the Loop:

Karen: So you read Liza's paper I guess.
General Miller: I am a voracious reader. I'm the Gore Vidal of the Pentagon.
Karen: Gore's gay.
General Miller: No he's not.
Karen: I beg to differ but...
General Miller: He's gay? Cos I've been saying that Gore Vidal line a lot.
Karen: He is gay.
General Miller: Guess I'd better stop saying that then.

[IronJack]

Gore Vidal is iconic for the effete, elitist, chablis-and-brie crowd at the Times. A poofy eunuch whose mouth (and pen) constantly wrote checks his muscle couldn’t back up, he had all the virtues the Left embraces: he was pretentious, he was generous with other peoples’ money, he hated this country, he produced nothing concrete, and he looked like a ghoul.

So he comes back to the US to die. We should ship his wasted corpse back to Italy to rot.

[IronJack]

I remember seeing that. I watched Buckley eviscerate that pompous, impotent pinko while all he could do is sputter and fume.

Great “wordsmith” HE was ...

[Bigg Red]

Well said — as usual.

[miss marmelstein]

Wow. Yet again I'm gonna disagree with the zeitgeist of FR. While old man Vidal went completely bonkers with his conspiracy theories, the young and middle-aged Gore Vidal was a brilliant essayist and novelist. Think I'm wrong? Just read “Burr” and “Lincoln,” two of the greatest historical novels about America ever written.

His essays on film and books were particularly wonderful. And funny as hell! My generation of theatre and tv people loved to see him on Johnny Carson where he held court with such wit and disdain.

I never agreed with any of his political opinions about modern-day America. But he did warn that the breakup of the Soviet Union would cause the Muslim world to rise up. He said this shortly after the wall came down. I thought he was nuts but I guess not.

[.45 Long Colt]

It’s too late to pray for a man once he’s dead. “It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment.” His soul is in the Lord’s hands...where it always was.

I am particularly fond of that passage you mentioned. Christ’s command to His disciples to shake the dust from their feet is a real lesson for Christians today. We need to accept there are people who will never believe or like us and move on. We should stand for the truth regardless of the opinions or actions of others.

By the way, I have trouble hating anyone. Obama rises as close to hatred as I ever get, but at his core, Obama is just another confused and profoundly pathethic lost man. He believes himself wise, but he’s a fool. He puts on an act that convinces some, but I suspect he’s a lonely, bitter, and scared little man. Like Pharoah, I believe the Lord raised Him to great heights so that he would ultimately take a great fall. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” I pity all lost men. I can’t imagine traversing this life without the knowledge that I am eternally safe in Christ. I praise Him for the mercy and grace He has shown me!

[IronJack]

Astute observations well expressed.

[Verginius Rufus]

He was originally Eugene Luther Vidal, Jr. He took the name "Gore" after his maternal grandfather who was a Democrat Senator from Oklahoma. I think he was some sort of relative to Al Gore.

Buckley's famous put-down of him in 1968 was in reaction to Vidal calling Buckley a "crypto-fascist."

[LibLieSlayer]

Amen! It is interesting you mention hate. I have been praying and working hard to eliminate it from my heart. I despise obama... I despise the left... I have found that hatred clouds reasoning and holds back proper solutions to any problem. I am such an imperfect being... but I love GOD and HIS son JESUS. I belong to them. I am theirs to use as they wish... I hope that they accept me as I am not worthy... but I strive every day to become so.

GOD bless you friend.

LLS

[spodefly]

BTTT

[newzjunkey]

Though I found him loathsome, I pity him today because God does indeed exist and Jesus Christ will be his judge.

You might want to get more acquainted with your Bible. Christ is the intercessor, the advocate or defense lawyer for us if you will, while God the Father is the judge.

[Para-Ord.45]

” That guy is dead. You better believe it “

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h57UR-oIE_g

.

[.45 Long Colt]

You can believe whatever you want, I’ll stick with the writers of the New Testament on the matter of Christ as judge. While I agree that God the Father is judge, I also know He has given His final authority to judge the world to Christ, the righteous judge.

John 5:22 — “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,”

John 5:27 — “And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

Acts 17:31 — “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

Romans 2:16 — “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”

2 Timothy 4:1 — “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:”

2 Corinthians 5:10 — “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

These verses and others are very clear that on the day of Judgment, God will judge the world through Christ. Christ will judge the world by his word which is the gospel (John 12:48, Romans 2:16). The first time Jesus came to earth was to atone for sins; when he returns it will be in judgment. It is at this time that the Lord will separate the faithful from the unfaithful each will enter into their eternal destinies.

It will be my lifelong pleasure to continue getting acquainted with my Bible. I really hope you will do the same.

[Colinsky]

I have to chip in on Miss Marmelstein’s side, here. BURR and LINCOLN were terrific. Vidal’s novel “1876” was about the tumult and backbiting and deceit in the election in which Samuel Tilden won the vote and Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the Presidency.

During the frazzling wait after the 2000 election, I was more confident that the nation would overcome the impasse because I knew about the previous similar case thanks to Vidal’s book.

[miss marmelstein]

I’ve got to try “1876” again. I first read it as a kid and I thought it would be a sequel to “Burr” - which it is, I guess, but not in the way I had hoped. I reread “Lincoln” every other year - still gripped by Vidal’s description of Gettysburg as Lincoln witnessed it from his office sofa!

[wideminded]

OK, so Vidal wasn't in the closet. But this is a third gay celebrity death.

link

[grey_whiskers]

What a *great* day to go eat at Chick-Fil-A.

(Freepmail)