Why Gore Vidal ROCKS! Today's NYT magazine.

[Neshanic]

"How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year?"

"I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their predjudices and fanning their hatred."

[EFerrari]

1. LOL!

:applause:

[jakem]

2. that interview was hilarious.

asked how he and Al Gore are cousins:

"They keep telling me, but I keep forgetting"

[saltpoint]

3. There are a lot of different kinds of folks out there in the public arena.

Some of them are pretty good observers of the political landscape.

A very few of them are UNBELIEVABLY good obersevers of the political landscape.

Vidal is on a shortlist of the latter group.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Link to interview...

Literary Lion

[Greyhound]

5. That's the brilliance of Gore Vidal.

He always tells the truth as he understands it (and he understands far more than most), even when it is "inconvenient".

[hlthe2b]

7. He invented the term "biting" inteview, I believe

Quite amusing to the viewer/reader/listener, but less so I imagine for the interviewer...LOL

[ljm2002]

6. I found that interview to be bizarre...

...possibly because it was "condensed" and "edited" by the interviewer?

Usually he has some long-ranging answers. In this interview, every single answer was flippant and dismissive. So either he didn't like the interviewer, or there was something else going on?

[Captain Hilts]

8. I really like Vidal, but he's getting a bit dotty. nt

[Warpy]

11. Yeah, he's 82

He's never suffered fools gladly or felt compelled to explain things to them. Now that he's getting old, that trait is multiplied by every year he's lived.

I'm sure there were things he'd rather have been doing, so he grudgingly accepted the interview but kept his answers as pithy as possible to shorten it.

At least that's the way I see it from having watched him for years.

His crack about Buckley was worth the whole thing. I might have to change my sig line.

[kevinmc]

9. HA .... Gore Vidal always has a unique way of saying things 8-) n/t

[Happyhippychick]

10. I read that interview this morning. It was so Gore Vidal, I just loved it.

[BlooInBloo]

12. I would hve paid a lot of money to see a debate between Vidal, Rorty, and Chomsky.