Acerbic titan of our age
In the passing away of Gore Vidal, writer and essayist, we don’t lose his prolific writing thanks to most voluminous works of the finest wielders of the mighty pen digitally stored in minuscule electronic spaces.
What we will miss most is his acerbic wit and infamous run-ins with equally famous contemporaries. Vidal’s vast contempt for fellow writers was matched by his dislike of journalists: “Lying! The one thing I hate most on this earth. Which is why I do not have a friendly time with journalists” — he had said when reporters asked what Truman Capote was doing that he didn’t like.
Vidal’s put-downer when punched by dramatist Norman Mailer after he had written a bad review of his play is an all-time classic. “Once again words fail Norman Mailer,” was Vidal’s pithy riposte. Has there ever been a better comeback one-liner when a man is on the floor with his nose bleeding?
Unsparingly critical, Vidal ensured very few escaped his not-so-literary assertions, not even the cult of Abraham Lincoln centred on the revered early American President, dismissing the phenomenon with: “Nothing that Shakespeare ever invented was to equal Lincoln’s invention of himself!”
Extremely egotistical creatures that they are, writers may harbour the worst opinion of fellow writers but usually they keep it to themselves. Not so Vidal, maybe because he’d never read Swami Chinmayananda, who once said: “When it comes to yourself, use your head — Be critical! When it comes to others, use your heart — Be compassionate!”
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