Gore Vidal: Difference between revisions

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Gore Vidal is a novelist, essayist, and playwright whose career has spanned sixty years, beginning in the years immediately following [[World War II]] and continuing into the early phase of the [[Turn of the Millennium|new millennium]]. In the world of literature, he is best known for his breakthrough work ''The City and the Pillar'', the first post-war novel to feature a [[Homosexual]] protagonist who isn't [[Bury Your Gays|bumped off]] at the end of the story. A quarter-century later, Vidal began penning a series of historical novels based on the formulative years of the United States, including a third-person account of [[Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln]] which met with high accolades.

 

 

Nevertheless, he did appear in a [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie|fake trailer]] for a ''Caligula'' remake, so at least he's a good sport about it.

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: Lampshaded this by calling divorce is a Gore family tradition.

{{quote|"...The Marriages of My Family proved a reliable, unbreakable prophylactic."}}

* [[Bourgeois Bohemian]]

* [[Brutal Honesty]]

* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]: A French reviewer, apropos an autobiography of Anaïs Nin, dismissed him as "a talentless gigolo." Gore, tongue firmly in-cheek, threatened to bring suit only because she implied he "had no talent as a gigolo."

* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Historical scholarship = "[[Written by the Winners|Agreed-upon facts]]".

** ''Myra Brekinridge'' was such a phenomenal bomb that the ''book'' stopped selling for a decade. Director Michael Sarne later got a job as a waiter in a pizza place, which according to Vidal "proves that God exists and there is such a thing as [[Laser-Guided Karma|Divine Symmetry]]."

** He sued to have his name taken off of ''[[Caligula]]''. The cut reviewed by [[Roger Ebert]] claimed to be "[[Half Truth|Adapted from]] an Original Screenplay by Gore Vidal".

* [[Word of Gay]]: Gore Vidal intended Messala in ''[[Ben-Hur]]'' to be Ben Hur's spurned [[Ho Yay|lover]], thus explaining his hatred for him later on. Stephen Boyd (the actor who played Messala) was let in on the secret, but Charlton Heston was deliberately kept in the dark.

 

 

* ''Julian'' (1964)

** [[Badass Beard]]: Subverted with Julian, who insists on combing his long beard into a point (Everyone tells him it looks ridiculous).

** [[The Caligula]]: Gallus in ''Julian'' is depicted throughout the novel as a sociopath who delights in others' pain.

** [[Dirty Old Man]]: Priscus has an eye for the ladies.

** [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: {{spoiler|Julian is killed by one of his own soldiers, who makes it appear as if he was felled by an enemy Persian's spear}}.

** [[Off with His Head]]: Gallus' punishment for insulting Constantius.

** [[Phony Psychic]]: Maximus.

** [[Religion Is Wrong]]: ''Julian'' focuses on the eponymous Emperor's (failed) attempt to stem the rising tide of Christianity in Rome. (Vidal himself is a lifelong atheist.)

** [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: One of the more entertaining sides of ''Julian'' is a scathing letter exchange between Libanius and his collaborator Priscus, who is busy covering his posterior (and his wallet).

** [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Julian's deference to the facts of his own life are spotty. His transcribers step in from time to time to fix any inconsistencies.

** [[Kingmaker Scenario]]: Inverted in the ending of ''The Best Man'', in which two presidential candidates, (Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson) are tied in their race for the nomination. {{spoiler|Fonda's idealist, unwilling to falsely smear Robertson's crooked politico as a homosexual in order to win -- yet also unwilling to let Robertson claim victory by twisting some facts related Fonda's medical history -- throws his support to the dark horse candidate who has been mired in third place throughout the balloting, who goes on to win}}.

** [[Prophetic Name]]: Joe Cantwell.

** [[To Be Lawful or Good]]

 

** [[Unusual Euphemism]]: ''Myron'', the follow-up book ''Myra Brekinridge''. In the original version of the book, Vidal replaces all the swear words with the names of Supreme Court Justices who had just voted in favour of some pro-censorship measure or other. So we have Burger = bugger, Father Hill = tit, Rehnquist = dick and so on (This was done to avert the book's censorship.)

 

** [[Achey Scars]]: Jess Smith's appendectomy scar. It aches whenever somebody is sniffing around his operations.

** [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s nemesis, Henry Cabot Lodge, doesn't know what to do with himself once Wilson is deposed and living out his last days on S Street.

** [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: The Sanfords.

** [[Comically Missing the Point]]: The Senate Majority Leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, is shattered when he learns of [[Warren Harding]]'s death. When asked if they were close, Lodge says of course not; he's upset that [[Calvin Coolidge]] is now President.

** [[Da Editor]]: Caroline Sanford and her brother, Blaise.

** [[Deadpan Snarker]]: When Eleanor Roosevelt returns from seeing the doctor, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR]] wheels past and jokingly asks "What did he have to say about that big ass of yours?" Without pausing, Eleanor replies "I'm afraid ''you'' weren't mentioned."

** [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Burden}}, after Overbury throws him under the proverbial bus.

*** Any scene with Franklin D. Roosevelt. Nobody believes that this sickly naval clerk will amount to anything.

** [[Incest Is Relative]]: Peter and Enid in ''Washington D.C''. The novel is a semi-biographical account of Vidal's early life, with Enid as an avatar of Nina Gore, his mother. [[Squick|So, yeah]]. Considering his vocal dislike of [[All Psychology Is Freudian|Freudian]] analyses, this might be [[Lampshade Hanging]] on the author's part.

** [[Lady Drunk]]: Enid.

** [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: In ''Burr'', [[Martin Van Buren]] is posited to be an illegitimate son of Aaron Burr. The last page of the novel unmasks {{spoiler|the narrator, Charles Schuyler, as yet another of Burr's children}}.

*** [[Write Who You Know]]: This, too. It gets especially confusing once he and Peter engage in conversation, resulting in Vidal [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]].

** [[Not Evil, Just Misunderstood]]: The subject of ''Burr'' goes to great lengths to paint himself as this.

** [[Old Media Are Evil]]

** [[Passive-Aggressive Kombat]]: The Roosevelts are blackbelts.

** [[Riddle for the Ages]]: Who killed Jess Smith? It's implied in the book that Smith was [[He Knows Too Much|assassinated]] as part of a coverup of the Teapot Dome scandal.

** [[Sanity Slippage]]: Mary Todd Lincoln.

** [[Sibling Rivalry]]: Blaise keeps hoping (indeed, praying) for his sister to fail at something.

** [[Stage Names]]: Movie mogul Caroline Sanford goes undercover as "Emma Traxler."

** [[Tragic Hero]]: Sen. James Burden Day.

** [[Verbal Tic]]: Jess Smith's "Whaddaya know?" He also can't stop whistling a folk tune, "My God, How the Money Rolls In", a hint to his occupation as Harding's bag-man.

** [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Blaise Sanford prizes his protégé, Clay, over his own family. Burden's relationship with his father is noted to have been similarly testy.

** [[Yes-Man]]: Since little is known about John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator David Herold, he's depicted in ''Lincoln'' as one of these. [[Up to Eleven]] with Jess Smith, who is even more sycophantic.

** [[You Remind Me of X]]: W.G. Harding's "Voyage of Understanding", a transcontinental tour to rally the people to support his policies, reminds Burden of a similar trip made by Harding's predecessor. It is not meant as a flattering comparison.