Sunday, November 26, 2006
Hitchens Meets Vidal
Christopher Hitchens, always percolating with sharply wrought, coldly incisive ideas, does a gentleman's job in reviewing Gore Vidal's recent memoir. Hitchens feels no doubt skeptical to downright estranged in his assessment of many of Vidal's judgments (as am I) but Hitchens clearly respects the skill and intelligence in Vidal's work, and allows Vidal the honor of the old warrior.
Vidal is the narcissist who needed to disparage everything that wasn't him. He would take commonly admired individuals and go out of his way to explain how they were not worthy, not worthy at all; in interviews, Vidal exuded an obvious pleasure in acidic diminishment, both for the effect on its target and for the disillusionment he hoped to evoke in the audience. In another review of Vidal's book the reviewer noted that every story did not just include him but put Vidal at the very center of history. Vidal for example, according to this reviewer, makes claim that his suggestion to JFK that we go to the moon was crucial to the US space program. Not Sputnik.
Both Hitchens, and several other reviewers, have noted how beautifully written and deeply felt were Vidal's words about the death of his longtime companion Howard Auster. Vidal, talented and bright, was capable of, and created much that was admirable. Had his insecurity allowed it, Vidal could have done even more.