Gore Vidal. Some might’ve heard of him. Some might’ve not. I’m in the second group. Won’t lie. Even though I’m acquainted with some movies he wrote (or helped with writing) like Caligula (non-porn version… I guess) and The Sicilian. But I didn’t know of him or heard of him. But I heard of Al Gore, and for a while thought they were the same person (I’m not really good with American presidents or American politics in general).
Anyway, I stumbled across the book called View from a Window. It was a collection of Gore Vidal’s interviews on various topics and during various years of his career. And you know me, I’m always interested in reading other author’s views on the craft and the process of creation in general. Even if I will not use it or don’t necessarily agree, it’s always interesting to see how others do it. Oh, boy, I knew little what I got myself into.
Gore Vidal was an interesting person. Very vocal and balancing on the fine edge between sanity and lunacy. I would even dare to say he came off as a sane person. For a while. Until you get to know him better and understand that he’s a failed politician. And right now I’m just saying what he said in some of his interviews. He wanted to be a politician, but unfortunately, he became a writer. His words. Not mine.
Keeping his words in mind, I would start with all the good things. The first 1/3 of the book is actually the most interesting one. Gore Vidal shares his views on writing, on critics, on motivation, money, business. Everything that in one way or the other bothers other writers. And those ideas and views are very sane and straightforward. At times even refreshing. From time to time he wanders off the point and goes on about himself, but in general I can say that I enjoyed reading this 1/3 of the book.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the latter. As soon as the introductory phase ends and we step into the lower circles of Vidal’s hell, you get showered with ego, bitterness, and highbrow bullshittery. To make things worse, it feels like Vidal didn’t live by his own commandments.
What really caught my eye was the dissonance between what he said about critics in the beginning and how he behaved later. In the beginning he said that critics’ opinion doesn’t matter if you write what you want. Later he calls out the names and surnames of the critics who dared to criticize him and even explains why they are wrong (not in a good way, though, very often we can hear how he mentions that one or the other is a ‘nobody’).
I don’t want to make this note too long, so I’ll just say that the rest of the book is boring if you don’t care for petty grudges and pissing contest. Mainly because the guy is obsessed with politics, thinks he’s the best thing that happened since Shakespeare, claims he has no beefs with other writers and never attacks on the personal level, before slamming Capote (I think these two had some real bad blood going on), and calling out many other authors including Kerouac, and Burrows, and Mario Puzo, and Kurt Vonnegut. And since I already named these four, I won’t hide the fact that I love their novels and their style, and personally wouldn’t dare to call it talentless scribble or whatever terms were used to describe their works. I mean, those are authors of On the Road, Junky, Godfather, and Slaughterhouse-Five.
Anyway, after reading this book, I wanted to find out what sort of legendary epic shit Vidal wrote. I mean, the man who just slashes everyone left and right with the burning sword of critique has to be some serious trooper, right? He knew what was good and what was bad, and he wrote only what he considered only the best even if it was pulp-fiction. His words, not mine. Funny thing, by the way, Christopher Fowler (much to my regret died of cancer in 2023), also mentioned Vidal as so-so detective writer in his post-mortem non-fiction novel Word Monkey (I’ll write about it later).
So, I checked out what was the best Vidal wrote. And that’s how I read The Pillar and the City.
If you expect me to slander this novel because I find Vidal not a pleasant man, you will be wrong. I think it’s good. I wouldn’t call it legendary or the best thing I ever read, but it’s good. His language is simple, clear, direct. I won’t call it unique and full of personal style, but it’s good. I can’t attack Vidal in this department.
However, what I’m trying to say here is that for a guy who claims to write only works of art, I couldn’t see it. Sorry. It was written good, can’t say anything about that, but the hero wasn’t as epic and controversial as Vidal claims him to be. And mind you, I’m not a stranger to gay-novels. I read Borrow’s Wild Boys, okay? Those boys were wild and did wild stuff indeed. I’m still under the impression.
And here, the main hero, aka Jim, wasn’t controversial as I expected him to be. He was lost, yes, confused, obviously, still trying to learn how to navigate the world. Typical teenager, to be honest. Relatable on many occasions. Homosexual or not.
In fact, Jim reminded me a lot of The Catcher in the Rye‘s character Holden (which is ironic, since Vidal wasn’t kind to J. D. Salinger and said some really mean things about him and those who read him). The same level of despair, and being lost in the big and scary world, still trying to understand who you are, where you’re going and where are you belong. I would say it has less of Shakespeare (Romeo and Mercutio instead of Juliette, in Vidal’s words) and more post-war depression mixed with teenage angst and confusion (wow, look at me, I almost sound like a critic) that finally finds its way out through uncalled and unnecessary violence (no spoilers here, just a hint).
Or, you know? Maybe I didn’t see the greatness because, according to Vidal, I’m within 97% or 99% of the dumb idiots who can’t think and read (and as you guessed it right, if you loved this book it’s only because you’re within those 0.3% of free thinkers who can analyze information critically). I can’t deny that. Never was the sharpest tool in the shed and not ashamed of it. Or maybe because I’m reading it at different times with a different mindset and have tremendously high expectations of the author who for 200 pages couldn’t stop sucking his own imaginary cock of self-importance. Who knows? I don’t.
I know only that I’m not sharing his approach to going ballistic on others. It’s a very slippery slope. Once you start doing it, you’re cutting yourself out of opportunities and freedom. You put yourself into boundaries of a person who has no right for an error. Maybe this is the way to go in politics and show-business (and looking at the shit candidates and stars spit all the time to make the other side look worse while doing pretty much the same crap, I bet it is), but I find it really petty. It is an unnecessary burden, unnecessary pressure, unnecessary negativity. All for the sake of feeding own ego and staying relevant.
I should’ve said that instead of being negative to others, Vidal should’ve spent more time writing, but he actually did. The output of this dude was legendary. I visited his Wikipedia and went through everything he wrote. There’re a lot of novels, short stories, non-fiction books, interviews, essays. The guy was as productive as one gets and that I respect despite all the venom he spat left and right. You don’t get things done without a discipline even when Vidal denies having one (at least if I remember it correctly, he didn’t believe in schedules and sticking to the plan).
Now, I don’t want to make unnecessary promises, but while investigating his Wikipedia, I made a list of his most critically acclaimed novels like Burr, Myra Breckinridge, and Lincoln. And I’m planning to read them in the future (I’m expecting something like Caligula, to be honest). I mean, I disagree with him on multiple occasions. I’m not a big fan of his toxic personality and weird aggressive ideology he tried to push with consistency of political zealot, but it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t read what he wrote. After all, there’s something to learn from every book you read and you just can’t deny the man had style and knew how to write. At least that’s what I carried out of reading one of his novels. Now I’m curious whether other novels are on the same level.