Hollywood, a novel by Gore Vidal.

Did it take me too long to get through this, dear worst-reader? Maybe it didn’t take long enough. Or, perhaps, is this piece of work enough to make me stop in my quest to read (all of) Vidal’s “Narratives of Empire”? Indeed. Four of the seven books are left. And I was bored more than not with this one. But I fought through it–because I felt compelled to do so. I wondered at times if Vidal was just as bored writing it. Nah. A man who can pull this off cannot be bored with what he does. Or? Vidal knows for whom and for what he wrote Narratives. That in and of itself is reason to complete the series. Or maybe not.

This is my third novel from Gore Vidal’s seven book series. What is becoming clear to me is that there is a sincerity, an earnestness to these books. They are more than just fictional histories of #americant through the eyes of someone who knows politics probably better than most. It’s almost as though Vidal is trying to tell Americans something not just about history but also about who and what we are and the world we have to live in. The quest to chronicle a lands history in a concise enough form so that posterity won’t forget it–or, at best–its people won’t leave it behind, is a task to be wondered. Or? Thus far I’ve read Lincoln, Burr, Creation and now Hollywood. Wait. I know. Creation isn’t really part of the Narrative series but somehow, after reading it, I can’t help but think that Vidal wants it to be because, simply, it is a great explanation of the history of humanity pre and post religious nutbaggery, i.e. #americant in the 20th century. But that’s neither here nor there. The real question we are facing, dear worst-reader, is what’s next on the Narrative reading list? Empire, 1876, Washington DC or the Golden Age? Indeed. I’m torn. Oh well.

The one thing that saved (reading) this book for me was an ever growing interest in Vidal’s choice of characters from which to tell this story. Ironically, or maybe not, the best character of the novel isn’t even a real historical figure. For whatever reason Vidal had to make up a few characters. Enter Caroline Sanford. She is both an actress and a newspaper mogul. She is the embodiment of Vidal’s vision linking two geographic points of a fledgling nation. She reminded me somewhat of Dagny of Atlas Shrugged–but only in my imaginative effort to give her a physical presence. As far as the other characters go, it’s easy to look up the presidents, the government officials, the barons and the goons Vidal chronicles. They are all only a wiki-link away. But Caroline? Where did Vidal get this chick? I’ll be wasting hours googling to find out why Vidal created her. But more importantly, she’ll be the reason I probably read “Empire” next as she is featured in that novel, as well. I’m a Caroline Sanford fan.

The historical characters covered in the book, especially the presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding, are only interesting because of how Vidal presents them in the context of (their) political buffoonery. Although I did learn a few things about Wilson, like his stedfast belief in the failed League of Nations, I kept getting the feeling that these figures of #americant history are nothing more than a side-show. The things said, done and committed by the novel’s figures is nothing compared to the intrigue Vidal miraculously achieves by the juxtaposition of Washington DC vs Hollywood. Vidal literally codifies the how and why of entertainment vs politics, all of which has been willfully and consciously merged right underneath the eyes of a puritanical nation of nitwits. This aspect of the story is the unexpected grand achievement of the book. How many people conclude that the connection between these two opposing coastlines would set the stage of #americant for an entire century? Even though it takes Vidal a while to get to Hollywood from the beginning of the book, once there I was hooked. Every time he returned to the east coast, though, I found a way to put the book down–and sometimes I even rushed through the text. California here I come!

All in all, this was a tough read. I really had to battle some of the huge winded chapters and as previously stated, even rush through them and I do not feel as though I missed anything by doing so. I only hope that this was the most winded book of the series. Two other non-Vidal books are in front of Empire so maybe that will give me achance to recupearate form this one. Or maybe I won’t be able to wait that long before getting back to Ms. Sanford.

Some quotes from the novel “Hollywood” by Gore Vidal:

• “Almost everyone nowadays had two lives, his own and his life at the movies.”
• “The had used the movies successfully to demonize national enemies. Now why not use them to alter the viewer’s perception of himself and the world.”
• “Show things the way they are but carefully angled, the way the camera is, to make the audience see what you want them to see.”

 

Rant on. -Tommi

Burr by Gore Vidal

From the afterword:

“Why a historical novel and not a history? To me, the attraction of the historical novel is that one can be as meticulous (or as careless!) as the historian and yet reserve the right not only to rearrange events but, most important, to attribute motive–something the conscientious historian or biographer aught never do.” 

This post is better late than never. Plus this is a lazy post. Trying to fill my study section so it looks like the done-section of my bookshelves. And so. Finished reading “Burr” last fall. It took me a few years to get around to reading it. That is, I read Lincoln in 2007 but because of other books put-off continuing with Narratives of Empire. Of course, the best part about the series is you don’t have to start from the beginning. In fact, Gore Vidal himself wrote them way outta order. Nomatter. As I’ve said, I plan on reading them all and if my mind holds up, I’ll get them done not so soon enough.

Anyone who wants to know about the history of America should read Vidal’s collection of historical novels. And keep in mind, you will be reading fiction but you will also learn more about American history above and beyond the inadequacy of history lessons from conventional schooling. Hence these books should be required reading. The reason they never will be required reading is because Vidal’s attitude toward life, liberty and the American’t way is counter to most aspects of what has been running the show since, gee, Nixon(?) But that’s neither here nor there. Next on my list is Gore’s Empire–hopefully it won’t take me five years to get to it. BTW, I also read gore’s “Creation”, which is not in the series. The reason I mention it is because Burr and Creation are written basically in the same style based on a kind of memoir and collection of letters.

What is most appealing about Burr is Vidal’s anti-establishment take on our history. I suppose you could call it an alternative history. But there’s something else to Gore Vidal and his motivations that worst-writer suspects has something to do with a desire to at least offer an alternate truth. In that vein, please indulge me this stretch or three: Gore Vidal might be related to Al Gore. In fact, he’s also distantly related to Jimmy Carter. And his grandfather was a Senator from Oklahoma. Vidal even ran for congress but he lost. I mention all that because of one of the significants parts of Aaron Burr’s life. Vidal chronicles the election for third president of the United States. It was a close race and the final decision of the presidency went to Thomas Jefferson but it was decided by the congress because the two tied in electoral votes. So. While reading Vidal’s take on history, I couldn’t help but think about Al Gore and how he lost to Dubya in 2000. Anything similar? I mean, it wasn’t the voters the picked Jefferson. But I am stretching. And I suppose my stretch would be better relatable if Gore or Bush had duelled each other. I know. Wishful thinking. I found this part of Burr’s life to be more interesting than the Hamilton incident but perhaps that’s because Vidal thought it more significant, too.

Burr is a wonderful journey into our history. But what makes it so appealing is that the reader, if willing, won’t be bothered with Vidal’s prose that borderline at times on turning the whole shebang into a soap-opera. Either that or it works at times as a bad western, especially the part about Texas and the Alamo, including some interesting insight into Davie Crockett’s true intention for going…. allow me to say: for going west. But then, worst-writer doesn’t need to mention anything more about Gore Vidal’s attitude toward what made America and what has subsequently ruined it. Indeed. Vidal breaks through all the mythology and paints a beautiful, untainted portrait that motivates further self-inquiry and study.

Rant on.

Tommi

Creation by Gore Vidal

z’Germanland has a lot of religious holidays. That means they have a lot of extra days-off that coincide with their guaranteed government sponsored vacation days. A lot of these religious days are either on a Thursday or Monday. That means, Das Volk have long since figured out the use of “bridge days” to turn Good Friday and Easter Monday into a friggin’ vacation. If you add these off-days up and compare it to my grand (and so missed) united mistakes, it’s a wonder that anything gets done in Eurowasteland. (Who am I kidding — nothing does get done here!) And let’s not get into the idear of who can actually afford all these days off. That’s a whole ‘nother bucket of chow.

The worst thing about these days off is that other than bars and restaurants everything is closed. So either you can afford to go to another country that has things open or you fly to an island in the Med and shop there. For those of us stuck in the grey-scale atmosphere of z’Germanland, you can’t even wash your friggin’ car on account government regulation won’t let you. So. After all these years and wasted holidays (on account I couldn’t afford to go anywhere) I got to thinking. What good can I make of this? Long story short, read another book! And since religious holidays were so abundant, I decided to use those days to read religious literature. Seriously. I turned it into something like habit. And it worked out pretty well, I’d say. At the least, I got to read a lot.

Unfortunately these holidays are all Christian-based but I didn’t let that stop me. So. On Xmas I’d read the bible. On Easter I read the Koran. On Assumption day I read Lao Tse, etc. Of course, after a few years reading material started getting thin. So I resorted to reading aboutreligion. Here an example. One thing lead to another and you know the saying: seek and you will find.

I actually ordered this book from Amazon to read over Xmas 2010 but it arrived on Dec. 29. Nomatter. What a brilliant piece of writing. In fact, this is the fourth historical novel I’ve read by Gore Vidal and I’ve yet to be disappointed. In fact, this one is probably one of my favorites and is as great & good as Eco’s Baudolino (which I’ll eventually post something on). Here a bit on one of Vidal’s other historical works.

The thing to keep in mind about this book is it’s title. Hence I started writing this post motivated by the fact that I wanted to say something about how I got into reading religious literature – and subsequently got into reading about religion and that ultimately lead to reading this masterpiece. “Creation” is not about religion per say. It is really just a wonderfully written historical novel – that just happens to chronicle the beginnings of religion and hence politics. But the subtext of the entire book seems to me to be Vidal’s typical answer to the question eating so many ignorant and intellectually deprived American’ts who are all now suffering from religious indoctrination and dumb-down politics run-amok!

I think I understand how Vidal can get away with titling this book as he does. This book is about the creation of our world. In novel form Vidal takes the idear, NOT of the chemical reactions that ultimately created life (which American’t “believers” can never comprehend), but of the human-relations that have been passed down through centuries, and puts them in front of you in the form of an amazing journey through the eyes of the grandson of Zoroaster. Just the thought of this subject matter and how much must be in the mind of Gore Vidal to put it to print – amazes me. And so, juxtapose the title of this book against the batshit religious life-haters that have ruined American’t and corroded Christianity probably to the point of no return…

Oh well. I should leave well enough alone and just read this book again someday.

Links:

• Public holidays in Germany – Wiki
• Gore Vidal – Wiki
• Creation (novel) – Wiki
• Baudolino – Wiki

 

Rant on.

-tgs-

Lincoln by Gore Vidal

Subtitle: Cute Elitist Disguised As Former Teacher, Red States vs. Help, And A Few Thoughts on Gore Vidal’s “Lincoln”.

But first some nonsense.

Character X: The world is starving for variety and things dynamic. The world requires nothing from humanity and yet things static and universal seem to rule all – simply because that’s what thrills humanity? 

Character Q: Why? 

Character X: I’m guessing that the opposite of things static and universal might be the variation and dynamic. I come to this lackadaisical conclusion because life wouldn’t be where or what it is if things were variable and dynamic. (Short pause, deep breath, exhausted from the banality.) 

Character Q: Oh goodness. Your brain is hemmoraging again. Let me get a tissue and some sewing thread. There. There. (Pause. Threads the needle he found under the couch and proceeds.) Now. If you must push on. I must, as well. There’s so little time left. (Shorter pause but proud of the banality.) So. Sorry for that. Go on.

Character X as Q: At the least, variety and things dynamic are worth fighting for. Or? Let me move on to the subject at hand.

 

While visiting Tuscany in 2005, beyond the astonishment of the beautiful landscapes, rolling vineyards with perfectly manicured vines, I had to face the onslaught of American’ts who could still afford the weak dollar abroad to sight-see and, of course, drink extremely overpriced wine. In contrast, I wasn’t a tourist and for the past so-many years I consider myself a class fighter warring against the Disney-fied evils of complacent, superficial, malignant but bat-outta-hell fun American’ts. (Actually it’s a war of attrition and I’m my own enemy.) You see, I too am an American’t – in the form of an expat that can’t get far enough away. With that in mind, my American’t is different than the American’t of those cruising to Italy and bathing in tannin tastes. Indeed. It’s even more different to those I was facing because I was on a mission from Flying Spaghetti Monster to fill a German cellar with Montepulciano.

Being judgmental is a very rude thing to do but I do it all the same. Don’t we all? What I don’t do is put it out there for everyone to see (present company excluded). Unless you want to know how it came to be that the image of children playing in a sandbox symbolizes the(ir) future. The only thing I ask when pushing (as I am now doing) my thoughts and ramblings as (worst)writer is that you do not assume, like other judges, that I’m being hypocritical. My Tuscany visit was not of my own doing and the criticisims I hold toward (former?) compatriots was also not mine. I am not the elitist nor do I strive to become such. To be clear: I am nothing more than baggage and I really do prefer to be left alone to waddle around in this society of baggage carriers. Wishful thinking, eh.

Why is it then that I get so perturbed by American’ts that can afford in this economy to spend two weeks in Tuscany drinking wine and not reading a damn thing to help better the lives of what in reality they are all running away from? The reason is simple and reveals itself in the form of a question: how many more generations of American’ts will be able to ride on these laurels?

While waiting in the lobby of a hotel in Tuscany for my girlfriend (she was getting ready for dinner) I ran into three New York women fresh from a long day of wine-tasting. Two of the woman were retired public school teachers and the other was the assistant to the director of New York City public schools. They heard me using American’t English on my handy (that’s Eurowasteland language for mobile phone) and when I was done the assistant to the director of New York City public schools mentioned from across the way:

“Oh, how is he,” she said in an endearing but somewhat smoked-out voice. She was referring to the book in my lap.

“He’s fine,” I uttered. I was reading Lincoln by Gore Vidal.

“It’s not good,” she either asked or demanded assuming that my previous response was a form of skepticism.

“No. No. Of course it’s good. It was written by a brilliant man,” I said with a bit more confidence.

“I’ve never understood where Vidal is coming from, you know what I mean,” she asked, her tone changing, pacifying.

“Well,” I said, wanting to be more provocative. “What does that matter? I think he’s brilliant at using fiction to depict truth.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re right. But I just don’t get him,” she said.

“Well, you should give this a read then,” I said and tried to get back to my book.

She remained standing and massaged a look into her face that couldn’t relieve the want of a question to coincide with an answer that she thought she already had devised. When the two other women left for their rooms I assumed that the one who stayed wanted to spend a bit more time weakening the effects of a day of sun, landscapes and tasting. Instead she sat down in the chair across from me. I understood it as a gesture of combat.

“I’m curious, she said, he eyes glazed. “What do you think of him? Tell me more.”

Stop signs went off in my head. How many times have I beemn coerced into conversations with people who wish they would read more? Years of travel, years of lifting my eyes from the pages of a book only to see if her ass was round enough for my tastes have all come back to haunt me. And I hadn’t even checked out this school teachers other parts. But there are just some mannerisms that stick after being reared in the breadbasket between a north and a south.

“I can understand that people consider Vidal a bit wordy or perhaps a bit anti-American. But honestly, if you want to read about the mind of a president and how he made some very difficult decisions and was eventually annihilated for it, this is the book. Lincoln was truly the last great president because he is the only one that stood the true test of what this country is supposed to be about.”

“Slavery,” she interjected at my pause.

“N0. A union,” I said. “Besides, all other presidents that followed him you could wipe the floor with.”

Oh!” she said. “I really don’t understand him.”

It turns out that she tried reading one of his books once, but she couldn’t recall which one, and since then had only followed the press and TV that he appeared in.  Then she gave it one more try.

“But he’s so… How can I put this without sounding… I mean… He’s so… Elitist,” she said.

I was a bit taken-aback with someone who lives and works in New York City claiming someone else is elitist. I thought and/or judged (her): New York City; perfectly manicured hair and finger nails; she still sits with a straight, stiff back as though her lost girl-ness was poured into her spine and hardened like the concrete used in the Berlin wall.

I decided to stear clear from the internal conflict of my heritage on that side of the Atlantic.

“So. Because you think he’s elitist you don’t read him? Seriously, especially now, after what’s been going in the world, this book is more valid than ever before. The way Vidal describes Lincoln’s decision-making and the interaction among his cabinet members… In a way you get a picture with this book about what it means to vote and have your vote heard. It’s utterly brilliant the way Vidal portrays the whole thing.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about voting, too. I mean, what is wrong with our country? It’s such a relief to get out. There’s no talk radio in Europe is there? When I’m here I see different things. Hear different people. Do you have any idea why the red states have become so powerful?”

She sat back in her seat and crossed her legs. I was dealing with an American’t democrat, a liberal, someone who thinks that being nice is a way of life. Oh my!

Luckily my girl came down stairs all freshly showered with her thick dark hair in a bun, subtle eye makeup and no lipstick. Our magical dinner of red wine, Italian ham, antipasti and fresh bread was just around the corner. But I’ve been trapped before by “liberal” American’ts traveling around Europe. They all think that American’t is screwed up and getting out for a two week vacation is gonna answer any of the existential questions they have about the corrupted soil they walk on. When they meet Europeans who can see through the idiotic foreign policies that are only feeding war mongers and profiteers I’m probably somewhat of a relief to chat-up. I reckon it’s the twang, slang, draw of my fake accent. I can actually understand the politics that are governing the US post cold war. I can even understand how my home country has become overly self-conscious regarding its odd status in the world (and perhaps even in history). And I can disagree with Americant’s antics in a way that isn’t just US-bashing. Also, due to my effort(s) in becoming an ex-pat, it’s not that easy for the traveling show-case of elitist tourists to see that my heritage is the trailer trash that is now occupying their lives and making what little spec of American’t culture there was prior to Ronald Reagan a gaseous cloud of methane rising out of the soil and mental trailer park that has become their United Mistakes of American’t.

I gestured to the New York City woman that it was time for me to go. She acquiesced and the conversation ended with one last question.

“What is it that you think we can do to make things better? America can’t go on like this. You live abroad, you live in a place where people think. You don’t know what it’s like back home.”

“Then go home and change it. Either that or read Vidal. In fact, since you’re a teacher n’all. You should seriously start thinking about instead of teaching American’ts history the way you guys do it, just make all kids from middle school to high school read Vidal’s history series. Seriously.”

After that little elitist epitaph of mine, I told her that I had no clue and that she might want to just give in to the red states. Which was a lie. I actually have the answers to everything but didn’t have enough time to get into the whole thing about the world, especially conservative American’t, needing more variety and dynamic. I just wished her a nice remaining stay and recommended a vintage bottle of Montepulciano.

Rant on.

-tgs-