The novelist, Jay Parini, remembers how, as a young man, he was mentored by Gore Vidal.
One summer, I was sitting by his pool in Ravello, working on a piece of fiction. I wondered aloud if it were possible to hold the reader’s attention for about a dozen pages while my characters discussed Kierkegaard’s Christian existentialism. Vidal screwed his brow together, then said: Only if your characters are sitting in a railway car, and the reader knows there is a bomb under the seat.
Many writers, and others, have cause to remember Gore Vidal’s utterances. Wasn’t it him who referred to Ronald Reagan as a miracle of the embalmer’s art? This, of course, while the late president was still, allegedly, alive.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my RSS feed
Subscribe to posts
May 13th, 2006 at 2:53 am
A quote that should be taped over every writer’s desk.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I do believe it was he. Gore Vidal was an amazing figure: always controversial, always evidently intelligent, always interesting whether one agreed with him or not. x