Gore Vidal Interview
18/6/08 09:06![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eredienThe Gore Vidal Interview at the NY Times is hilarious. The byline states the interview was edited and condensed, but I can't imagine what from; Vidal's answers are rarely over a sentence long.
Vidal is famous, well-respected, and old enough that he can get away with being honest.
What do you think is your own best novel? I don’t answer questions like that. Ever. And you ought not to ask them.
That was a collective sigh of relief from all writers, even dead ones.
I don't understand, though, how Vidal can say that he doesn't now read any contemporary fiction, and then say he can't think of any American novelists that “...[describe] imaginary worlds with the most extraordinary precision and beauty," speaking of Italo Calvino's works.
Perhaps it's true and there aren't any American novelists trying to describe imaginary worlds "with extraordinary precision and beauty" the way Calvino did, because no one can--or should try to--write just as he did. But Vidal's not going to find what he doesn't look for.
Vidal is famous, well-respected, and old enough that he can get away with being honest.
What do you think is your own best novel? I don’t answer questions like that. Ever. And you ought not to ask them.
That was a collective sigh of relief from all writers, even dead ones.
I don't understand, though, how Vidal can say that he doesn't now read any contemporary fiction, and then say he can't think of any American novelists that “...[describe] imaginary worlds with the most extraordinary precision and beauty," speaking of Italo Calvino's works.
Perhaps it's true and there aren't any American novelists trying to describe imaginary worlds "with extraordinary precision and beauty" the way Calvino did, because no one can--or should try to--write just as he did. But Vidal's not going to find what he doesn't look for.