Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Vidal Sasooned

Christopher Hitchens on the Gore Vidal in his dotage:

I have now just finished reading a long interview conducted by Johann Hari of the London Independent (Hari being a fairly consecrated admirer of his) in which Vidal decides to go slumming again and to indulge the lowest in himself and in his followers. He openly says that the Bush administration was “probably” in on the 9/11 attacks, a criminal complicity that would “certainly fit them to a T”; that Timothy McVeigh was “a noble boy,” no more murderous than Generals Patton and Eisenhower; and that “Roosevelt saw to it that we got that war” by inciting the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. Coming a bit more up-to-date, Vidal says that the whole American experiment can now be described as “a failure”; the country will soon take its place “somewhere between Brazil and Argentina, where it belongs”; President Obama will be buried in the wreckage—broken by “the madhouse”—after the United States has been humiliated in Afghanistan and the Chinese emerge supreme. We shall then be “the Yellow Man’s burden,” and Beijing will “have us running the coolie cars, or whatever it is they have in the way of transport.” Asian subjects never seem to bring out the finest in Vidal: he used to say it was Japan that was dominating the world economy, and that in the face of that other peril “there is now only one way out. The time has come for the United States to make common cause with the Soviet Union.” That was in 1986—not perhaps the ideal year to have proposed an embrace of Moscow, and certainly not as good a year as 1942, when Franklin Roosevelt did join forces with the U.S.S.R., against Japan and Nazi Germany, in a war that Vidal never ceases to say was (a) America’s fault and (b) not worth fighting.


Look, Gore Vidal is a ridiculous writer who got acclaim (like Truman Capote) for writing about homosexuality in an era where that wasn't accepted. The idea that he is a huge literary figure is bizarre; nobody reads him today and nobody will read him tomorrow. There was a brief period when what he wrote was controversial; nowadays most people would say it's pornography well-written.

28 Comments:

At 12 January, 2010 06:49, Anonymous Anonymous said...

OT,

a Swiss retard of epic proportions who self-styled himself to be one of the major figures of the German-speaking lunatics and imagined "movement" (which nowadays cleans bridges for twoof and looks like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3SiERmoao when outside) has interviewed - wait for it - David Chandler. For at least an hour. Perhaps even two.

Yeah. Rofl.

So if you are interested in condensed nonsense, here's your choice (scroll a little): http://alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.com/2010/01/interview-mit-david-chandler.html

Also, is your usual HaloScan-comment feature broken?

 
At 12 January, 2010 07:34, Anonymous troyfromwv said...

I think I saw that old fart on Maher's show. Seemed like an old, senile dingbat to me.

 
At 12 January, 2010 08:49, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

Pat Curley is the last guy who should pose as a literary critic.I mean,it's ridiculous.Quick question Pat:How many bombs were in the Murrah Building,and how many detonated?

 
At 12 January, 2010 09:01, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm a moron.

 
At 12 January, 2010 09:16, Anonymous troyfromwv said...

There were zero boms in the Murrah building.

 
At 12 January, 2010 09:17, Anonymous John E. Smoke said...

Nobody will have read this interview because it's in the Independent. The only difference between the Guardian and the ironically-titled Independent is that the Indy has even less readers (if you can imagine such a scenario). I'm not sure if it loses as much money as the Guardian per day, but I'm certain it doesn't make any.

 
At 12 January, 2010 10:41, Anonymous Pathos Cowardly said...

So what proof was there in 2002 that Bin Laden WAS the mastermind, Pat? Can you support Hitchens' false umbrage with hard evidence, or are you just a similarly pathetic drunken coward?

 
At 12 January, 2010 10:46, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

Wonders never stop unfolding here at SLC!! Now Pat Curley is aligned with the addled Hitchens.Now that you are a Hitchens fan give us your review of "The Trial of henry Kissinger",a book which reveals far more dastardly machinations and atrocities than 9/11.Quote mining indeed!!

 
At 12 January, 2010 10:48, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey TrollfromPatsvagina,
Maybe your cellmate can teach you how to spell, you shit-kicking, child-abusing sub-primate.

 
At 12 January, 2010 11:28, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love how Pat and his puppets clam up when they can't defend their arguments from credulity. What are you afraid of, Pat? What are you running from, except informed debate? Why pull the cowardly loser act, if you're so confident that the facts are on your side? I guess since you conceded your miserable defeat on wtc 7, you don't want to humiliate yourself even more, huh? Run, Curley, Run!

 
At 12 January, 2010 11:35, Anonymous New Yorker said...

I love how Pat and his puppets clam up when they can't defend their arguments from credulity. What are you afraid of, Pat? What are you running from, except informed debate? Why pull the cowardly loser act, if you're so confident that the facts are on your side? I guess since you conceded your miserable defeat on wtc 7, you don't want to humiliate yourself even more, huh? Run, Curley, Run!

Hmm, ever get the feeling that the "truth" movement is far more interested in "winning" flame wars on the internet than in getting to the bottom of what happened on 9/11?

 
At 12 January, 2010 13:01, Anonymous Troofers Belong in North Korea said...

"Hmm, ever get the feeling that the "truth" movement is far more interested in "winning" flame wars on the internet than in getting to the bottom of what happened on 9/11?"

Yep - with all the dastardly machinations and atrocities our government has done I often wonder why the only thing the pussies can do about it is make YouTube videos and post crap on message boards.

 
At 12 January, 2010 13:30, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maher has a special affection for the truthers. I think these douche bags are WEARECHANGE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJOn9X-l4A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GWIyMx_D4&feature=related
Here's Chomsky on the truther's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQ3D_FOuJo

 
At 12 January, 2010 13:36, Anonymous Sword of Truth said...

How many bombs were in the Murrah Building

None.

and how many detonated?

Just the one parked on the street outside.

 
At 12 January, 2010 14:40, Anonymous New Yorker said...

Also, I'm amused at the howling about Hitchens by illiterate cowards hiding behind anonymous internet names. If Hitchens hasn't said anything about the "truth" movement along the lines of the things he said about Jerry Falwell or Mel Gibson or Michael Moore, it's probably because "truthers" are so irrelevant to be not worth his time.

 
At 12 January, 2010 14:41, Blogger TANSTAAFL said...

"What are you running from, except informed debate?"


OH THE IRONY SHE BURNS SHE BURNS!!!!!!!!!!!

 
At 12 January, 2010 15:17, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

Boy,scratch a Debunker and just under the surface is a Curtis E. LeMay or a Bull Connor,eh rummies? And then there's the inimitable prose stylist "New Yorker"!! Endeavoring to be remembered as the most earnest and consistent young blogger,he is saddled with the goofiest "up on a high horse" routine this side of Hoboken.Witness this one:"..illiterate cowards hiding behind anonymous internet names"!!!! Yea,OK,"New Yorker".That one's going to be carved into marble in the center hall at the Debunker Cult Museum in Detroit.NY,er, you are building quite an incredible architecture of buffoonish statements! You really need to get some perspective.

 
At 12 January, 2010 15:25, Anonymous New Yorker said...

You are illiterate, and you are a coward. What point are you trying to make?

 
At 12 January, 2010 15:35, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Boy,scratch a Debunker and just under the surface is a Curtis E. LeMay or a Bull Connor,eh rummies?"
No. Not being a truther does not make you a right-wing extremist. Why hasn't the vast majority of the left embraced your pathetic cause? It's only paranoid anti-government right-wing nuts like Alex Jones who you have on your side.

 
At 12 January, 2010 15:47, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

Feigning ignorance officially makes you less than a weasel.

 
At 12 January, 2010 17:16, Anonymous Troofers Belong in North Korea said...

Arhoolie...

Aren't you the asshole who gave Ralph Krampton's address as your own?

What's it like to be a penisless man? How do you please your wife?

 
At 13 January, 2010 09:17, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

That's Kramden,K-R-A-M-D-E-N.And how dare you interrupt me when I'm trying to order a motorboat with three propellers!

 
At 13 January, 2010 10:22, Anonymous Always wipe after taking a troofer said...

To go along with your a mink-lined bowling bag and Haloperidol?

 
At 13 January, 2010 13:16, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

New York,er-I am really getting tired of hammering your butt to the wall day in and day out.Can you consider bringing your A game or maybe bringing in some top guys to assist you? Because this is getting like shooting fish in a barrel.

 
At 14 January, 2010 15:51, Anonymous sackcloth and ashes said...

'New York,er-I am really getting tired of hammering your butt to the wall day in and day out.Can you consider bringing your A game or maybe bringing in some top guys to assist you? Because this is getting like shooting fish in a barrel.'

Where did you learn to talk trash like that, boy? During your three-year combat tour in Iraq?

 
At 15 January, 2010 08:50, Anonymous Arhoolie said...

Either Sackie got kicked out of the pub or he finally woke up!! Back for more punishment,Boyo?

 
At 15 January, 2010 14:12, Blogger Garry said...

'Either Sackie got kicked out of the pub or he finally woke up!! Back for more punishment,Boyo?'

You're missing an 's' and an 'e' from your moniker, Walt. And you can neither fight your way out of a paper bag, or argue your way out of a kindergarten class, so FOAD.

 
At 16 January, 2010 10:17, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would like to appeal to Pat or the Huffer Puffer to ask commenters to refrain from calling me "Walt" or any other such derogatory monikers.It's really mean and my feelings are deeply hurt!!

 

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