These selections of essays by the prolific and most caustic critics of the American Republic have sat on my bookshelf since the early months of 1999. Included in this overwhelming collection are 114 essays, in some cases, randomly categorized into three chapters - The State of Art, State of the Union, and the State of Being.
Vidal is an intensely knowledgeable fellow, and therefore has an opinion on just about everything having to do with art, history, politics, the state of literature and his beloved Republic To attempt to read this entire tome (1271 pages) from start to finish over a few weeks (my original intention) proved to be impossible.
Although informative and extremely entertaining, there was just too much to digest, too important to scan through, thus I would mark the essays read with a tick on the contents page, place the book back on the shelf, only to return when the time felt right to take them up again.
Vidal is not only a great historian, but he is also one of America's great literary radicals. He was experimenting with the literary form, attempting to apply critical theory to the Novel very early in the piece with such works as Duluth, Mira Breckinridge, and the post modern religious satire, Live from Golgotha. These were indeed "radical" departures from the standard fare of American novels coming out at the time. In mainstream circles, however, these novels were not well received, but were critically acclaimed, calling them subversive, iconoclastic, original, and extremely funny.
As
an essayist, Vidal really has no match in American letters. These
essays reveal a master at the top of their form. What is interesting
as well as admirable, Vidal was criticizing literary theory, which had
infiltrated academia in the late '60s and early '70s, al la, post
structuralism and deconstructionism, but unlike the so-called
"experts" in the university's across the western world, (he
calls them "Hacks of Academia") Vidal attempted to put
these theories to the test in the form of a popular novel (Duluth)
and succeeded. In his essay, French Letters -Theories of the
Modern Novel, Vidal attacks these modern theorists, who state
that language and literature as an art form is dead, in elegant prose
and biting gusto, revealing their empty (headed) arguments,
"In
any case, rather like priests who have forgotten the meaning of the prayer they chant, we shall go on for quite a long time talking of
books and writing books, pretending all the while not to notice that
the church is empty, and the parishioners have gone elsewhere to
attend other gods, perhaps with silence or with new words."
(1967, p.110)
In
"The State of the Union" essays, Vidal expounds upon
American politics and his views on the National Security Council, the
CIA and America's ongoing imperialistic intentions, which
interestingly, have not dated in the least. Most of these essays are
as relevant as ever despite the passing of over thirty years.
There
is no doubt in my mind that reading Vidal is an education, showing us
a way through the miasma of received wisdom, relentlessly thrown in
our direction. In many respects, Vidal is a beacon of light during
dark times, a writer who had never pulled any punches regarding the things he believed in, namely writing, politics, and his
beloved Republic. This book should be a standard issue for anyone
interested in literature, politics, art, and American history.
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