I remember when Tucker Carlson was grilling Vidal on a recent book. Carlson quoted a passage in an attempt to make him look bad. Vidal said that it was written with irony, "perhaps the publisher should put those passages in blue".
Both were absolutely delightful in every word spoken and written by them. Full of knowledge, wit, wisdom and satire. One knows they are in heaven together and laughing, asking each other, "What the hell are we doing here here?"(lol). Looking down upon us both replied, "Hell is definitely alive and doing well on earth still. Washington D.C. has gotten worse. Those damn corrupt politicians and corporations. Capitalism isn't doing so well." All is forgiven. They are truly missed. "A general definition of civilization: a civilized society exhibiting the fine qualities of truth, beauty, adventure, art, and peace." Alfred North Whitehead
Roughly 30 seconds of this discussion - the 'gin in our campari' closing line - existed on RU-vid for years. Full talk delivered everything and more. Much appreciate the upload.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!! These two in ONE video. I'm in Old Left Heaven. Miss these excellent men of letters and Wit. So sad that their relationship was on the outs at the end.
@@cindymaceda2999and Vidal said after 9/11 that there isn’t enough evidence to say Al Qaeda did 9/11 but he did suggest that Bush administration did it so he was off his rocker and that’s one reason why Hitchens dropped him
Excellent discussion, and so sobering that we're not only STILL struggling against corporations, but after rulings by the SCOTUS on such cases as Citizens United, etc., we've fallen even further down the rabbit hole!
It's honestly not that bad y'know. It reminds me of Hayek & Keynes, or Vidal himself and Mailer (Hitch was friend to both, crazy) but with a crisis like 9/11 to ponder on. Strong personalities that clashed is all, they are both models for badasses, with some care.
@@ankushds7018 In Hitchens' own words: "Since Gore always likes a good feud, I just gave him one". Vidal was joining the likes of Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and Howard Zinn at this time and went on full conspiracy mode, the usual stuff: America deserved the bombings, Bush gave the bombing order, Bin Laden Is a Cia agent, and so forth. Hitchens was cautioning the audience that contrary to the public, Gore Vidal is actually both quite reactionary in person and entertaining liberal fantasies quite often. One of those that I remember the most is that he admired Charles Lindberg, founder of the America First movement, while at the same time curiously a long-time homosexual himself.
@@polymathicheretic5068 _"Vidal was joining the likes of Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and Howard Zinn at this time and went on full conspiracy mode, the usual stuff:"_ Just based on this event alone, none of that surprises me. I don't really buy that Hitchens was thrown off. This was 1999, and the dismissive statements on terrorism stick out the most, about midway in. But that's more because I'm used to post-9/11 Hitchens and here he just smirks along. I think Hitchens enjoyed a good feud as much as the old guy himself. Or at least he always figured it wouldn't hurt book sales.
Delighted and thrilled to find this. Great discussion. I laugh to think how frustrated the video team must be by the camera angle with a foam microphone hovering the center of Vidal's face the whole time.
@@raginald7mars408 you drunk? If you want to have a conversation I'm down to do that, but first you need to prove to me what devil and God you believe in and why, and if you expect me to believe any of your statements you've better come with the substantial evidence for such substantial claims
@@jeffhough7460 I am a German Biochemist Ph D the way you behave there is no Con Ver Sation more like WAR what YOU pre tend is a thin veneer proving the era of the Vidals is submerged in a global plate tectonics of Dumbification makes me sober day and night the world is a lonely place... The Devil always wins quod erat demonstrandum
Gore Vidal and Chris Hitchens together again. What illumined writers they were. Gore Vidal's understanding of the American Empire and what has been taught in our elite colleges by some of the powers of greed and what is not taught to the masses, one has to dig for that. Reading books of quality and thinking outside the box may enlighten one. With the deepest appreciation and admiration for these men. Understanding books of quality and then television came in. We know who controls the American Empire. Socialism for the elites and free enterprise for the poor. How many times have our great journalist writers of history given us these truths? (We do have quite a few.) No one is perfect. History and world histories grow , sciences, monotheistic religions, philosophers, as centuries unfold , nothing is stagnant. Psychology fields also. Creative arts and music, literature, and poetry, dance are the glues that lift us out of despair. One has to have an open mind and see the divisions of beliefs. It comes from thought. What amazed me was when Mr. Vidal mentioned two frontal lobes of the brain. May one see what we are learning now about that. We now have the election of 2024 coming come. Have we learned anything? Who are we?
Real political discourse was already rotting away when this event happened around 1999. Social media, Twitter and all that garbage was just around the corner.
I'm not quite sure I understand your linkage. Bush and Cheney are diametrically opposed to Trump and MAGA. MAGA is, at bottom, a full repudiation of the authoritarianism of the two party system entrenched during the Cold War who will not go quietly into the night.
They're two towering intellects and both loved a good scrap but it seemed like with Gore there was a mean spirited quality to it that I never felt in Hitchens. As a result....Gore was admired. Hichens was loved.
Thanks for the upload! Just one thing, at the end the text on the screen says this was recorded in 1998 not 1999 as your title now suggests, so perhaps you should fix your title.
Interesting interview. I did not expect him to quote Groucho marx and misunderstand the statement, which was a joke. He was stating that he wouldnt be a part of ANY club which would have him as a member.
Wasn’t the 1954 Income tax for the wealthy 90% AFTER keeping something like the first $25,000? Ten yers later my father was a physician making $30,000. So Gore did ok - if I have correct information.
This is odd, but in The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon there is a character that said that teamwork is a symptom of the gutlessness of society, a way of of avoiding responsibility; and, now thinking of how the men Captain John Smith led behaved: perhaps they would of said something similar before Smith saved Jamestown.
What people fail to remember about what happened with Christopher Hitchens in that regard is one of his very, very close friends, Salman Rushdie had a fattwa put on his head for writing a book some muslims found offensive. He never forgot that.
Excellent alnalogy of: RIPSenator, 300lbsCondemmedVeal? A3 and a half year old hiding behind my Mothers' back seeing this big block of a guy disembark an aircraft, Tall, DarkOvercoat Smile on his face with an outstretched hand of greeting andeye was scared witless: SenatorKennedy was huge! 2 A 3 yr old in '71 maybe '72? {\} 🙂
Vidal always admired how America started; small time businessmen (farmers and such) with a coast dotted with small but growing cities where commerce flourished. There was early on what was called an 'era of deference' towards the well to do and better educated (Founding Fathers class) and government more or less left everyone alone to do their own thing. He thought President Garfield represented a sort of peak in the quality of American presidents. So, in many ways in was a conservative--but he hated corporate America and its influence.
Two different writers entirely, but equally sharp & brilliant. In other interviews, Vidal is quite dismissive & visibly disenchanted with poor interviewers but with Hitchens he was quite obviously at ease/home.
I love Hitch but he didn't possess the ability to differentiate between great works of aesthetic art in fiction and tendentious, tedious political pseudo-fiction.
@@johncarroll772 Yes, but he also was a Marxist, which means that he was trained to view everything, including literature, through the lens of politics. It was a major defect of his existence.
@@Gerguzalbutzelnikoskech atheist noun One who denies the existence of God, or of a supreme intelligent being. A godless man; one who disregards his duty to God. One who disbelieves or denies the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. The Christians denied the existence of gods and believed that god is a man. To the pagan world they were atheists, which is correct.
No. No turncoat at all. Both men opposed tyranny in all its forms. Hitchen's believed that a war against the tyrant of Iraq could only be in the cause of good. Would you not think similarly about a war against Mugabe, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin? You might think it a bad idea because of the consequences that follow from said war, but can you criticise the motive in fighting it?
