About book The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 (2002)
Once upon a time a friend of mine included Gore Vidal among his list of closeted anarchists. I have held Vidal in high regard ever since, despite having read precious little from him.The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 is simply the one volume of his two dozen plus books of essays and non-fiction which I happened to have at hand. If you have any interest in twentieth century literature and politics you will want to read one of these collections, perhaps going whole-hog with his 1300 page United States.Vidal lived through a large chunk of the 20th century and moved within some rather high literary and political circles. Some dull readers get irritated by his “name dropping” which is something one does when one happens to know a lot of people that such readers have read about in glossy magazines. Vidal was raised in a political family but made an early decision to write novels, his first while stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII when he was nineteen. The convergence of these literary and political circles, dosed with a keen interest in history, places Vidal in a rather unique position.The first portion of Last Empire is concerned with a number of literary figures. Here is the list of names: Edmund Wilson, Dawn Powell, Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, John Updike (we are all happy to read yet another dispraise of this Rabbitt), Thomas Mann (who read and commented on Vidal’s The City and the Pillar, Anthony Burgess, and some other folk you might recognized. The personae of Vidal’s bookchat do not much overlap with the literary tradition I tend toward, but one must stretch oneself.The larger portion of the collection is concerned with matters political and historical, with Empire.Vidal is one of those Leftists who refuse to bow to the Liberal blackmail which tends to keep us all in fear of the Right and thusly maintain the right-ward lean of our politics. Vidal is quite happy to not capitulate to our court historians and empire propagandists who would have us worship the Kennedy’s and Truman’s of our history. I am quite happy to read Vidal set the record straight about our imperialism.At no point in the hagiographies of Truman does anyone mention what he actually did to the United States and the world. First, he created the National Security State. He institutionalized the Cold War. He placed us on a permanent wartime footing. Vidal, of course, is right on the money about US imperialism, and were we a free and democratic society, he wouldn’t need to say what he says. His solution, which everyone asks for whenever a critic like Vidal says that things ain’t right, is to convene a People’s Convention, which possibility is enshrined in our Holy Constitution, in order to correct our outdated, non-functioning, eviscerated Constitution. That would require a revolutionary democratic movement. Should you require a kind of know-better critique from me of Vidal’s politics, I would suggest that he does not acknowledge the role that the working class has to play in any politics of radical democracy; and I would suggest that Vidal does not have enough data and citations to please those who have bought the Official Story hook, line and sinker--for that you will want to consult the writings of Noam Chomsky.You owe yourself a few Gore Vidal essays. Find the ones that tweak your interest, the literary, the political, the historical. He is my kind of grumpy old man. If you’re not pissed off, you’re not paying attention.
GORE VIDAL is one of those writers who always challenges, excites, and stirs up my thinking. While I do not fully endorse all of the views in "THE LAST EMPIRE: ESSAYS 1992-2000", I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. He is one of the best. In terms of clarity of thought and analysis, Gore writes on subjects as varied as Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, JFK, FDR, Truman, Charles Lindbergh, John Updike (one of the funniest, most thoughtful and scathing essays in the book), "bad history", race relations, and the U.S. political system. Here are two examples of the passion and conviction Vidal brings to this book:1) "...I invite the Senate to contemplate Vice President Aaron Burr's farewell to the body over which he himself had so ably presided: 'This house is a sanctuary, a citadel of law, of order, and of liberty; and it is here in this exalted refuge; here, if anywhere, will resistance be made to the storm of political frenzy and the silent arts of corruption; and if the Constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor.' Do no harm to this state, Conscript Fathers." (essay on 'Birds and Bees and Clinton')2) "What will the next four years bring? With luck, total gridlock. ... With bad luck (and adventures), Chancellor Cheney will rule. A former Secretary of Defense, he has said that too little money now goes to the Pentagon even though last year it received 51 percent of the discretionary budget. Expect a small war or two in order to keep military appropriations flowing. There will also be tax relief for the very rich. But bad scenario or good scenario, we shall see very little of the charmingly simian George W. Bush. The military - Cheney, Powell, et al. - will be calling the tune, and the whole nation will be on constant alert, for, James Baker has already warned us, Terrorism is everywhere on the march. We cannot be too vigilant. Welcome to Asuncion. Yes! We have no bananas." The Nation 8/15 January 2001 (Essay on 'Democratic Vistas')No matter what one may think of Gore Vidal, his writings will always engage and challenge the reader to think, and think, and think. And learn.
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Gore Vidal's Prose is always enjoyable, as is his "behind the scenes" perspective on matters literary and political. Unfortunately, I withhold the fifth star because I have developed a distinctly philosophical prejudice, that assertions be backed up with publicly verifiable evidence, and that these substantiated claims be linked together into arguments for specific claims. Vidal doesn't consistently do this, but, in a book of polemical essays, he shouldn't have to. They are good reading simply as prose, but in those places where he says something intriguing enough to pique my interest, I find the absence of a clear argument or of verifiable evidence unsatisfyingly substituted with a claim that he has privileged "behind the scenes" knowledge. Sounds too much like McCain during the debates, always going on about how he was there.
—Jeff
I can't believe it's taken my entire adult life thus far to discover Gore Vidal. This book is a collection of essays that he's written during the last few years of the 20th century about the United States. It's broken up into 4 parts ranging from famous literary authors, to past presidents, and the imperialism of the U.S. Gore himself comes from a privileged background, a wealthy family including the Gores (thus his first name). He ran for office, but was mainly successful with his writing. The essays which resonated with me were regarding how corrupt and broken our system... heck, our country is! Elections do not really matter because the people who win got there by corporation donations. Elected officials do not really serve the citizens of this country, they serve their corporate overlords who control and dictate policy. It's all a game.. and you can't win. Speaking of corruption, he spoke repeatedly on the NSA and how we have Harry Truman to blame for where our country is now. My favorite quote in the book comes from Frank Church, former U.S. Senator from Idaho, prophesying the NSA's control and monitoring American citizens: "I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge... I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."I wish we had more brave people like Vidal who would speak out publicly against the system. Here's hoping more people wake up.
—Will
My first reading of Vidal has definitely inspired me to read more - both more short stories and some of his historic fiction, which I am very much looking forward to. After an unsure start, when the dictionary had to be kept close at hand, his writing style and choice of words soon became something I relished and enjoyed. Given that it is an edited collection of short stories, there is a little bit of repetition but the style, the writing, the passion and the verve make it easy to overlook this. Perhaps more of a shock, for me at least, was the depth of Vidal's conspiratorial thinking - but it's hard to disagree with and it is most certainly well thought out. Definitely a must-read for anyone with an interest in literature or US politics, or anyone who just wants to read something that is masterfully written.
—Shane Quinn
