Vidal, a longtime political critic, ran twice for political office. He was a lifelong isolationist Democrat. The Nation, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The New York Review of Books, and Esquire published his essays. Senhor de um estilo exuberante, multifacetado e sempre surpreendente, publicou, em 1995, a autobiografia Palimpsest: A Memoir. As obras 'O Instituto Smithsonian' e 'A Idade do Ouro' encontram-se traduzidas em português.

At the time of his death he was the last of a generation of American writers who had served during World War II, including J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller. Perhaps best remembered for his caustic wit, he referred to himself as a "gentleman bitch" and has been described as the 20th century's answer to Oscar Wilde In this version, Vidal removed melodramatic narrative, passages of introspection, and politically offensive language and strove to clarify the intended theme of the work. The original edition was divided into two sections: "The City" and "The Pillar"; in the revised edition the narrative is continuous. [7] Vidal also significantly changed the storyline in the coda so that Jim rapes Bob instead of murdering him. It is commonly believed that the publishers of The City and the Pillar (in its original form) coerced Gore to give the original a cautionary ending, but Gore specifically denied this. [18] Derivative works [ edit ] More of a surprise was The City and the Pillar, which I had read as a young man and remember hating. I was probably looking for more of a romance, or a fairy tale (happily ever after). This novel is not a romance, but is grounded in the social realism of its day — which does lift the spirits of a fearful young gay reader.For the rest of the novel, Jim loses complete touch with Bob Ford for all those intervening years and obsesses over him during hopeless travels of the world in search of him -- an epic journey that takes him to various ports of call as a civilian seaman, and then across the US and Mexico as a Hollywood tennis instructor, a private in the air force in World War II and more. During this time, he meets a succession of male lovers who for him can never match the ideal of his first love and that first encounter, and thus all of these relationships are empty for him, reminding him of what he doesn't have and so desperately wants. When Jim finally goes home for Christmas, he learns that his father is dead and (more alarming to him) that Bob has married. Hoping their affair can resume despite this, Jim is anxious to see him again. In 1965, E.P. Dutton published Vidal's updated version of The City and the Pillar, titled The City and the Pillar Revised.

Update: I just read this author's "The Messiah". No matter what one might think about this author's writing ability, one has to admit he was not afraid to take on any subject, which did indeed end all of his political aspirations. Unbelievable that this book was written -- and that Vidal got it published -- in the 1940s. It enlightened me about the partial freedom available to certain classes of gay men in the 30s and 40s. The coming-out/coming-of-age story seems a little ordinary now, but nobody had done it in America before Vidal, as far as I can tell. His perceptiveness makes it feel fresh. The problems of identity that Jim faces are still common today, and maybe will never disappear. Plus, the story of the teenage dream that dies horribly is applicable to anyone, gay or straight. This book could've been puffed up with a bunch of facile sentimentality and I still probably would've enjoyed it, because, hey: gay love story in WWII-era America! Brave and necessary message about sexual morality! It is both of those things, I do love it for that, but it's also something more brutal and existential. Jim's path through the world of this book is experimenting with ways of conforming his world to his own desires (to the extent he understands them), and he's even further from attaining that goal by the end than he was at the start. a b c Vidal, Gore (1995). The City and the Pillar and Seven Early Stories. New York, NY: Random House. p.xiii. ISBN 978-0-679-43699-7.I dug up what I wrote when I originally finished this book. Almost six years old, so can't say I remember what everything meant, but there's interesting things going on anyway and it pulls together a bunch of what I was reading at the time (and also it has no capital letters, which was a thing I was still doing then):

Neto do senador Thomas Gore, enteado do padrasto de Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, primo distante de Al Gore, Gore Vidal sempre se revelou um espelho crítico das grandezas e misérias dos EUA. ve baskı ise çok çok iyi. Hatta baskıyı o kadar beğendim ki Helikopter Yayınları'nın bastığı diğer kitapları da gözü kapalı okuyacağım. Yine Gore Vidal'ın diğer kitaplarını Literatür Yayınları basmış. Onları da aynı şekilde bir an önce okuyacağım. Türün meraklılarına kesinlikle ve şiddetle öneririm. I’ve heard younger readers complain that the book is not good queer representation. Please. Perhaps from our 21st century perspective… But in 1948 it was groundbreaking enough to have a novel in which the LGBTQ+ characters weren’t simply killed off! Sarotte, Georges-Michel (1978). Like a Brother, Like a Lover: Male Homosexuality in the American Novel and Theatre from Herman Melville to James Baldwin (1st Englished.). New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-12765-3. Jim Willard is uncertain and confused in his adolescent sexuality. One perfect summer night by the moonlight, he and his best friend Bob Ford, are romping about in the nude by the lake, splashing and shouting and reveling in their youthfulness. They begin to wrestle and suddenly the urge takes hold and they make out and make love. For Jim, it is the perfect and defining moment of his life, and he wants more of it. But, of course, the two boys live in a world where what they have just done is simply not done, or discussed. They chalk up what they had just done as "kid stuff." But, that doesn't seem to square with Jim's true feelings. Unfortunately, it is the waning days of summer, and life has different plans for the two and they are forced to go their separate ways.Why should any of us hide? What we do is natural, if not 'normal,' whatever that is. In any case, what people do together of their own free will is their business and no one else's." It was said by Vidal in a 2006 NPR interview that parts of the dynamic of The City and the Pillar were softened for the public and applied to the script for Ben-Hur which Vidal and others were called in to re-work. [ citation needed] Featured in media [ edit ] The plot centers on Jim Willard, a handsome youth in Virginia in the late 1930s, who is also a very good tennis player. When his best friend Bob Ford, one year his senior, is about to leave high school, the two take a camping trip into the woods. Both are elated to be in each other's company and, after some moaning from Bob about how difficult it is to get the local girls to have sex with him, the two have sex, even though Bob thinks this is not a "normal" thing for two men to do. Jim, who does not find girls so appealing, hopes Bob can stay and is crushed when Bob is insistent on joining the United States Merchant Marine. The next seven years of Jim's life will be an odyssey, at the end of which he hopes to be happily reunited with Bob.

Hoping to run into his runaway lost love, Jim travels from New York to Alaska to Hollywood and Mexico. Along the way, he meets many diverse and intriguing characters and even a few stand-in lovers but none will replace the proverbial one that got away. The meandering search for Bob could be tedious or tiresome for some but the frequent fresh additions to the narrative including exciting locations rich with new adventure manage to make the odyssey enjoyable and diverting.

While trotting along with yawn-inducing Jim on his adventures, we are introduced at the halfway mark in the book to a jaded young writer named Paul Sullivan -- clearly patterned after Vidal himself -- and all of a sudden the life-essence missing heretofore springs up. Paul is a cerebral, interesting character who has thought profoundly about his situation as both an outsider artistic soul and gay man. In characterizing Paul's plight Vidal hits pay dirt, and I kept saying to myself, "Here's the damned book Vidal should have written! Paul is interesting. Paul thinks interestingly." Kent ve Tuz' bu minvalde bakıldığında zamanına göre ilerici bir duruşa sahip, ancak günümüz için aykırı sayılamayacak bir metin. Yine de anlatımı ve sadeliği o kadar etkileyici ki, çok hoşuma gitti. Jim karakterini tamamen anlayabildim. Kitabı elimden bırakamadım, bir oturuşta okudum. Jim benim hep aklımın bir köşesinde yaşayacak karakterlerden biri olarak kalacak.