cheated by Gore Vidal

[derien]

I'm on about the 7th story in this anthology, "Gay Short Fiction." I only read the first couple of pages of William S. Burroughs contribution before I got bored and moved on to the next story, by Gore Vidal. I was interested, because I'm a philistine and have never read any Gore Vidal, and it seems people thought he was quite cool. (Although lots of people like William S. Burroughs, too, and I think he's usually quite amazingly dull. All description; no characters, no plot. In short, he needed a co-author to give him some direction.) Anyway, back to Gore Vidal. The story started out promisingly, seeming to be about a guy who thinks he's straight but is coming to realize he's attracted to men. I was very interested to see how he dealt with it because I'm trying to do a similar thing in a story I'm writing, now. But then suddenly his story veered off track - the reader finds out the guy actually had a sexual thing going with a male friend between the time they were both 12 to when they were 17 and somehow when his friend was killed (in the Marines) he just 'forgot' the whole thing. Then the story jumps to 5 years later and the main character is a flaming queen.

I just don't buy it. Vidal needed a beta who (as eor does for me) would say "Okay, nice. Now do the hard stuff."

Comments

[mahwlee.livejournal.com]

I just spent all night sitting up reading "Myra Breckinridge" by Vidal, which I think you might like. Not only is it a fascinating take on human sexuality, but it's also a quite scathing satirical mockery of modern America's value (television, beauty, superficiality...) At least I'm enjoying it, which doesn't necessarily mean it's good. :)

Especially considering that I simply *adore* William Burroughs. I read a lot of his stuff out loud and it's just poetry to me, I love his imagery (mmm... smut...) But it's funny because most of the time I like purely character-driven stories. I think Burroughs had difficulty understanding people, though, something that was just the opposite of some of the guys he kicked it with in NY, like Kerouac and Ferlinghetti. It would have been interesting to see what Burrough's writing was like when he was totally sober and free of junk, but hey... then he wouldn't have been W.S. Burroughs. And I am babbling and just got a Cheerio stuck on my lip ring, so I think that's The Powers That Be's way of letting me know I need to stop. ;)

[derien.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should be doing that 'unpopular opinions' survey that's going around. I do tend to not like the acclaimed authors.

Burroughs smut could be interesting if it ever went anywhere, but it never really does. He sets a scene and gets me interested, and then he starts setting another scene. Hullo, just leave me hanging.

oops, I have to go to work. :P