TRP and Gore Vidal

[Burgess, John]

I come not to bury Vidal, but to praise him a bit....

Vidal can be among the nastiest bitches writing, no doubt about that.  
His allusion to Pynchon's Law is, clearly, sarcastic.  But that doesn't 
mean he hasn't the right to make legitimate queries into postmodernist 
literature.  I think he errs in considering TRP postmodernist, but that's 
another matter.

Vidal has -- by his own lights -- a clear moral sense.  He's personally 
offended by a lack of moral compass in most PM lit (a position not unlike 
my own).  In his exuberance, though, he sometimes misses the target.

I'm somewhat of a fan -- derhh -- and enjoy reading him for the most 
part.  But as I can also enjoy TRP, Gaddis, Borges, Farina, de Bergerac 
and Dr. Seuss, I guess I have a big enough tent to welcome him for his 
strengths and gloss over his weaknesses.