Vidal

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Andrew writes Re: Vidal--
<long snip>
 >and that's irrespective of the fine
>qualities of his essays, historical fantasies on Burr, Lincoln etc or
>his fer real lit criticism.
>
I din't know there was a big Vidal war on, since I am too busy to breathe, but just to 
complicate things--I really admire Vidal's fiction, I think LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA and 
DULUTH were really fine reads, granting that they are *novels of ideas* (and thus a 
category below, presumably, the stuff we get from writers like TP).  I also reject Vidal's 
dismissive comments on Pynch.  But I find no cognitive dissonance in these positions.  
BTW, Andrew, I don't think *historical fantasies* is fair.  These are considered some of 
the best historical *novels* of the 2oth c.  Historical novels are a legitimate genre, no? 
(War and Peace was one, wasn't it?).

john m