Published Monday, December 08, 2003
RE-INVENTING A NATION: Gore Vidal in Askwith Lecture Hall
By David Meadow
APPIAN STAFF WRITER

The author fixes you with a scowl of magisterial dignity – it even looks like indignation – as he stands at his fullest height, decked out in an impeccably elegant suit. This is Gore Vidal, thank you very much, and he’ll have you know that you are looking at the back of his book, Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, so you had better treat said volume with respect. This wide-ranging work, his most recent, chronicles the heady experiences of the nation’s founders as they squabbled and agonized over the particulars of the Constitution. In addition, it tells of the genius of Jefferson and Franklin, the military incompetence of Washington, the authoritarian excesses of Adams, and plenty of other great history. An autographed copy now sits on my night table (yeah, so sue me), but I got much more than that on November 19th, when I and a few hundred other admiring sardines crammed happily into Askwith Lecture Hall to see Vidal speak about the new book.

This is a man who has turned out all manner of political essays, fiction, and histories in his career. They range from a biography of Lincoln to the racy gender-bending novel Myra Breckinridge (which spawned its own bizarre movie). The author also finds time to fill the role of outspoken political gadfly. Vidal’s resume lead his reverent interviewer, Christopher Lydon, onetime host of NPR’s program “The Connection,” to apply Henry James’s definition of an artist to Vidal: “The one on whom nothing is lost.”

The overture for this artist’s arrival consisted of a mass migration to the booth that the Harvard Bookstore had set up in the hallway to sell copies for signing. After we had been fidgeting in our seats for a few minutes, a figure crossed the doorframe in a slow but determined stride, supported by a cane. Applause erupted, and, if I had looked up “august” in the dictionary right then, I swear that Gore Vidal’s picture would have appeared. He allowed us a diffident smile and took his place next to Lydon on stage, and a free-form interview began.

Lydon started off by mentioning a real-life conversation from the end of the book that Vidal had had with his stepbrother, President Kennedy. JFK had asked why all these supposed “movers and shakers” that he was meeting were so “second-rate” (and, telling about this in 2003, Vidal was happy to provide the voice impression). The writer had offered Kennedy a possible answer. Not about to give Jack more airtime than himself, he told us how he had written that he had said the following: the Framers of the past were so excellent because they had more time than their modern-day counterparts. They used to do much more reading, writing, and engaging in truly searching debates with one another. The author’s tut-tutting about Politicians These Days would inform the rest of the night’s discussion, and when he has contempt for something, his listener feels the full weight.

Vidal does not have to try too hard to make every utterance wry and sparkling – though, at times, he does try just a bit too hard. Everything must be quotable, a pronouncement, a bon mot that will find its way into print. I will give him this: if one must listen to a man who loves to hear himself talk, Gore Vidal is a good choice. (I will also give him his bons mots in print). Vidal is very eloquent (and quick) in responding to questions, and if an “er,” “um,” or “y’know” slipped in, I don’t remember it. He can, of course, delve on command into his vast reserve of historical and literary knowledge for all kinds of pithy quotes. He relied on that several times. But beyond his knowledge, this is a personality author who loves the spotlight and is perfectly comfortable under it; he commandeers it in a delightfully restrained, offhand way for all the photons it’s worth.

Vidal grew serious as the discussion moved to the infamous USA-PATRIOT Act. Here he made a passionate appeal for the country to reaffirm its precious Constitution, a document that our leaders are eroding. He said that we have to go back and find again the noble ideals from which we have strayed. To illustrate further, he pulled out of his store a quote from the Roman emperor Tiberius, who was the model of moderation next to his self-aggrandizing predecessor, Trajan. When Tiberius’s senate volunteered, unasked, to confer all sorts of pompous titles and draconian powers upon Tiberius, he replied angrily, “Why are you so eager to be slaves?” Vidal grumbled that one might well ask this about many Americans today.

The interview on stage shifted smoothly into interaction with the audience. Indeed, the rhythm of question and answer stayed about the same. Here are my favorite questions from Lydon and the audience, in no particular order, with Vidal’s responses: What could President Bush have been thinking when he pushed for war with Iraq? “Don’t allege that he’s thinking… Someone told him something.” How do empires (like America’s) end? “You run out of money.” Why do today’s students hate high school history so much? “It’s mythology, and the kids know it when they read it.” Why didn’t Ralph Nader, the champion of the people who once made headlines exposing GM’s unsafe cars, have a chance of winning? “Airbags don’t make the blood tingle.”

One might take this last remark, out of context, as a dig at the painfully didactic and less than charismatic presidential candidate himself. However, this is probably not the case, as Vidal knows Nader personally and respects him. Vidal recounted how he had even proclaimed in an Esquire magazine article in the mid 1970’s that Nader was fit to be the next president – an idea that Nader hated at the time.

One thing that was conspicuously (and unfortunately) absent in the audience was people of different ideological bents, coming to tangle with the author. Perhaps they were there and didn’t speak up. But after all, what better way for the few conservatives in Cambridge to spend a Tuesday evening than to put a great progressive talking head in his place? They could certainly have all fit in the room. My guess is that they feel the task of pre-empting gay marriage in Massachusetts needs all the time it can get these days. Because of the spectators’ political one-notedness, the people there offered the kinds of questions and comments that Vidal would have wanted them to offer.

Another problem was that the author depended heavily on material from the book, spoiling a few gems for those who hadn’t read and rereading for those who had. I can’t complain much, though. It is very exciting to walk into a room where one has class every week and encounter Gore Vidal as one’s professor, if only for one night.

David Meadow is an Ed.M. candidate in the Specialized program.