Novelist, television personality, political candidate, and maverick
social commentator, Gore Vidal is one of the most innovative,
influential, and enduring American intellectuals of the past fifty
years. In "How to Be an Intellectual in the Age of TV," Marcie
Frank provides a concise introduction to Vidal's life and work as
she argues that the twentieth-century shift from print to
electronic media, particularly TV and film, has not only loomed
large in Vidal's thought but also structured his career. Looking at
Vidal's prolific literary output, Frank shows how he has reflected
explicitly on this subject at every turn: in essays on politics,
his book on Hollywood and history, his reviews and interviews, and
topical excursions within the novels. At the same time, she traces
how he has repeatedly crossed the line supposedly separating print
and electronic culture, perhaps with more success than any other
American intellectual. He has written television serials and
screenplays, appeared in movies, and regularly appeared on
television, most famously in heated arguments with Norman Mailer on
"The Dick Cavett Show" and with William F. Buckley during ABC's
coverage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Frank highlights the connections between Vidal's attitudes
toward TV, sex, and American politics as they have informed his
literary and political writings and screen appearances. She deftly
situates his public persona in relation to those of Andy Warhol,
Jacqueline Susann, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, and others. By
describing Vidal's shrewd maneuvering between different media,
Frank suggests that his career offers a model to aspiring public
intellectuals and a refutation to those who argue that electronic
media have eviscerated public discourse.
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