Gore Vidal: Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings
Editorial Reviews
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From a delightfully caustic 1965 review of Henry Miller's Sexus ("Arcane words are put to use, often accurately") to a brief response to the homophobic torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998, Sexually Speaking brings together some of Gore Vidal's best essays on sex and sexuality. Although some of the essays are explicitly political, such as the 1979 Playboy article "Sex Is Politics," many seem to be included simply because they mention the sex lives of people Vidal has known. (One doesn't really need an excuse to republish his delicious reminiscences of Eleanor Roosevelt, Christopher Isherwood, or Tennessee Williams; the Roosevelt piece in particular feels somewhat wedged into the present volume.)
There are also three interviews: two from the mid-'70s, although written for semi-underground gay magazines, touch upon a variety of political and literary issues; a 1992 conversation finds Larry Kramer practically badgering Vidal to admit that he's a homosexual. As he has throughout his career, Vidal refuses to be categorized on the basis of sexual acts: "I've never applied [these labels] to myself nor have I applied them to anybody else, even when they have invited me to." Sexually Speaking is as entertaining as it is provocative, an interesting supplement to the more comprehensive The Essential Gore Vidal. --Ron Hogan
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Associated Press Book Review by Waka Tsunoda, October 10, 1999
"Gore Vidal is renowned for his literary talent, but what makes him truly special is his ability to ignore the taboos, customs and norms of his time and look at contemporary society with the clear-eyed perspective of an anthropologist studying an ancient culture. This be comes quite evident in "Sexually Speaking," a collection of his essays on gender and sexuality, which have appeared in magazines and new spapers over the past few decades. "The sexual attitudes of any given society are the result of political decisions," he declares. "In societies where it is necessary to force great masses of people to do work that they don't want to do (building pyramids, working on the Detroit assembly line), marriage at an early age is encouraged on the sensible ground that if a married man is fired, his wife and children are going to starve, too. That grim knowledge makes for docility." Witty, acerbic and always original, Vidal knows how to stimulate readers intellectually with his daring mind. "Sexually Speaking" should make a nice companion piece to his much praised, star-studded memoir, "Palimpsest."
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Gore Vidal: Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings
Gore Vidal: Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings,Gore Vidal,Cleis Press,1573441201,American - General,Family/Marriage,General,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Popular Culture - General,Fiction,Literature
Gore Vidal: Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings
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