"High standards generally -- about workmanship and creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of art and much else -- far from being snobbish, are required to maintain decency in life.” - Joseph Epstein
As for Vidal and Mailer, not many people can tolerate the arrogant personalities of intellectuals. Thankfully, the FSM board isn't populated by people with the know-it-all attitudes of those guys.
As for Vidal and Mailer, not many people can tolerate the arrogant personalities of intellectuals. Thankfully, the FSM board isn't populated by people with the know-it-all attitudes of those guys.
Right?
Do I detect a note of irony here?
I had a little easier time with Vidal than with Mailer as a talk show guest. Vidal was a clever conversationalist who had a sly sense of humor, whereas Mailer had sarcasm rather than humor, and typically used it to bully or try to damage others. I always felt that Mailer thought much too much of his own intellectual gifts. I will give him credit where due, though. He wrote one of my favorite non-fiction books ever, "The Executioner's Song" (a bio of the infamous Gary Gilmore that was impossible to put down).
