2006-04-04 - 2:58 p.m.

Monogamy, Mon Amour

This recent Los Angeles Times interview with Gore Vidal will interest Huntington greatly, I'm sure. Per his (Huntington's) recommendation, I still have Vidal's novelizations Burr and Lincoln on my "to read" list, though after this article, I'm more interested in The City and the Pillar. He's someone I don't know much about, and this article has really piqued my interest.

I really, really (I mean it, really) liked the following excerpt from this current Vidal interview:

He's dallied with plenty of men, and some women, over the years � more than plenty � but none, except that first, was of lasting import. His relationship with Auster was platonic; which is exactly why it endured, says Vidal.

"In any country on Earth but the United States, people would understand this," he says. "For grown people, [sex] is something apart from living with somebody; it's just a disturbance." But people in the States "want total fidelity from the other person, and as much sex as they can get on the side. Preferably in a massage parlor. We are not," he says, turning for emphasis, "regarded as brilliant by other people."

I'm not sure I agree 100% with this sentiment, as it seems a bit cynical (and I am never cynical, nor do I condone cynicism...), and I'm not sure that other cultures (at least Western ones) are as blas� about fidelity and affaires de c�ur as this seems to imply. However, I do agree with the idea that we tend to be preoccupied with fidelity � physical and mental � in a way that seems way too influenced by daytime soap operas.