
Parry and Thrust: On Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley - lermontov
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/rivalry-feud/parry-and-thrust
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aguynamedben
There's a great movie called "Best of Enemies" about their rivalry and the
impact of their televised debates. It's on Netflix. It's a 94% on Rotten
Tomatoes. Definitely worth watching.

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swingline-747
[https://www.netflix.com/title/80038199](https://www.netflix.com/title/80038199)

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swingline-747
Gore Vidal had a great quote that sets the context for partisanship: _" There
is only one party, the Property party, with two wings... D and R."_

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B1FF_PSUVM
I'm fond of his formulation "our owners".

P.S. trying to get a quote for that, I found this, which looks interesting:
[https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-gore-vidals-
cliffside-p...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-gore-vidals-cliffside-
palace-of-sex-scandal-and-celebrity)

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glangdale
They neglect to mention that when Mailer decked Vidal (I think calling it a
fight is an exaggeration), Vidal, still on the floor, is reported to have
retorted: “Words fail Norman Mailer yet again.”.

They do manage to keep his commentary on Capote's death ("A good career
move").

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DoctorNick
Nothing typifies Buckley's conservative intellectual schtick more than him
saying "queeah" in that mid-atlantic accent.

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nervousvarun
Was a horrible thing to say, but the context is rarely fully explained. Vidal
called him a "nazi" first.

He served in the U.S. Army in WWII and was a member of Franklin Roosevelt's
honor guard...so that probably was a pretty "deep cut" as an insult for
someone with his military background.

Again doesn't make it right, but probably safe to say for him it was not the
same as calling someone that from r/The_Donald in 2018.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley_Jr).

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lsd5you
He is not a Nazi because he fought against them, but someone who had the same
views as him today simply would be labelled a Nazi (or at least Nazi
sympathizer) by many in the current environment. Strange times.

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gadders
I like that Buckley called his book about letters to the National Review
"Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription" [1]

[1]
[https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cancel_Your_Own_Godda...](https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cancel_Your_Own_Goddam_Subscription.html?id=XeY3DgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y)

