Public Figure Profiles

Gore Vidal

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and essays interrogated the social and cultural sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He twice sought office—unsuccessfully—as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the U.S. House of Representatives (for New York), and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate (for California).

A grandson of a U.S. Senator, Vidal was born into an upper-class political family. As a political commentator and essayist, Vidal's primary focus was the history and society of the United States, especially how a militaristic foreign policy reduced the country to a decadent empire. His political and cultural essays were published in The Nation, the New Statesman, the New York Review of Books, and Esquire magazines. As a public intellectual, Gore Vidal's topical debates on sex, politics, and religion with other intellectuals and writers occasionally turned into quarrels with the likes of William F. Buckley Jr. and Norman Mailer.

As a novelist, Vidal explored the nature of corruption in public and private life. His style of narration evoked the time and place of his stories, and delineated the psychology of his characters. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), offended the literary, political, and moral sensibilities of conservative book reviewers, the plot being about a dispassionately presented male homosexual relationship. In the historical novel genre, Vidal recreated the imperial world of Julian the Apostate (r. AD 361–63) in Julian (1964). Julian was the Roman emperor who attempted to re-establish Roman polytheism to counter Christianity. In social satire, Myra Breckinridge (1968) explores the mutability of gender roles and sexual orientation as being social constructs established by social mores.: 94–100  In Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984), each protagonist is presented as "A Man of the People" and as "A Man" in a narrative exploration of how the public and private facets of personality affect the national politics of the United States.: 439 : 75–85

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Some of their strengths

Gore Vidal has many admirable traits.

Based on spiritual traditions from around the world, they are someone who can be described as Energetic, Intelligent, Imaginative, Practical, Brave, Honest, and Generous.

Intelligent and Inquisitive

According to Mysticism’s Astrology tradition, Gore Vidal is someone who is an intelligent, inquisitive, and imaginative person, who is practical, considerate, kind, and diplomatic in dealings with others. A person who is a bit of a "lone wolf".

Active and Precise

Based on Daoism’s Ba-Zi or ‘Chinese Zodiac’ tradition, people who know Gore Vidal well know them as someone who can be tough, active, and sharp, like a sword.

Ambitious and Forceful

According to Hinduism’s Jyotisha or ‘Vedic Astrology’ tradition, many would also describe Gore Vidal as someone who is ambitious, hard-working, determined, and intelligent.

A person who has a knack for identifying opportunities, has amazing concentration and focus, who can work independently, who likes starting new things, and who is somewhat of an intellectual.

Influential and Dynamic

Based on the Mayan Tzolk’in or ‘Mayan Astrology’ tradition, Gore Vidal is someone who tends to be focused on spreading ideas, information, and activities.

They are also someone who is intuitive, imaginative, and an agent of change, and who is always dreaming of life's great possibilities and partnering with people to try to achieve those possibilities.

Justice-seeking and Peaceful

According to Judaism’s Kabbalah tradition, Gore Vidal tends to be someone who loves peace and is ready to go to any costs to achieve it. Who has a taste for the good things in life, tends to be a good organizer, has a thirst for knowledge, and who tends to have the respect of friends and acquaintances.

Some of Gore Vidal's challenges

While Gore Vidal has many strengths, nobody is perfect. They also have some challenging traits they need to manage.

For example, Gore Vidal can be Short-tempered, Hesitant, Narcissistic, Impulsive, Complicated, Brusque, and Relentless.

Hesitant and Narcissistic

One of Gore Vidal's key challenges is that they are someone who can be hesitant and narcissistic.

Gore Vidal must also exercise caution as they can be short-tempered and aggressive, and can be excessive and unrealistic.

Relentless and Inflexible

Gore Vidal is someone who can be relentless, obsessive, and inflexible, who can be confrontational with work colleagues, can have difficulty communicating feelings and be somewhat reclusive, and who can be self-destructive, overindulgent, and extravagant.

Pleasure-seeking and Indecisive

Finally, Gore Vidal also can put others first too much, and hem-and-haw too much when making a decision.

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