Gore Vidal (PG-13)

I recently read that the author Gore Vidal stated that in his entire life he never intentionally gave any of his sexual partners any physical pleasure. This strikes me as an absolutely ghastly attitude for a person to take towards sex. Furthermore, seeing as how Mr. Vidal has stated that his life’s philosophy was to “never miss a chance to have sex and never miss a chance to go on television” and I know how much I’ve seen him on television, and as I understand that Mr. Vidal goes both ways, I’m astonished that he wasn’t dead twenty years ago from HIV/AIDS. While Mr. Vidal obviously has extraordinary literary talents, he strikes me as being an incredibly selfish, uncaring individual. And if he’s not a complete sociopath, he’s awfully close.

The polar opposite of Mr. Vidal’s attitude was well expressed by the actor Donald Sutherland in the movie Space Cowboys in which his character Jerry O’Neil was interviewed by Jay Leno. Upon being asked by Mr. Leno if it was true that he had a reputation as a ladies man, O’Neil’s response was “I guess my life’s work is to help women get in touch with their unlimited supply of orgasms.” I find Jerry O’Neil’s outlook infinitely preferable to Mr. Vidal’s.