Writes Tim McGraw:

Hi Lew,

I’m about 1/2 way through the Gore Vidal video. It’s fun to watch. Lots of wit and back room stories about politics and celebrities. The beautiful people are on display.

James Jones wrote in “From Here to Eternity” that the enlisted men had more interesting lives than the officers in the Army. Jones was right.

Men like Gore Vidal, who were born into Old Money, don’t live interesting lives. Gore did serve in WWII. His good friend was killed on Iwo Jima. The patrician class did fight in WWII, but they haven’t since. After that, Gore wrote his books and went to Hollywood to write teleplays and movie scripts. Faulkner told Gore not to take movies seriously. So books are to be taken seriously? Are they not all entertainment?

Stories are what we are, and that’s true. Does it matter if the story is on a screen, a page, or told in person?

Gore and his celebrity crowd seem to me to be trying too hard to live interesting lives. They live in fancy homes. Drive fancy cars. Throw expensive parties. And live in an echo chamber.

Workers, entrepreneurs, millionaires, and billionaires who had nothing and worked hard to get by or to the top lived interesting lives. Folks like Gore Vidal, who are born into money, can try all they want, but after a while, their witty comments go stale. Their parties become parodies (I’ve catered at some of these parties in this SF Bay Area.) They talk of fancy wines and expensive vacations in fashionable places. They occasionally trade partners and make lawyers rich while giving the group something to discuss. They run for public office as a hobby. People like Gore Vidal make me sad. Life doesn’t exist on the printed page or in a fancy Italian villa with a view.

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia