MY LETTER TO GORE VIDAL

Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams (1948)

TO:
Gore Vidal
Doubleday
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 10036


Dear Mr. Vidal,

I want to write to you before you leave this world. I know that these words (or anything) will not shock you.
If not…what does shock you these days?
(Besides the continuing self-destruction of the United States of Amnesia)

I have always had my English classes read Visit to a Small Planet.
I just ordered a signed first edition (hard back).

I’ve always wondered:

Was Kreton a pun on the word cretin?

Did you have in mind the Roswell crash when you wrote VTASP?

These are perhaps silly questions, but I always bring them up in my English classes.

Best wishes
& Sincerely,

M.L. Squier [My published name]

I am a scribbler of political satire and serious and silly poetry @mad plato [Just Googling those two words will “take” you to my blog called Letters from Mad Plato/www.madplatonews.blogspot.com
Better yet, type [Google] these words:
VERBAL BLUNDER

Also, type [Google) ALPHABET POEMS. These are my intellectual, brainy, show-off egotisms


P.S.
I don’t think I can say that I am a “groupie” (as they’re called) or a fan of many living writers…in fact, only two come to mind…just you and Bob Dylan.

I’ve never read any of your historical novels, but I’ve read nearly all of your essays and novels.
One of these days I shall read your Creation, which I should have done a long time ago. It sits in my garage while I go to my high school to babysit my English classes.

P.S.S.
I just finished reading Hitchins' piece in Vanity Fair. He's a big, jealous show-off. You are a show-off, too, but you have always had more to say and show.
The Truth always hurts.
You have always told the Truth.
I admire you greatly.
Thank you.

Mad Plato