United States: Essays 1952-1992 - "Visit to A Small Planet" (1957) Summary & Analysis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 129 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of United States.
Study Guide

United States: Essays 1952-1992 - "Visit to A Small Planet" (1957) Summary & Analysis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 129 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of United States.
This section contains 233 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the United States: Essays 1952-1992 Study Guide

"Visit to A Small Planet" (1957) Summary and Analysis

Vidal reflects upon the impact of television and the movies on literature, even on playwriting, and finds the outlook not sanguine. For one thing, declining literacy rates mean that publishers now seek more than ever "the crudely recollected experiences of non-writers" rather than the polished works that come from a skilled writer and form a body of work "to be enjoyed by the common reader in continuity." Vidal estimates that the impact of the visual media has been to atomize any fixed set of common experiences or reference points that form the basis for readership of the novel.

A man who becomes a werewolf in Manhattan, Vidal's first play, has, he hopes, been consigned to the dustbin of history. His second, presented to Tennessee Williams in 1948, was declared one of the...

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This section contains 233 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the United States: Essays 1952-1992 Study Guide
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