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"At Home in Washington, D.C." (1982) Summary and Analysis
Vidal recalls his boyhood in the nation's capitol and reflects on its growth from a small town to an overwhelming empire. Vidal observes that "empires are dangerous possessions, as Pericles was among the first to point out. Since I recall pre-imperial Washington, I am a bit of an old Republican in the Ciceronian mode, given to decrying the corruption of the simpler, saner city of my youth."
For example, Vidal recalls when his blind grandfather, Senator T. P. Gore from Oklahoma, took him to a slum area of the city and told him that the land had originally belonged to the Gore family. Unable to visualize the land beneath the crumbling red brick buildings, Vidal says he was "not impressed;" but the Gores were an Anglo-Irish family originally from...
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This section contains 253 words (approx. 1 page at 400 words per page) |
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