11. Kempton: "Buckley has taken as his the masculine side of the argument and Vidal is as in the feminine." Kempton thought this wrong.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. Kempton perceptively noted that in personality Buckley was more stereotypically feminine: sensitive, sentimental, "womanly"
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. Conversely, according to Kempton, Vidal was more stereotypically masculine: "detached, tough, cold and calculating in battle."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14. Kempton: Vidal controlled the argument by "the incitement of an excess of someone else's false masculinity."
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15. What Kempton said about Vidal versus Buckley also applies to Vidal versus Mailer. Vidal knew how to get under skin of opponents.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
16. What Vidal realized is that violence is failure. Buckley threatened to punch out Vidal & lost. Mailer did head-butt Vidal and lost.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
17. Vidal after being physically attacked by Mailer. "Once again, words fail Norman Mailer."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
18. In sum, Gore Vidal was much more of man than William F. Buckley. This indisputable fact reflects badly on Vidal.
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19. In other ways, Buckley and Vidal reflect the narcissism of small differences: elite, pseudo-aristos, isolationist & Old Right origins.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
20. But perhaps precisely because of their shared origins, Vidal knew exactly which buttons to hit to set Buckley off.
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21. Buckley's weakness was that in his conventional morality he thought he could shame Vidal by calling him perverted, degenerate, & "queer"
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Replying to @HeerJeet
22. Buckley miscalculated. Impressive, radical thing about Vidal was he had absolutely no sense of shame or guilt about his sexual practices
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Replying to @HeerJeet
23. The true extent of Vidal's sexual radicalism has yet to be appreciated. He preceded Stonewall & felt no common cause with "gay rights"
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