To speak today of a famous novelist is like speaking of a famous cabinetmaker or speedboat designer. Adjective is inappropriate to noun.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that labeling a novelist as 'famous' is as unconventional as labeling a cabinetmaker or speedboat designer in the same way.
Gore Vidal's quote implies that the term 'famous' does not truly capture the essence of a novelist's craft, much like it would not be appropriate to describe a cabinetmaker or speedboat designer as famous. This reflects on the nature of artistic expression and how society tends to categorize or elevate certain professions in ways that may obscure their true significance.
In practice
In a discussion about literature, I once quoted Gore Vidal to emphasize how society often mislabels artistic professions.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
It is wrong if nearly every time we hear a black or Asian actor portraying their lives they are actually speaking the words of someone who has never experienced their reality. And to effectively silence disabled people from telling their own truth on film or TV is close to criminal and will not help wider society understand their reality.
As artists, we can help, visually and intellectually, to make people understand that, at some point, we have to accept that it is our collective impact that is putting the whole planet in jeopardy.
Writing, real writing, should leave a small sweet bruise somewhere on the writer . . . and on the reader.
You see a script, and you say, 'Oh, I can play the heck out of that,' talk to your agent, and he says they don't want to see you. That's heartbreaking.
I began reading science fiction before I was 12 and started writing science fiction around the same time.
Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.
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