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The City and the Pillar Free Ebook FREETHE CITY AND THE PILLAR EBOOK Gore Vidal | 240 pages | 02 Dec 2003 | Random House USA Inc | 9781400030378 | English | New York, United States The City and the Pillar - Wikipedia This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? The City and the Pillar Address:. The City and the Pillar is the third published novel by American writer The City and the Pillar Vidalwritten in and published on January 10, The story is about a young man who is coming of age and discovers his own homosexuality. The City and the Pillar is significant because it is recognized as the first post-World War II novel whose openly gay and well-adjusted protagonist is not killed off at the end of the story for defying social norms. It is also recognized as one of the "definitive war-influenced gay novels", being one of the few books of its period dealing directly with male homosexuality. In addition, it was among the few gay novels reprinted in inexpensive paperback form as early as the s. Most modern printings contain the updated text; however, they retain the original title The City and the Pillar. The plot centers on Jim Willard, a handsome youth in Virginia in the late s, who is also a very good tennis player. When his best friend Bob Ford, one year his senior, is about to leave high school, the two take a camping trip into the woods. Both are elated to be in each other's company and, after some moaning from Bob about how difficult it is to get the local girls to have sex with him, the two have sexeven though Bob thinks this is not a "normal" thing for two men to do. Jim, who does not find girls so appealing, hopes Bob can stay and is crushed when Bob The City and the Pillar insistent on joining the United States Merchant Marine. The next seven years of Jim's life will be an odyssey, at the end of which he hopes to be happily reunited with Bob. Jim decides he wants to go to sea too and becomes a cabin boy on a cruise ship after going to New York to look for work. Another seaman on his ship, Collins, goes out with him in Seattlebut is more interested in a double date with two girls than in sex with Jim. The date is a disaster for Jim, who must realize that he is unable to drink enough to overcome being repelled by the female body. When he finally storms out, Collins calls him a queerwhich causes him to think about this possibility. He quits his job, fearing another confrontation with Collins, and becomes a tennis instructor at a hotel in Los Angeles. One of the bellboys, Leaper, whose advances he has spurned previously, introduces him to the circle around the mid-thirties Hollywood actor Ronald Shaw, who immediately takes interest in Jim. Eventually, Jim moves in with Ronald, even though The City and the Pillar is not really in love with him. Their affair is ended when Jim meets the writer Paul Sullivan, who is in his late twenties, at a party. Jim is drawn to Paul because he seems so different from the other, The City and the Pillar stereotypical homosexuals he meets at Hollywood parties, even having married once although that marriage was later annulled. Again, he is not in love with Paul but with his boyhood pal, but he considers Paul adequate for the time being. Paul however, needing some pain in his relationships for artistic inspiration, introduces Jim to Maria Verlaine, who seems to specialize in seducing homosexuals, hoping his relationship will end in a suitably tragic way. Jim does feel vaguely attracted to Maria, but he is unable to perform sexually. All the same, for Paul even an imagined affair of his boyfriend with a woman is as painful as he had hoped and warrants a breakup. This of course also means their separation. Jim gets transferred to a Colorado Air Force base, where his sergeant is clearly sexually interested in The City and the Pillar. But Jim has set his sights on a young corporal. Unfortunately, the corporal does not seem to like him in "that" way, even though the sergeant later seems to succeed with the corporal. Due to the cold Colorado weather, Jim contracts rheumatoid arthritis and is eventually discharged from service. He goes back to New York, where The City and the Pillar meets Maria and Ronald again. Ronald has been forced to marry a lesbian by studio executives to uphold his public image and tries unsuccessfully to become a stage actor. He also introduces Jim to his local friends like an effeminate millionaire. Jim begins frequenting gay bars to The City and the Pillar sexual relief. Later, he meets Paul at a party and the two start an open relationship, not because of passion, but out of loneliness. When Jim finally goes home for Christmashe learns that his father is dead and more alarming to him that Bob has married. Hoping their affair can resume despite this, Jim is anxious to see him again. The resolution of their relationship comes again in New York, where they end up on the bed in Bob's hotel room. But when Jim finally thinks he has attained what he wants and moves closer, grabbing his "sex", Bob panics, is outraged to be thought of as gay, and even punches Jim in the face. The two struggle and Jim wins because he is stronger. In the original version, Jim is infuriated enough to murder Bob while in the revision he rapes Bob and then leaves the room. One major theme is the portrayal of the homosexual man as masculine. Vidal set out to break the mould of novels that up until The City and the Pillar depicted homosexuals as transvestiteslonely bookish boys, or feminine. Vidal purposefully makes his protagonist a strong athlete to challenge superstitionsstereotypesand prejudices about sex in the United States. To further this theme Vidal wrote the novel in plain, objective prose in order to convey and document reality. Two additional themes identified by Dennis Bolin are the foolishness and destructiveness of wishing for something that can never be and to waste one's life dwelling on the past, the second of which is reinforced by the novel's epigraph from the Book of Genesis "But his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. The City and the Pillar sparked a public scandal, including notoriety and criticism, not only since it was released at a time when [5] Looking back in retrospect fromit is considered by Ian Young to be "perhaps the most notorious of the gay novels of the s and s. Vidal himself said "shock was the most pleasant emotion aroused in the press. Vidal was blacklisted after releasing The City and the Pillar to the extent that no major newspaper or magazine would review any of his novels for six years. Subsequently he reestablished a popular reputation and resumed using his The City and the Pillar name. At the time, Christopher Isherwood privately responded to The City and the Pillar novel enthusiastically, whereas Thomas Mannanother contemporary writer, privately responded with short politeness. Modern scholars note the importance of the novel to the visibility of gay literature. Michael Bronski points out that "gay-male-themed books received greater critical attention than lesbian ones" and that "writers such as Gore Vidal were accepted as important American writers, even when they The City and the Pillar attacks from homophobic critics. The book sold well, enjoying several paperback reprint editions; the Signet edition features a cover painting by the notable artist James Avati. InE. In this version, Vidal removed melodramatic narrative, passages of introspection, and politically offensive language and strove to clarify the intended theme of the work. The original edition was divided into two The City and the Pillar "The City" and "The Pillar"; in the revised edition the narrative is continuous. The City and the Pillar is commonly believed that the publishers of The City and the Pillar in its original form coerced Gore to give the original a cautionary ending, but Gore specifically denied this. It was said by Vidal in a NPR interview that parts of the dynamic of The City and the Pillar were softened for the public and applied to the script for Ben-Hur which The City and the Pillar and others were called in to re-work. Hampton Roads, Washington, D. My Dashboard Get Published. Sign in with your eLibrary Card close. Flag as Inappropriate. Email this Article. The City The City and the Pillar the Pillar. The City and the Pillar Cover of the first edition. The Golden Age of Gay Fiction. Martin's Griffin,page 5. Gore Vidal. The Catered Affair I Accuse! The Telltale Clue Danger Climax! Dutton books. Funding for USA. Congress, E-Government Act of Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles. The City and the Pillar using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Roosevelt, Myra Breckinridge. All rights reserved. Flag as Inappropriate This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Email this Article Email Address:. World Heritage Encyclopedia. Cover of the first edition. The City and the Pillar – Hooray For Dead White Males There are several explanations for the reference to "Iram — who had lofty pillars".
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