A review of Gore Vidal's collected sex writings: Sexually Speaking. By Adéle Witchell.

Gore Vidal's 50-year career as a writer, actor, pundit, and senior citizen, has been earmarked by his opposition to religious establishment and moral tyrants.

However, none of his writings have been as controversial as his writings on sex, which is why he had to wait until he was able to collect them into one book. The book - Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings.

The book holds 14 essays and 3 interviews of which the topics range from "Sex and the Law," to "J'accuse!" a piece he published last November.

What's makes his sex writing amazing is the fact that his views have remained fairly constant over the past 50-odd years. In matters of religion, politics, and sex - what he calls "the ultimate politics" - Vidal constantly pushes hot buttons and slays America's sacred cows.

His wit is both thought-provoking and enjoyable, even when his views lean toward being outrageous.

Vidal's essential view on homosexuals - he argues that "they" don't exist - will most definitely upset those who build their lives around the idea of an enduring gay identity.

However, there is more in Sexually Speaking that will upset the other side in America's cultural wars, especially religious fundamentalists who impose their moral world view on the rest of humanity. Vidal claims that they are the ones who, "divide the populations into two teams. One team is good, godly, straight; the other is evil, sick, vicious."

Ofcourse we all know which team Vidal plays for.

an Electronic Mail & Guardian publication

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