..."look at me, I know a big word that you probably don't, and I'm going to look down my nose at you..." That's Gore Vidal in a nutshell. Still having self-confidence problems, still trying to deal with them by pretending he's better than everyone else. Pretending that he knew famous celebrities, long since dead, so they can neither confirm or deny. Pretending that he's not responsible for how he's turned out, even though he's old enough to have gotten his life together. What a phenomenal waste.