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Inflamed Literary Imaginations
Not everything memorable has found its way into David Talbot’s catchy San Francisco retrospective.
(Page 3 of 3)
“The moment Clark’s feet hit the turf, the crowd exploded as if it had been holding its breath for years…. This was the exact instant of San Francisco’s salvation.”
Although, as it turned out, not quite. The dreaded Cowboys were beaten. But the reality of AIDS still had to be dealt with. Here, quite predictably, looking for a culprit, Talbot turns his attention back toward Ronald Reagan, who is raked over the coals for failing to have led a campaign against AIDS. But with the epidemic raging through the gay bars, bath houses and mens’ rooms, spread by homosexual promiscuity, what could the president-or anyone, for that matter-have done, beyond urging homosexuals to alter their behavior?
Talbot brings his narrative to a somewhat strained close with an old homosexual, dying of AIDS, taking some pills and deciding he’s going to live. But he won’t. The pills to cure it haven’t been found, and HIV transmission is at an all-time high. And as people continue to die, so does the myth of San Francisco as the City of Love, no matter how appealingly packaged by exceptional writers with inflamed literary imaginations.
About the Author
John R. Coyne, Jr. a former White House speech-writer, is co-author with Linda Bridges of Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement (Wiley).
Letter to the Editor View all comments (6) | Leave a comment
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nathan| 8.22.12 @ 9:19AM
Growing up in an industrial town near Cleveland that has since gone into perhaps terminal decline, San Francisco maybe meant a lot to some people but was largely irrelevant to many of us out there.
What's interesting is that the reviewer doesn't mention the impact of what was for my generation the over riding event of our lives, Vietnam. Whether you went or didn't go, it was the frame work of so much of what happened then and even now for us and those people there. For me a life long long conservative from age 11 when I was an vocal supporter of Barry Goldwater, the move from war supporter to a somewhat recent understanding that our involvement was wrong from the beginning has been interesting indeed. But even today current wars like Afghanistan and Iraq get discussed in terms of Vietnam and the failure of the writer to mention that is I think a serious omission.
Petronius| 8.22.12 @ 12:04PM
The Big One can't come soon enough to rid us of that Sodom by the sea. Mencken had it right. "Sin is best left to professionals who know when to play with it and when to leave it alone."
Bob K| 8.22.12 @ 12:28PM
It is not just San Francisco. It also happened in other special areas of the USA.
Charles Murray has a new book out entitled "COMING APART" "The State of White America. 1960-2010." Crown Forum Books, 2012. 407 pages. Copiously supported by statistical charts
It is about the "cognitive elite" who live and work in gated communities in the "super zips" (meaning super zip codes) which are located along the east and west coasts and along the north shore of Chicago.
To summarize it in a simplistic and rather crude way: They have been interbreeding and now have gained even more power over the rest of the country which we know as "Flyover Country."
A worthwhile book to read to understand how we got to where we are now.
Pelleas| 8.22.12 @ 3:13PM
The Book is wonderfully written, and very evocative of a real roller-coaster period in The City by the Bay--I have many fond memories --and some not-so-fond ones, of those days, living in San Francisco--and this book was like a walk down memory lane for me...
BTW-- Hayakawa was the ABSOLUTE WORST President of San Francisco State University, in the history of the California Higher Education System--bar NONE- he is barely remembered-thank gawd- and when his name does occasionally pop up, it is ALWAYS with the utmost of derision ...
SunsetDistrict,Inc.| 8.23.12 @ 2:25AM
The left assassinated SFPD officer Brian McDonnell with a bomb(1979). Black Liberation Army killed SFPD officer (1971). The BLA exploded a bomb at St. Brendan's Church in SF during the funeral of SFPD officer Harold Hamilton. The left pissed down a lot of misery on this town.
Across the Bay in San Quentin the Black Guerrilla Army, Mexican Mafia, & Aryan Brotherhood were all being formed. Sadly for the USA we set the tone for all of you. I apologize.
SunsetDistrict,Inc.| 8.24.12 @ 12:13AM
Vincent Hallinan was a Communist. Containerized freight rendered the ILWU rich, but politically impotent. In 1916 Socialist Agitator, Tom Mooney, threw a bomb on a parade killing 10 & injuring 40. In 1936 the ILWY killed 2 college kids earning extra money unloading ships. ILWU guys were hard muscled thugs you did not want to tangle with. The hippies brought drugs. SF prospers because of it's geography, not because of it's leftism.