Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#2I wish it was an audio recording.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#3god bless you smollett for posting this
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#4I wonder if Caro, were he starting today, would write about someone like Zuckerberg: an individual who has accumulated and exercises immense power but who, like Moses, has little accountability.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#5I wish it was an audio recording.
A lot of Caro’s responses are included, almost verbatim, in his more recent book “On Power”: https://www.amazon.com/On-Power-Robert-A-Caro-audiobook/dp/B...
Definitely recommend the audiobook if you haven’t heard it already. Caro’s got a thick Brooklyn accent and a manner of speaking that’s really compelling.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#6I wish it was an audio recording.
A lot of Caro’s responses are included, almost verbatim, in his more recent book “On Power”: https://www.amazon.com/On-Power-Robert-A-Caro-audiobook/dp/B... Definitely recommend the audiobook if you haven’t heard it already. Caro’s got a thick Brooklyn accent and a manner of speaking that’s really compelling.
Agreed. There are also lots of good interviews with Caro on YouTube e.g.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#7I recently finished the audiobooks for The Years of Lyndon Johnson. It was 14 months of on-and-off routine listening.
The thing about these books is not only that they're about a famous person, but that they also are about a person that left a huge paper trail, was extremely social, and died young, leaving lots of people who remembered Johnson and were eventually willing to tell the unflattering stories of his youth. In this way it would stand alone as an incredible literary or investigative portrait of a person. The fact that it covers the central political developments of the United States in the 20th Century is just icing on the cake.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#8I wonder if Caro, were he starting today, would write about someone like Zuckerberg: an individual who has accumulated and exercises immense power but who, like Moses, has little accountability.
The difference is Moses has a compelling story with an interesting clash between his public persona and private demeanor. Zuckerberg, while certainly a good biography subject, doesn't have the same idealist turned corrupt by power story.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#9I wonder if Caro, were he starting today, would write about someone like Zuckerberg: an individual who has accumulated and exercises immense power but who, like Moses, has little accountability.
The difference is Moses has a compelling story with an interesting clash between his public persona and private demeanor. Zuckerberg, while certainly a good biography subject, doesn't have the same idealist turned corrupt by power story.
I suspect that the bigger difference is that the truth about Moses was probably little known at the time - I think most people know the Zuckerberg story by now.
Re: Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut interview each other (1999)
#10I'm a little less than halfway through The Power Broker. It's a riveting read, especially as a New Yorker (quite possibly living in housing built by him!). I suppose I haven't quite gotten to the part where Moses goes full corrupt. From what I've read so far, he seemed utterly vicious, sneaky and deceptive, but also ridiculously competent. Anybody who's had to sit in committees and meetings spinning their wheels, hearing excuses on why stuff can't be done, will likely find something appealing about Moses' sheer ability to get shit done. It'll be interesting to see how that opinion gets revised as the book goes on.
One area that appears to have come under attack is Caro's accusation that Moses deliberately lowered the bridge heights: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-09/robert-mo...
I found it particularly amusing how Moses—"the best bill drafter in Albany" as Caro dubs him—was able to write bills that gave him far more power than the politicians who passed them expected. Indeed one part where he referenced a niche definition of appropriation in an old 19th century bill felt almost akin to return oriented programming!