Truman Capote

Bad Gays

Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

History

4.6 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2020

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Born in a violent and difficult childhood in the American South, Truman Capote would rise to the highest levels of literary celebrity, praise, and fame: even joining the highly-exclusive jet set of 1960s and 1970s high society. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel". His works have been adapted into more than 20 films and television dramas. But Capote would be pursued by demons throughout his life – alcoholism, other forms of addiction, and crippling self-doubt which would end up leading him to destroy his own social reputation. Visit our website at badgayspod.com for an episode archive, T-shirts, and a link to our Patreon. ----more---- SOURCES: Als, Hilton. “The Shadows in Truman Capote’s Early Stories.” The New Yorker, October 13, 2015. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-shadows-in-truman-capotes-early-stories. Capote, Truman. Answered Prayers. Reissue edition. New York: Vintage, 1994. ———. Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories. Reprint edition. New York: Vintage, 1993. ———. In Cold Blood. Reprint edition. New York: Vintage, 1994. ———. Other Voices, Other Rooms. Reprint edition. New York: Vintage, 1994. Clarke, Gerald. Capote: A Biography. Illustrated edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Bad Gaze, a podcast all about complicated and evil queer people in history. My name is Hugh Lemmy, I'm a writer and author.
0:22.6	And I'm Ben Miller, a writer, researcher and member of the board of the Schfoolers Museum in Berlin.
0:27.6	Last week we talked about a socialite and critic in New York in the 1920s and 30s, Carl Van Wecht.
0:33.6	Who are we talking about today, Ben?
0:35.6	Well, I'm going to start our conversation today
0:37.9	by reading something that was written by this person.
0:44.4	Somewhere in this world, there exists an exceptional philosopher named Flory Rotondo.
0:50.4	The other day, I came across one of her ruminations printed in a magazine devoted to the writings of school children.
0:56.0	It said, if I could do anything, I would go to the middle of our planet Earth and seek uranium, rubies, and gold.
1:02.0	I'd look for unspoiled monsters. Then I'd move to the country. Flory Rotondo, age eight.
1:08.0	Flurry, honey, I know just what you mean, even if you don't.
1:11.5	How could you, age eight?
1:13.2	Because I have been to the middle of our planet.
1:15.4	At any rate, have suffered the tribulations such a journey might inflict.
1:19.2	I have searched for uranium, rubies, gold, and en route have observed others in those pursuits.
1:24.1	And listen, Flory, I have met unspoiled monsters.
1:29.3	Spoiled ones, too, but the unspoiled variety is the Rara Avis, white truffles compared to black, bitter wild asparagus,
1:34.9	as opposed to garden grown. The only thing I haven't done is moved to the country.
1:40.1	I just read the beginning of the first chapter of the last unfinished novel of today's subject,
1:45.0	the writer Truman Capote.
1:46.0	Born in a violent and difficult childhood in the American South, he would rise to the highest
1:51.0	levels of literary celebrity, praise, and fame, even joining the highly exclusive jet set of
	...

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