"Messiah" by Gore Vidal. NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1954. First edition. Jacket design by William Metzig
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
"Messiah" by Gore Vidal will arouse anger and resentment in many people, it will shock them as "The Way of All Flesh" shocked them when it was first published; it will arouse argument and controversy, such as raged around Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984;" it will grip people while they read it and it will make them think.
Brain washing has become a recognized weapon; will soul washing come next? Will all the isms besetting humanity drive it into the arms of a new Messiah? Can television, advertising copy and high pressure publicity by exploiting man's inward religious urge lead him to anything, even death in preference to life? Can this happen here? Can it happen now?
These are some of the basic elements which make "Messiah" by Gore Vidal an absorbing, frightening and stimulating experience. This extraordinarily imaginative novel has a story of motion and action told in simple, economic words; it satirizes men and techniques, ridiculous in themselves, yet sinister in their intent and singleness of purpose; it gives a horribly real and vivid picture of a world that may come.
"Messiah" by Gore Vidal. NY: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1954. First edition. Jacket design by William Metzig
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
"Messiah" by Gore Vidal will arouse anger and resentment in many people, it will shock them as "The Way of All Flesh" shocked them when it was first published; it will arouse argument and controversy, such as raged around Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984;" it will grip people while they read it and it will make them think.
Brain washing has become a recognized weapon; will soul washing come next? Will all the isms besetting humanity drive it into the arms of a new Messiah? Can television, advertising copy and high pressure publicity by exploiting man's inward religious urge lead him to anything, even death in preference to life? Can this happen here? Can it happen now?
These are some of the basic elements which make "Messiah" by Gore Vidal an absorbing, frightening and stimulating experience. This extraordinarily imaginative novel has a story of motion and action told in simple, economic words; it satirizes men and techniques, ridiculous in themselves, yet sinister in their intent and singleness of purpose; it gives a horribly real and vivid picture of a world that may come.