Remembering Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe in his Manhattan apartment

Tom Wolfe, an iconic figure in New Journalism, was born on this day in 1930. With his passing in 2018, the first wave of Gonzo writers - a term coined around 1970 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe a wing of New Journalism advocates - is all but gone, save for Gay Talese. Wolfe's earlier works seem written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and often involve not only the writer's observation but also his participation. And there are those long daydream passages of vivid description that end with a quick snap back to reality. As he worked more and more in fiction his style retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made his early "journalism" amazingly popular into the 1990's. It's been a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel for Wolfe. He's always seemed quite happy interpreting the American experience as an outsider looking into other worlds. 

Wolfe's last novel, Back to Blood [2012], was only marginally successful and may lead us to speculate on what the future holds for a successful writer whose life has entered the twilight years. Most of us would like to think there is more compelling reading to come from such a wise observer but better we should leave prediction to heaven and immerse ourselves in the great wealth of observation of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us.

These days Wolfe's impact on journalism still make news but I believe we should always remember his entertaining journalism, especially the work that chronicled our cultural history in the critical years from early 1960's to the mid-1970's. In those years he wrote the following titles:

The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
The Pump House Gang (1968)
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
The New Journalism (1974) edited with E.W. Johnson
The Painted Word (1975)
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)


He capped the 1970's with, The Right Stuff, his fascinating look at the nation's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, and the program that put most of them into space. Although he had already achieved fame as a writer the publication of The Right Stuff and the film by the same name that followed in 1983 ensured his place in American literature.

In 2012 Wolfe took on the immigration theme and the Cuban-Americans community dominating the scene in Miami. Back to Blood hit the market with high expectations but performed poorly. This article reprinted from New York Magazine appeared with the release of the novel and remains a pleasing blend of biography and book. In August 2016 he published his last book, The Freedom of Speech, an analysis of the work of Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky.  

In a writing career spanning more than half a century Wolfe left us a personal view of the American scene that, written in the present tense, brings our past alive. I think it's a safe bet that the man who gave us terms including, "the right stuff", "radical chic", the Me Decade", and "good ol' boy" will be read, enjoyed, and remembered for a long, long time.  







Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Wolfe, New York MagazineText:
wikipedia.org

Tom Wolfe: A Participant-Observer Writes About The People Of America

This is the first year we remember Wolfe's birthday without him. His death at 88 in May of last year brought to an end a career that blazed with New Journalism and complex, often controversial, novels. Though he may be gone from the American scene, his perceptive window on late 20th century culture is well worth remembering.

Wolfe's earlier works seem written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and often involve not only the writer's observation but also his participation. And there are those long daydream passages of vivid description that end with a quick snap back to reality. As he worked more and more in fiction his style retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made his early "journalism" amazingly popular into the 1990's.

The author is sartorial splendor in his Manhattan apartment 

Today the first wave of Gonzos - a term coined around 1970 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe a wing of New Journalism advocates - is all but gone with Wolfe's passing.  For him it was a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel.  He was always quite happy interpreting the American experience as an outsider looking into other worlds and he certainly surpassed Thompson and others in his school with a matured Gonzo style.

These days Wolfe's work - especially the novels - still make news but I believe we should always remember his entertaining journalism, especially the work that chronicled our cultural history in the critical years from early 1960's to the mid-1970's. In those years he wrote the following titles:

The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
The Pump House Gang (1968)
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
The New Journalism (1974) edited with E.W. Johnson
The Painted Word (1975)
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)

He capped the 1970's with, The Right Stuff, his fascinating look at the nation's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, and program that put most of them into space. Although he had already achieved fame as a writer the publication of The Right Stuff and the film by the same name that followed in 1983 ensured his place in American literature. 

In 2012 Wolfe took on the immigration theme and the Cuban-Americans community dominating the scene in Miami. Back to Blood hit the market with high expectations but performed poorly. This article reprinted from New York Magazine appeared with the release of the novel and remains a pleasing blend of biography and book.  His last major publication was The Freedom of Speech, a non-fiction work appearing in August 2016. 

Wolfe has left us with a huge amount of literature. Let us immerse ourselves in this great wealth of observations of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us. At least, we'll be entertained by a fine writer/reporter. At most, we'll learn much not only about our cultural history but also ourselves. 

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Wolfe, New York Magazine

Text:
wikipedia.org

Happy Birthday, Tom Wolfe

The author in his Manhattan apartment

His earlier works seem written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and often involve not only the writer's observation but also his participation. And there are those long daydream passages of vivid description that end with a quick snap back to reality. As he worked more and more in fiction his style retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made his early "journalism" amazingly popular into the 1990's. Today the first wave of Gonzos - a term coined around 1970 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe a wing of New Journalism advocates - is all but gone, save for Tom Wolfe who turns 86 today. Wolfe remains it's most famous surviving member in the U.S. It's been a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel for Wolfe. He's always been quite happy interpreting the American experience as an outsider looking into other worlds and he's certainly surpassed Thompson and others in his school with a matured Gonzo style.

Wolfe's novel latest, Back to Blood [2012], was only marginally successful and may lead us to speculate on what the future holds for a successful writer whose life has entered the twilight years. Most of us would like to think there is more compelling reading to come from such a wise observer. Let's hope so, but better we should leave prediction to heaven and immerse ourselves in the great wealth of observation of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us.

These days Wolfe's work - especially the novels - still make news but I believe we should always remember his entertaining journalism, especially the work that chronicled our cultural history in the critical years from early 1960's to the mid-1970's. In those years he wrote the following titles:

The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
The Pump House Gang (1968)
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
The New Journalism (1974) edited with E.W. Johnson
The Painted Word (1975)
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)


He capped the 1970's with, The Right Stuff, his fascinating look at the nation's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, and program that put most of them into space. Although he had already achieved fame as a writer the publication of The Right Stuff and the film by the same name that followed in 1983 ensured his place in American literature.

In 2012 Wolfe took on the immigration theme and the Cuban-Americans community dominating the scene in Miami. Back to Blood hit the market with high expectations but performed poorly. This article reprinted from New York Magazine appeared with the release of the novel and remains a pleasing blend of biography and book. So what does the future hold for a successful writer whose latest non-fiction work, The Freedom of Speech, appeared in August 2016? Most of us would like to think there is more compelling reading to come from such a wise observer. Let's hope so, but better we should leave prediction to heaven and immerse ourselves in the great wealth of observation of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us. 

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

Wolfe, New York MagazineText:

wikipedia.org

Tom Wolfe At 84

His earlier works seem written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and often involve not only the writer's observation but also his participation. And there are those long daydream passages of vivid description that end with a quick snap back to reality. As he worked more and more in fiction his style retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made his early "journalism" amazingly popular into the 1990's.  Today the first wave of Gonzos - a term coined around 1970 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe a wing of New Journalism advocates - is all but gone, save for Tom Wolfe who turns 84 today. Wolfe remains it's most famous surviving member in the U.S. It's been a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel for Wolfe. He's always been quite happy interpreting the American experience as an outsider looking into other worlds and he's certainly surpassed Thompson and others in his school with a matured Gonzo style.

Wolfe's novel latest, Back to Blood [2012], was only marginally successful and may lead us to speculate on what the future holds for a successful writer whose life has entered the twilight years. Most of us would like to think there is more compelling reading to come from such a wise observer. Let's hope so, but better we should leave prediction to heaven and immerse ourselves in the great wealth of observation of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us.

These days Wolfe's novels still make news but I believe we should always remember his entertaining journalism, especially the work that chronicled our cultural history in the critical years from early 1960's to the mid-1970's. In those years he wrote the following titles:

The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
The Pump House Gang (1968)
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
The New Journalism (1974) edited with E.W. Johnson
The Painted Word (1975)
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)

He capped the 1970's with, The Right Stuff, his fascinating look at the nation's first astronauts, the Mercury Seven, and program that put most of them into space. Although he had already achieved fame as a writer the publication of The Right Stuff  and the film by the same name that followed in 1983 ensured his place in American literature. 

American Novelist Tom Wolfe Turns 83

The first wave of Gonzos - a term coined around 1970 by Hunter S. Thompson to describe a wing of New Journalism advocates - is all but gone these days. Tom Wolfe, who turns 83 today, remains it's most famous surviving member in the U.S. It's been a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel for Wolfe. He's always been quite happy interpreting the American experience as an outsider looking into other worlds and he's certainly surpassed Thompson and others in his school with a matured Gonzo style. The stories seem written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and often involve not only the writer's observation but also his participation. And there are those long daydream passages of vivid description that end with a quick snap back to reality.  In addition, Wolfe's style has always retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made such journalism amazingly popular into the 1990s.

In 2012 Wolfe took on the immigration theme and the Cuban-Americans community dominating the scene in Miami. Back to Blood hit the market with high expectations but performed poorly. This article reprinted from New York Magazine appeared with the release of the novel and remains a pleasing blend of biography and book. 

So what does the future hold for a successful writer whose life has entered its descending arc? Most of us would like to think there is more compelling reading to come from such a wise observer.  Let's hope so, but better we should leave prediction to heaven and immerse ourselves in the great wealth of observation of the American experience Tom Wolfe assembled for us. 

His non-fiction is a fine place to start:

The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)

The Pump House Gang (1968)

Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)

The New Journalism (1974) edited with E.W. Johnson

The Painted Word (1975)

Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)

The Right Stuff (1979)

In Our Time (1980)

From Bauhaus to Our House (1981)

The Purple Decades (1982)

Hooking Up (2000)

Credits: Photo: New York Magazine

Tom Wolfe, California, And The Twilight Of The Gonzos

Cover of the first U.S. edition

Hunter S. Thompson coined the phrase "Gonzo journalism" around 1970. The writing style presented stories written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and involved not only the writer's observation but also his participation. The first wave of Gonzos - a wing of New Journalism - is all but gone these days. It's most famous surviving member in the U.S. is Tom Wolfe, who will be 82 next year.   Wolfe's approach to writing has evolved over the years, but it has always retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made such journalism amazingly popular into the 1990s. And it's no wonder that the "wildness" began in California when he penned The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in 1968. Although he would claim New York as "home" almost from that publication date, for the next fifty years he would come to write about the Golden State and its social brand that swept across the nation. Perhaps we are all California now. Regardless, Wolfe's long association with the "island" of California makes for some enjoyable reading in Michael Anton's article appearing in the Autumn issue of City Journal.

It isn't often that OTR can find two of his favorite subjects - Wolfe and California - in a single article. Enjoy.

A New Novel From Tom Wolfe

Photo: New York Magazine                                                                                                                                         

It's been a long way from The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby to tackling the Great American Novel for Tom Wolfe. Granted, that journey hasn't been especially easy for the 81 year-old New Journalism icon, but he's always been quite happy interpreting the American experience from the outside. Wolfe's newest observations take on the immigration theme and the Cuban-Americans community dominating the scene in Miami. Back to Blood hit the market last week. There's been plenty of chatter about the book over the past six months, but this article reprinted from New York Magazine, is a pleasing blend of biography and book. Enjoy

H/T: Real Clear Politics

Summer Reading

OTR's summer reading ended today just three days before the end of summer--Friday, September 23--in the northern hemisphere. He hasn't shared past lists with his Internet readers, but this season's mix has been especially satisfying. Here are the titles listed in the order in which they were read:

Ronald Reagan: How An Ordinary Man Became An Extraordinary Leader, Danesh D'Souza, 1997

Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood, 1945

Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, 1919


Memoirs of An Amnesiac, Oscar Levant, 1965

The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Oscar Levant, 1968

Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, 1934

The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, Terry Teachout, 2001

A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe, 1998

Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952

OTR has no intention of providing tight little reviews here. He will say that reading D'Souza's favorable portrait of Reagan helped fill some knowledge gaps incurred during his "childbearing" years. The Mencken book confirmed Terry Teachout as an outstanding writer. And reading three autobiographical novels--Isherwood, Anderson, and Miller--helped fill a long-standing literary gap. Wolfe was a most interesting read for an Atlanta resident. Chambers's "autobiography" was a difficult read for its detail, frightening revelations, and credibility, As for Oscar Levant, he remains the most under appreciated wit--perhaps entertainer--in 20th century America.

Deconstructing The "Whup Ass"

Victor Davis Hanson dissects the Van Jones mess in this Works and Days post on Pajamas Media. I hear echoes of Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers bouncing everywhere off the edges of Hanson's column. If you're unfamiliar with Wolfe's 1970 classic about the nexus of white liberal guilt and black rage, get your hands on a copy today and prepare to laugh.

Dash Snow: Art Circle Jerk

Dash Snow caught the attention of the art world a few years ago with his headline collages, pictures of oral sex, nude girls, cocaine being snorted off body parts, and "making art by ejaculating on copies of The New York Post." His "art" soon caught on with the patrons who gladly paid five figures to have a Snow in the house. About two weeks ago, he died of a drug overdose at the age of 27, the quintessential up and coming artist.

The New York Times gave him a one-page obituary on July 15 followed by three pages on July 24 delving into his family, his world, his troubled last days, and his "contribution" to art. It reads like a parody. Susan Alexander's opera career comes to mind. It says as much about the state of the Times and the art world as it does about an immensely rich, overindulged, degenerate, angry, lost soul hellbent on self-destruction.

You may ask how 20th century art in the United States got to where it is today. In his wonderful little essay, The Painted Word, written in 1975, Tom Wolfe took art critics and modern art to the woodshed for a good thrashing. Obviously, it was not well received among art circles, but much of what he said has played out into reality in the past three decades.

Basically, his thesis described modern art as having lost all sense of art itself, emerging as theory represented by words spewing from a tight circle of critics. I don't agree with Wolfe completely. We still have "artists" expressing themselves, but it's another world:

"In the beginning we got rid of nineteenth-century storybook realism. Then we got rid of representational objects. Then we got rid of the third dimension altogether and got really flat (Abstract Expressionism). Then we got rid of airiness, brushstrokes, most of the paint, and the last viruses of drawing and complicated designs". After providing examples of other techniques and the schools that abandoned them, Wolfe concluded with conceptual art: "…there, at last, it was! No more realism, no more representation objects, no more lines, colors, forms, and contours, no more pigments, no more brushstrokes. … Art made its final flight, climbed higher and higher in an ever-decreasing tighter-turning spiral until…it disappeared up its own fundamental aperture…and came out the other side as Art Theory! [Wikipedia: The Painted Word]

I'm saddened by Snow's death and angered, first, that there was no successful intervention somewhere in his life, and second, that our society has devalued art so much that talent is no longer required. Today, art happens, anything goes. This is why I draw my Weimar Republic parallels you have read about earlier on OTR.

Credit my daughter with tipping me off to the Instapundit post and its link to Althouse where the comments are a must read.

NASA's Full-Blown Purgatory

Tom Wolfe has an op-ed piece at The New York Times today. My suspicion is they could reverse their financial death spiral overnight by printing more of this quality more often. It may be tough to reverse the stream of leftist drivel one has come to expect after a long gestation beginning in earnest with Walter Duranty in the '30s.

My editorializing aside, Wolfe's analysis of our space program over the forty years following the first moon landing is bold and honest. As the author of The Right Stuff, he is well-positioned to address the place of space exploration in the American psyche. Furthermore, T.S. Eliot told us that old men should be explorers. At 78, Wolfe remains one of our best.

BTW The Right Stuff would make great summer reading this year.

The Loss of Common Culture

If you have followed OTR for awhile, you know I value the understanding and appreciation of popular culture as a significance force in directing our American experience. Popular culture really is an ingredient in the cement which holds the country together. And there was a time when that cement was much stronger than it is today. If you were value programmed after the Vietnam War - let's say born after 1960 - you really don't have much experience with common culture. The "Me Decade," political correctness, multiculturalism/diversity and the neglect of the past have worked to balkanize our culture. You could say common culture became an elective instead of a requirement after Vietnam.

Yes, you could say that I am a product of a required culture. When I was in elementary school in a mill town in Western Maryland, all the students attended a Thanksgiving service at the nearby Presbyterian church, and on class time. My town had a large number of Catholics, some Jews, and probably a few non-believers, not to mention what today would be called satanists, tree-huggers and worse. In the three years we made that trek for Thanksgiving, there was no word of dissent. It was a common experience, and one that I'd like to think was driven by more than our fear of Miss Dowling and her paddle. There were plenty of other cultural requirements throughout my schooling, ranging from playing a musical instrument to attending two years of ROTC at the state's flagship public university. I hadn't planned on it, but I got a liberal education. Sad to say that's no longer the case, not even in public high school. Given the state of Western civilization, a bit of repair on the common culture would be in order. Unfortunately, any large-scale restoration seems highly unlikely. None of us has time to mourn the loss. Keeping a hand on the tiller and sheet is difficult enough these days, even in a small lake.

This topic has been on my mind for several weeks. I chose to write a bit about it today because John Derbyshire referenced it in The Corner at National Review Online. What I didn't expect was finding that most able arts critic, Terry Teachout, at the link. Teachout - blogging at About Last Night - is to the fine arts what Tom Wolfe is to the novel; that is, remarkably observant, readable, and relevant. Derbyshire's sharp as well.