Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tom Wolfe Has Died

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 116 posts

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#31

Post by teachrdan »

swampthinker wrote: post #3

I have to admit, I've never read a Tom Wolfe book. Does anyone have some good recommendations?

I'd immediately recommend Bonfire of the Vanities. It perfectly captures NYC in the 80s: the racial divides, the wealth inequality, and the many ways individuals cross race and class lines. And his vivid description of how bond traders make insane amounts of money (for the time) is unforgettable.

Frankly, Bonfire is worth reading just for unforgettable lines like this one: "If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#32

Post by pboutros »

segmondy wrote: post #19
wallflower wrote: post #12

I remember discovering "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" in my high school library. I eventually stole it by taking out the plastic-encased metal security dingy and devoured it more. I read it over and over until the paperback fell apart. It introduced me to a world so foreign and sparkly and rusty dangerous and yet so real. RIP Tom Wolfe for bringing us into your worlds of observation and intrigue.

You denied other's the chance to do the same. You need to make amends.

"Repent, sinner!!!"

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#33

Post by iamben »

swampthinker wrote: post #3

I have to admit, I've never read a Tom Wolfe book. Does anyone have some good recommendations?

Bonfire of the Vanities. It's a wonderful book. But I'll second pretty much any of the other recommendations here as well. He's wonderful author.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#34

Post by shampto3 »

hcurtiss wrote: post #22
nautilus12 wrote: post #10

So this is one of the people thats responsible for urging journalists to be less objective? Could explain why journalistic integrity is such a mess right now. I didn't even know there was such a movement.

Where did you get this impression of Wolfe?

While I may not agree with the parent's comment, it appears he is referring to the term "New Journalism" which encourages a subjective point of view. This term was apparently "codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe" [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Journalism

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#35

Post by sjm-lbm »

hcurtiss wrote: post #22
nautilus12 wrote: post #10

So this is one of the people thats responsible for urging journalists to be less objective? Could explain why journalistic integrity is such a mess right now. I didn't even know there was such a movement.

Where did you get this impression of Wolfe?

I could see that as a bad description of New Journalism (a term coined by Wolfe), which is usually pretty subjective.

The problem here is that New Journalism was never really meant to replace more traditional journalism, is generally considered to have died out well before the current era of curated "journalism" designed to confirm one's beliefs, and, well was nothing like contemporary "fake news" anyway.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#36

Post by krylon »

macintux wrote: post #27
rhapsodic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Hollywood turned the book into a terrible movie that ruins the story; I would avoid the movie if you have any interest in reading the book. I saw the movie when it first came out but never read the book. I thought the movie was good and couldn't understand why it got so many bad reviews. What made the book so much better?

I can't speak to either the movie or the book, but I've found it interesting that whenever I see a movie before reading the source, I'm pretty happy with the movie, but rarely am I satisfied with the movie when I've read the book first. The subtle nuances and key moments that I love are rarely translated to the screen. It's perfectly understandable, because they're two very different forms of fiction and the movie ra…

I had the experience. When I see the movie first, it is alright, but when I have read the novel first, the movie is usually disappointing.

(So far, I have had one exception: No Country For Old Men - I think the movie captures the book just perfectly.)

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#37

Post by orblivion »

jgrahamc wrote: post #4

Years ago when I was living in the Bay Area, Tom Wolfe was hanging around doing research for a book on Silicon Valley. The rumour was that he left with the opinion that nothing interesting worth writing about happened there.

Mike Judge has it covered.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#38

Post by slimshady94 »

teachrdan wrote: post #31
swampthinker wrote: post #3

I have to admit, I've never read a Tom Wolfe book. Does anyone have some good recommendations?

I'd immediately recommend Bonfire of the Vanities. It perfectly captures NYC in the 80s: the racial divides, the wealth inequality, and the many ways individuals cross race and class lines. And his vivid description of how bond traders make insane amounts of money (for the time) is unforgettable. Frankly, Bonfire is worth reading just for unforgettable lines like this one: "If a conservative is a liberal who's been m…

I don't remember much of Bonfire, but I definitely remember a specific paragraph in which almost every noun and verb was preceded by the adjective 'f*ing'. Very vivid yet puzzling for a young kid.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#39

Post by dctoedt »

matthewmcg wrote: post #24
hangonhn wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another vote for this one. Also Chuck Yeager is the most badass pilot that ever piloted anything that flies. They also made a movie out of the book. It's decent but the book is amazing.

Second the recommendations. However for a counterpoint on Yeager’s role in the NF-104 crash described at the end of the book, see this account from a trainer involved in the program: http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_12.html

And this, about the investigation and a supposed cover-up of alleged pilot error by Yeager: http://www.kalimera.org/nf104/stories/stories_13.html

(Although one never knows whom to believe when reading self-justifying finger pointing like this.)

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#40

Post by JackFr »

mikepurvis wrote: post #16
cs702 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read "Bonfire of the Vanities" many years ago, and thought it was fantastic -- does an incredible job of portraying the different social/ethnic/economic groups in New York during the 1980's, and how these groups view, think about, and interact with each other. Hollywood turned the book into a terrible movie that ruins the story; I would avoid the movie if you have any interest in reading the book.

It's very funny and engaging, but I first read it young enough that I still expected that kind of story to include some kind of redemption and turn-around— in reality the characters (esp Sherman) basically spend the whole time making a bad situation worse and worse and worse, continuing to double down on their mistakes and ultimately bury themselves. Not that this is at all bad, but it was a change from what I was ot…

It was astonishing that the movie was so bad.

The book was pure capture-the-moment 1980's New York City, and the movie captured none of that and featured Tom Hanks' worst work since Bosom Buddies.

Post reply on HN