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Tom Wolfe Has Died

nytimes.com

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Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#51

Post by olivermarks »

carbolite103 wrote: post #9
swampthinker wrote: post #3

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

I might start with 'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby' which is a collection of his essays. The first chapter of 'The Right Stuff' is worth reading by itself. The rest of the book is fascinating but drags on a bit in the last third. My favorite is 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test'. I haven't gotten around to reading 'Bonfire of the Vanities' however so I can't really comment on that.

'The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby' absolutely blew me away as kid in the UK - tremendous verve in Wolfe's writing, wonderfully descriptive and illuminating and contributed not insignificantly to my life long love of car culture... I agree with Calrbolite103, a very accessible starting point to Wolfe's style in short chapter/article/stories. Most of what he wrote was great IMO, most especially about the late 60's to the 80's...

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#52

Post by o_____________o »

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.

Creative Nonfiction[1] typified by Wolfe, Gay Talese[2] and their ilk is not at all similar to what I think you're referencing in our current climate of agenda-porn masquerading as news

From TFA:

> In an author’s statement for the reference work World Authors, Mr. Wolfe wrote that to him the term “meant writing nonfiction, from newspaper stories to books, using basic reporting to gather the material but techniques ordinarily associated with fiction, such as scene-by-scene construction, to narrate it.”

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_nonfiction

[2] https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a638/frank-sinatra-has...

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#53

Post by dash2 »

mcenedella wrote: post #11

Radical Chic: http://nymag.com/news/features/46170/ At 2 or 3 or 4 a.m., somewhere along in there, on August 25, 1966, his 48th birthday, in fact, Leonard Bernstein woke up in the dark in a state of wild alarm. That had happened before. It was one of the forms his insomnia took. So he did the usual. He got up and walked around a bit. He felt groggy. Suddenly he had a vision, an inspiration. He could see himself, Leon…

That's amazingly good (and long) and lots of it still seems relevant today.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#55

Post by hinkley »

orblivion wrote: post #37
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.

Journalists and satirists have a very different definition of 'interesting'.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#56

Post by MisterTea »

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.

Information wants to be free.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#57

Post by hsljekskfh »

quantumofmalice wrote: post #42

Very sad to hear. His book "From Bauhaus to Our House" changed my life, finally giving me a plausible explanation as to how we managed to create such a horrific built environment post WW2.

this is my favorite wolfe as well. i was taking undergrad classes in architecture and my dad gave me the book. it made me realize that all my classes were avoiding the negative or downright stupid aspects of modernism.

my favorite part was how mies van der rohe liked buildings that looked “authentic” with undecorated steel beams visible, but because it was against the fire safety code in the usa he just glued some i-beams to the side of his chicago skyscrapers. the guy literally decorated buildings to represent a lack of decoration. this is the guy famous for the slogan “less is more.”

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#58

Post by tnolet »

For anyone remotely interested in the sense and nonsense of modern art amd and architecture I strongly recommend Wolfe's "The Painted Word" and "From our House to Bauhaus". Both extremely funny and sharp.

Re: Tom Wolfe Has Died

#60

Post by tnolet »

quantumofmalice wrote: post #42

Very sad to hear. His book "From Bauhaus to Our House" changed my life, finally giving me a plausible explanation as to how we managed to create such a horrific built environment post WW2.

I love that book! Was actually compulsory reading during my art history studies.
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