'The liberal elite hasn't got a clue'

The Guardian (U.K.) ^ | 11/01/04 | Ed Vulliamy

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Whoa!
Totally awesome.

[Nonstatist]

Wolfe is great; an honest writer of fiction.

[Wonderama]

ping

[Bahbah]

Bump to read later.

[Rummyfan]

Wolfe is one of the best American writers working today, if not the best. I advance-ordered my copy yesterday.

[Cicero]

Tom Wolfe was one of the few writers who nailed the counterculture where it hurt way back when. His article on "Maumauing the Flak Catchers" was priceless.

[Republicanus_Tyrannus]

He's what I would call an ordinary, old school liberal.

That's to say, the kind who thinks. Rare since Truman.

[ClaudiusI]

That would've been a lot better if the writer could shut the
hell up between quotes.

[Skip Ripley]

Why do so many writers engage in that sort of ego-driven babble? When will they realize that no matter who much they pontificate, no one will think they are as prolific as the subject they are interviewing?

[spodefly]

BTTT

[SuziQ]

I would vote for Bush if for no other reason than to be at the airport waving off all the people who say they are going to London if he wins again. Someone has got to stay behind."

Nah, they lied about leaving after the last election, they'll lie again this time!!

[monkey]

Parting cordially, it seems strange that such an effervescent maverick, such a jester at the court of all power - all vanity, indeed - should so wholeheartedly endorse the power machine behind George Bush.

Spooky, almost, this Halloween how oblivious a writer can be ("wholeheartedly endorse") to his own bias, even when writing about it.

Wolfe is mostly a social critic, not deep (and no one today is deep) but well-written. The Right Stuff was probably his best and The Painted Word his worst.

Yes, the sex is shocking. As is the end of marriage, the aggressive acceptance of homosexuality, the collapse of religion as the basis for life, the rise of short attention spans, the weight gain, the end of literature, the fragmented image that greets us daily, the widespread (internet) written word conversations for the first time in history, the generally hypnotic culture. Somewhere, someone is looking at Wolfe and shrugging, write all the books you want. Someone should be, anyway.

[Thud]

ping

[RightWingAtheist]

Bibliopath ping

[RightWingAtheist]

A great non-fiction writer as well. His pieces on E.O. Wilson and Robert Noyes (the unheralded "godfather" of the transistor)are some of the best pieces of science writing of the century (so far).

[hobson]

read later

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

I think support for Bush is about not wanting to be led by East-coast pretensions. It is about not wanting to be led by people who are forever trying to force their twisted sense of morality onto us, which is a non-morality.

Wolfe nails it.

[Tax-chick]

Thanks for the ping ... Wolfe has class!

[vannrox]

"Here is an example of the situation in America," he says:

"Tina Brown wrote in her column that she was at a dinner where a group of media heavyweights were discussing, during dessert, what they could do to stop Bush. Then a waiter announces that he is from the suburbs, and will vote for Bush.

And ... Tina's reaction is: 'How can we persuade these people not to vote for Bush?'

I draw the opposite lesson: that Tina and her circle in the media do not have a clue about the rest of the United States.

You are considered twisted and retarded if you support Bush in this election. I have never come across a candidate who is so reviled. Reagan was sniggered it, but this is personal, real hatred.