Taking On the Liblits! Wolfe and Crichton Strike!

self | 1/2/05 | LS

[LS]

Last week I posted a thread on Tom WOlfe's new book, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," about life on an Ivy League campus in 2005. There were some great comments (including my favorite, which I don't agree with, that "71-year-old men should not write about 21-year-old girls"). I thought Wolfe captured the tensions of a culturally conservative young woman who found herself totally adrift in a sea of immorality and lunacy pretty well.

The other night, Wolfe was on C-SPAN's "Booknotes" with Brian Lamb. The calls were remarkably level-headed. One caller asked Wolfe about conservatism in his books. He didn't say he had conservative messages, but that everyone assumed that because he poked fun at liberals, which is verboten. But overall he pretty much admitted to being a conservative. He said that at a dinner party, all the Liblits were beside themselves just before the election asking, "What can we do about Bush?" After it went around the table and they looked at Woolfe, he said, "Well, if all else fails you can vote for him." According to Wolfe, "They looked at me like I had admitted to being a child molestor."

At any rate, he had a great comment about "Charlotte Simmons," who is him (which is why I think the 71-year-old man comment doesn't fit): he said "I am Charlotte Simmons. It is a book about a girl who thinks she wants a life of the mind, but in reality she wants to be a star." Does that not sum up the "celebrity culture" that Rush has detailed?

He further went on to detail how, for the first time in his memory, living "legend" authors like John Updike, Norman Mailer, and John Irving publically have attacked Wolfe for his previous hit, "A Man In Full," mainly (in his view) because it sold 1.4 million and they are envious. He refers to them as the "three stooges." Good characterization. He wants to create a "Hippocratic Oath" for writers, with the central principle being, "First, ENTERTAIN." Good advice.

Now I'm reading Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," another book sure to send the Liblits into paroxisms of denial and hate. Crichton's is the first novel I've ever seen with scholarly footnotes! He actually has the scientific papers noted in the book, and he KNOWS THIS STUFF. Forget for a moment the plot, or whether he has a hit as "entertainment." This is going to be a hugely important book because it is the first to really break from the environmental whacko mindset among the Liblits. Moreover, according to Crichton, the studies often have as their conclusions things that are not supported at all in the EVIDENCE! If he is correct, either the scholars themselves, or the journal editors in the abstracts and conclusions actually "massage" the conclusions to a pro-warming message when in fact, overwhelmingly, the science does not come CLOSE to supporting such nonsense.

These authors/books are important. They show a fissure---if a small one---in the monolithic entertainment/literature lobby of the libs, and these men will take some hits. Fortunately for them, they wer prominent enough and wealthy enough that no one can silence them.

Now let's see if Crichton will take on illegal immigration next!

[mainepatsfan]

I wonder if this Crichton book will be made into a major motion picture? I guess it's not that kind of book to begin with but a movie dealing with the books premise would be nice.

[Dave S]

Wolfe also did a half hour or longer interview on Fox News this weekend. I think it was New Years Eve. Interesting guy.

P.s. Im reading State of Fear also and its great.

[bd476]

Great post, and commentary on two favorite authors! Right now I'm reading "Air Frame" by Crichton. He's fun reading and now there's another Crichton book to enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation.

Wolfe is sharp edged, the way an entertaining writer should be. God bless his conservative soul. :)

[bubman]

I got Wolfe's latest for Christmas from my sister-in-law. Lookinf forward to reading it.

[JFK_Lib]

Thanks for the heads up on these tow books; they sound very interesting and deep.

I read Wolfe's 'A Man in Full' and it was fantastic as well as entertaining. He deserved every penny he made off that one, certainly. Through the art of telling an interesting story he presented four contrasting characterizations (stereotypes if you will) of manhood that are quite illustrative and enlightening. Suggestion though if you haven't yet read it, consider 'Zeus' to be code for 'Christ' and I think you will get the full message.

We Christians today do have to go back to using code to represent our bleifs, and Wolfe is the first in a long time I think to have done this to avoid persecution.

Maybe we can also use the Sun to represent the Son, and the Joshua Tree to represent the Cross, but Wolfe has set an example, I think. of how to reference Christianity subtley and not register on the leftist radar..

[late bloomer]

Saw that show on fox,, a whole hour, a fascinating guy.
Really thought his "Bon Fires of the Vanities" said it all for that period.

W. E. B. Griffin, my favorite, has a new one out, "By Order of the President"
It meets the "Entertainment" test.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

I enjoyed "I Am Charlotte Simmons" quite a bit. For anyone who thinks that colleges aren't like this, allow me to assure you that they are. Mine wasn't quite as bad as the book depicted, but most of the description of rampant sex, alcohol, drugs, and childish behavior rang very true. I thought Wolfe explored the issues of a conservative student in a den of liberalism quite well.

[Rockingham]

Tom Wolfe and Michael Crichton are two examples of British Tory Chris Patten's saying that "the facts of life are conservative." They are not conservatives who became writers, but writers whose respect for facts has led them to express conservative views.

A key element of Wolfe's credo as a writer is to make his fiction 'true' by grounding it on observed fact, as if he were a reporter describing what is happening rather than a literary figure spinning a tale. Indeed, Wolfe began as a reporter and was one of the pioneers of the "new journalism" that energized reporting in the 1960's through colorful detail and dramatic stories.

Similarly, Crichton's fiction relies on carefully researched scientific facts. Crichton, who trained as a doctor at Harvard Med, has sometimes anticipated scientific developments that were contrary to expert opinion.

[CasearianDaoist]

Try Wolfe's From Bauhuas to Our House. An abosultue scream, partucularly if you have ever work on "Nan der Roh's Row."

Too funny.

[CasearianDaoist]

Nan = Van

[I_dmc]

Perhaps someone could suggest it to Mel Gibson.

[Mamzelle]

bump

[hershey]

Excellent!

[1john2 3and4]

Bauhaus was very funny. Guy's got a rapier for a pen, that's for sure. Dissects pretentiousness with glee.

[BlazingArizona]

I wonder if this Crichton book will be made into a major motion picture?

My prediction: Hollywood will turn Crichton down, but Mel Gibson will option it and make loads of money.

[BlazingArizona]

Try Wolfe's From Bauhuas to Our House. An abosultue scream, partucularly if you have ever work on "Nan der Roh's Row."

There's another place, perhaps in the same book, where Wolfe refers to "Mies van der Rohe on row" of plastic airport chairs.

[Pete98]

It most certainly "is that kind of book." These days Crichton's books seem to be written like screenplays for the inevitable action movie, which irks me.

Having said that, the book IS important for its relentless skewering of global warming.

[mainepatsfan]

You'd think at some point the Hollywood producers would choose making money over being politically correct.

[CasearianDaoist]

I liked the bit about architects that run academic departments and design building for campuses. There was some sort of presentation (at Harvard, I seem to recall) where the acrhitect was going on about his building. He said something to the effect that the building "was having a conversation with the landscape. Wolfe says something like "whereupon a Harvard logic professor was heard to ask 'just what did the landscape have to say.' "

Too funny.

I like the opening chapter where he describes the feeling corporate chieftains had when they actually occupied these building that no one liked and that they had paid millions for. He says "and it made their heads hurt!"

Gotta love it.