Tom Wolfe's Works - Article Example

This article analyses the work of Tom Wolfe as an individual narrative nonfiction writer by focusing on his different work, style and critics. Tom Wolfe is an American author and a journalist born on March 2, 1931, best known for his influence and association with new journalism literary movement which use literary techniques in objective. His career as a reporter and writer gained cultural significance in the sixties after he published various books, articles and essays. In 1965, there was a publication of his articles’ collection in his style under the “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” title which marked the beginning of his fame (Clarke, 2010). His second volume then followed in 1968, under the title “The Pump House Gang” (McKeen, 1995). In 1970, Wolfe two essays: “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” where the “Radical Chic” is about a biting account in regard to a party to raise money and the “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” involves use of racial intimidation in order to extract funds from the welfare of the government. Another collection is the “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby”. In 1979, he published “The Right Stuff” that involves American pilots who became first astronauts (Bloom, 2001). Wolfe has also been known in his public disputes and spats in recent years with various writers including John Irving, John Updike, Gore Vidal, and Norman mailer (Ragen, 2002). His essays collection “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” title came out of frustration due to the limitations of traditional practices for expressing the popular culture and societal change during 1960s. He began writing an Esquire magazine article on account of custom car show and hot rod that was run by teenagers with money as well as dedication to style. He discussed his California experiences of viewing cars as work of art as well as meeting people with a dedicated culture based on sex appeal and freedom of automobile. From this story, several important developments were clarified in significance and history of new journalism. That is, there was a growth from free writing in regard to changes in postmodern social world as well as incorporating personal experiences and an informal style. The writing read as if it represented a letter that include thoughts and experiences of a writer, expressing an intimacy with characters as well as the context in which the story evolved. As his groundbreaking work did, the new form developed along the rock-and-roll noise and the sounds, sights and turbulent emotions of the 1960s (Scura, 1990). The move of journalism towards personal voice and form that is more fluid expanded journalistic writing rule to include methods that enhanced more creativity, and blurring boundaries from fiction to nonfiction. In his story about “Kandy-Kolored”, Wolfe self-consciously reflected change that was occurring on his writings and entire journalism. The change called for attention to the potential for creative nonfiction (Kerrane, & Yagoda, 1998). Such important figures as Charles Dickens, William Hazlitt, and John Hersey among others criticised new journalism as diverse and lengthy tradition of literary reportage, but to varying degree, all these writers used narrative nonfiction writing techniques. Wolfe not only wrote some narrative nonfiction that were most influential, but also offered critical examples and commentary as a co-editor. His work greatly influenced the perception and development of nonfiction. He defined new journalism in regard to the strategies of realistic writing that was adapted by nonfiction writers. These strategies include dialogue, scene construction, third person point of view as well as inclusion of status details such as manners mans clothing (Shomette, 1992). Based on style, Wolfe’s famous alliteration, experimental vocabulary, long sentences, pop culture phrases, and unusual punctuation contribute to a feeling that are in his character’s mind and expresses immediacy as well as a spontaneity expression. He remarked that he realised that things like italics, syncopations, exclamation marks and abrupt shifts helped much in providing the illusion of not only a person talking but also a person thinking. For instance, in 1968 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, his explanation on a crowd awaiting the Beatles is described based on different audience’s point of view. His use of onomatopoeia and unusual punctuation draw the readers into the crowd as well as expressing the participants’ tremendous energy. For example, the part of his sentence read, “...that sound he thinks cannot get higher, it doubles, his eardrums ring like stamped metal with it and suddenly Ghhhhhhwooowwwwww, and it is like the whole thing has snapped” (Wolfe, 1972). The use of punctuation marks is a demonstration of Norman’s thinking and it is an intensification of the action throughout the passage. That is, moving from colons, to a number of long dashes as if holding one’s breath, then the “Ghhhhoooowwww” of release as the crowd goes wild. Thus, through undefined punctuation as well as visually audible word, the reader is placed in a sensory world, where we hear, feel, and see as if we are the audience. This is also the case in the “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” first collection in 1965 where some sentences read “There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!), That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!), Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!), Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm).... (Smith, 1965)” His stories in the “Pump House Gang” used the new journalism style which writers like Wolfe, Didion, and Talese Gay worked together to popularize. In his story, Wolfe met with surfers of counter-culture group at the beach in early 1960s. These this group of surfers is the one that inspired him to write his short story. Wolfe these stories, Wolfe use a language, which explodes with words of comic book such as “boing and POW”. He also uses sentences that are stabbed with exclamation points, shot with ellipses, and bombarded with a very long list of anatomical terms and brand names. Some may see his language irritating, but his style led to development of a new journalistic idiom, which acts as a relief from standard journalese. His style was widely imitated and mocked. In the interview with a lot of surfers that were involved in the pump house gang, some of these surfers believe that the characterizations of Wolfe were correct while other surfers claimed that he took liberties with the facts in order to mythologize and embellish the surfers’ lifestyle (Wolfe, 1987). In his story, he does not only observe the lives of more than twenty surfer hipsters and La Jolla’s teen, but he also melds the persona of the surfer hipster into a narrative voice of his voice. Within the story, there are places where the narrator is an outsider, defining terms, putting events in historical context, and judging the actors in the story. Still in the story, there are others places where the narrator is an actor, talking in Mac Meda company’s slang colloquialisms. There is development of a constant tension between voices as he swims back and forth between the perspectives of the youth and his more journalistic tone (Glionna, 1990). The new journalism as a literary genre consists of various technical characteristics: it is creative, artistic, a form of literary reporting based on three traits; dramatic literary technique, intensive reporting as well as generally acknowledged subjectivity reporting. Most of the critical literature is related to a strain of subjectivism, which may be referred to as activism about news writing and reporting. The new journalism is subjective and it emphasises on truth over facts and uses major nonfiction stylists. The writer is the part of the story as much as the subject, thus liking saturation reporting with subjectivity (Gutkind, 1997). However, there were critics about the presence of the new journalism, and its aspirations as the new literary genre. Wolfe also admitted that there were doubts concerning the word “new” as he outlined many forerunners during his introduction to the new journalism. Critics such as MacDonald Dwight said that the new thing in the new journalism was that the pretence of the current writers that they were not writing hoaxes or publicly chitchat, but they wrote the real thing. He also added that another new thing was the public willingness to accept this pretence. The battle between the nonfiction writers and the critics revolve around the question of defining that, which is significant, and worthy of attention and what is significant (Shomette, 1992). However, the supporters argued that the new journalism was based on not distorting the facts, but presenting facts in a more complete way. They said that it may read like fiction, but it is not fiction because it is and should be reliable as most of reportage although it tends to seek more truth than possible by compiling verifiable facts. Traditionalists went further to equate truth and fact in opposition of fiction unreliability. However, in the end, this criticism reveals the power and significance of nonfiction and by going away from the boundaries between fact and fiction, the writers of the form of new journalists, drew attention to literary techniques and led to claiming of an untouchable space for nonfiction writing. Thus, as a narrative nonfiction writer, Wolfe expresses himself by writing either from personal experience or reporting experiences from other people. Wolfe’s style of famous alliteration, experimental vocabulary, long sentences, pop culture phrases, and unusual punctuation contribute to a feeling that is in his character’s mind and expresses immediacy as well as a spontaneity expression. Although this work received criticism, this criticism reveals the power and significance of nonfiction and by going away from the boundaries between fact and fiction, the writers of the form of new journalists, drew attention to literary techniques and led to claiming of an untouchable space for nonfiction writing. References Bloom, H (2001). Tom Wolfe, Infobase Publishing, pg. 193. Glionna, J. M. (1990). An Era Revisited; 25 Years Ago, Tom Wolfe Immortalized a Group of Teens from Windansea Beach in 'The Pump House Gang'; Now, Some of the Gang Recall It With Mixed Feelings". The Los Angeles Times John Clarke Jr. (2009). “The Ultimate Trip: "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" Heads to the Big Screen". Rolling Stone.  The New York Times Kerrane, K., & Yagoda, B. (1998). The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism. New York: Scribner. McKeen, William. (1995). Tom Wolfe, New York: Twayne Publishers,  Ragen, B. A. (2002). Tom Wolfe; A Critical Companion, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Scura, D. (1990). Conversations with Tom Wolfe, (ed.) Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,  Shomette, D. (1992). The Critical Response to Tom Wolfe, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Smith, W. J. (1965). "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby", Commonweal, pp. 670–72. Wolfe, T. (1987). The Pump House Gang. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux Wolfe, T. (1972). The New Journalism: A la Recherche des Whichy Thickets. New York Media LLC, p. 46. Read More

The move of journalism towards personal voice and form that is more fluid expanded journalistic writing rule to include methods that enhanced more creativity, and blurring boundaries from fiction to nonfiction. In his story about “Kandy-Kolored”, Wolfe self-consciously reflected change that was occurring on his writings and entire journalism. The change called for attention to the potential for creative nonfiction (Kerrane, & Yagoda, 1998). Such important figures as Charles Dickens, William Hazlitt, and John Hersey among others criticised new journalism as diverse and lengthy tradition of literary reportage, but to varying degree, all these writers used narrative nonfiction writing techniques.

Wolfe not only wrote some narrative nonfiction that were most influential, but also offered critical examples and commentary as a co-editor. His work greatly influenced the perception and development of nonfiction. He defined new journalism in regard to the strategies of realistic writing that was adapted by nonfiction writers. These strategies include dialogue, scene construction, third person point of view as well as inclusion of status details such as manners mans clothing (Shomette, 1992).

Based on style, Wolfe’s famous alliteration, experimental vocabulary, long sentences, pop culture phrases, and unusual punctuation contribute to a feeling that are in his character’s mind and expresses immediacy as well as a spontaneity expression. He remarked that he realised that things like italics, syncopations, exclamation marks and abrupt shifts helped much in providing the illusion of not only a person talking but also a person thinking. For instance, in 1968 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, his explanation on a crowd awaiting the Beatles is described based on different audience’s point of view.

His use of onomatopoeia and unusual punctuation draw the readers into the crowd as well as expressing the participants’ tremendous energy. For example, the part of his sentence read, “.that sound he thinks cannot get higher, it doubles, his eardrums ring like stamped metal with it and suddenly Ghhhhhhwooowwwwww, and it is like the whole thing has snapped” (Wolfe, 1972). The use of punctuation marks is a demonstration of Norman’s thinking and it is an intensification of the action throughout the passage.

That is, moving from colons, to a number of long dashes as if holding one’s breath, then the “Ghhhhoooowwww” of release as the crowd goes wild. Thus, through undefined punctuation as well as visually audible word, the reader is placed in a sensory world, where we hear, feel, and see as if we are the audience. This is also the case in the “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” first collection in 1965 where some sentences read “There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!), That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!), Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!), Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm).. (Smith, 1965)” His stories in the “Pump House Gang” used the new journalism style which writers like Wolfe, Didion, and Talese Gay worked together to popularize.

In his story, Wolfe met with surfers of counter-culture group at the beach in early 1960s. These this group of surfers is the one that inspired him to write his short story. Wolfe these stories, Wolfe use a language, which explodes with words of comic book such as “boing and POW”. He also uses sentences that are stabbed with exclamation points, shot with ellipses, and bombarded with a very long list of anatomical terms and brand names. Some may see his language irritating, but his style led to development of a new journalistic idiom, which acts as a relief from standard journalese.

His style was widely imitated and mocked. In the interview with a lot of surfers that were involved in the pump house gang, some of these surfers believe that the characterizations of Wolfe were correct while other surfers claimed that he took liberties with the facts in order to mythologize and embellish the surfers’ lifestyle (Wolfe, 1987).

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