Topics > The Departed
Tom Wolfe, 88
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Libertas:
I read "Bonfire" for a Lit class as an undergrad, kinda long and didn't care for it too much...but "The Right Stuff" as a book was fabulous, and the movie version not bad either overall.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/obituaries/tom-wolfe-pyrotechnic-nonfiction-writer-and-novelist-dies-at-88.html
Syzygy:
I subscribed to Book Digest, way back when, and a couple of his were featured then: From Bauhaus to Our House, and The Right Stuff.
The former I enjoyed most, since it was all about lambasting modern architecture, and fairly well captured my thoughts on the subject, plus much better stuff, too--stuff that never entered my thoughts...ever.
He was the "fair haired, most favored child," among several professors teaching classes in communications, primarily journalism, that I had the privilege to learn at the feet of (<<<<don't know how he felt about ending a sentence with a preposition). His was a "different...avant garde...gonzo...liberated...blah....blah...blah..." writing style:
"...a BOX...of glass and steel..."
(Used many, many times in "...Bauhaus to ....", to describe, very accurately, I concur, the architecture back then--just look at the Twin Towers.)
And then, he was a bit quirky, or maybe eccentric, what with his rather affected dress and gait. Was he gay? Not that it matters, mind you. Just that I always thought he missed a good chance of being gay, that is, if he's not already (make that "he's" a contraction for "he was", not "he is", please). Quite an odd little man, regardless.
Finally (maybe not an apropos word at this time--FINALly--but I digress...DAMMIT! Done it again.), I'm sitting here looking at one of his final (there's that word again) books, perhaps the penultimate: Back to Blood (2012).
Got it at the Dollar Tree for guess how much. Nooooo...guess again.
Was perusing it the other night--the acknowledgements and prologue--and, seriously, I don't know if I have evolved to such a level of sophistication as he seems to have done over the years. Just a little too "cutsie" for my tastes. And I no longer have the patience to cipher. I'll give it a go, nonetheless...eventually.
But, at least the man wrote, dammit, wrote well on many occasions, and seemed to enjoy his long life. That's a good thing. No...that's a damn good thing.
RIP, Mr. Wolfe.
Libertas:
He definitely set his own course and in America of today that in itself is a lost art in this led-by-the-nose herd society. And there is no doubt the man could write!
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