Right Stuff is alright, pretty forgettable. I like Electric Kool-Aid Test more. However both are complete fiction; American mythology. Astronauts and the Hippie culture are both psy-ops. Wolf makes up a lot of bullshit for Right Stuff. Like, how the astronauts would all drive around drunk at top speeds. It's just stuff to give boomers a false perception of who their heroes were. You might as well watch First Man by Damien Chazelle, a film that portrays the astronauts as being nagged by their cunt wives. Astronaut media = boomer ball busting.
>astronauts drunk driving
the point of this is to tempt gullible people into injuring themselves. They are making fun of anyone who buys their phony astronaut mythology
Vidal hated transgenders and woman like gays. Myra Breckinridge is a satire of them.
Vidal was a notorious top and basically bisexual.
>I have imagined him doing anal sex. Therefore I cannot trust anything he says!
You are a strange little degenerate.
Every man worth reading was.
That's fucking CRAZY the amount of pro-gay people on this site God damn. Anyone who participates in gay butt sex is so utterly lost mentally that their opinions should be outright discarded. Moments like this really solidify the fact that all the "based" talk on here is sarcastic. You do understand that all that gay shit you do in secret societies isn't to "enlighten" it's to make you a functional eunuch so you serve no threat to anyone.
Anon, you are already a functional eunuch that poses no threat to anyone. Is it because of the gay sex (which explains your insight), or due to other reasons?
The amount of literate homosexuals far exceeds the amount of literate chuds, like yourself.
And I’ll let you in on a little not-really-secret. Most homosexuals don’t do anal sex as often as you fantasize about it. Some none at all. Vidal especially. He and his partner apparently didn’t have sex. Author’s sexlives have little to nothing to do with their work. Stop laser focusing in on people’s anus. You come off as a bit of a homosexual.
Was Wolfe the last American whose literally novel publications were cultural events? Maybe Pynchon, Franzen, DFW or BEE, but they didn’t have nearly the same impact/penetration.
Was going to say Roth, now realise they died within days of each other
Rushdie is the only celebrity novelist left, like a Mailer or a Wolfe. And it's not really because of his books
>As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labelled the "best unknown novelist in America".
>Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; A Man in Full was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on The New York Times' bestseller list for ten weeks.
History didn't stop in 1991. He has done equal or better numbers since and I would easily bet that he has more cultural recognition today than Tom Wolfe ever had.
you probably were too young or not alive in the 60's through 90's to understand how famous Tom Wolfe was.
He was probably the most famous journalist in America along with Hunter Thompson and had his books turn into number one sellers almost immediately, along with constantly being interviewed on television and radio. Cormac is certainly the most American famous author nowadays, and has been since the mid 2000's, but they both certainly had about the same level of fame at their peaks.
Did you live through the 60s? Yeah I wasn't alive back then, but seems really unbelievable that he went from such a cultural force to being sporadically mentioned in public consciousness. Happens to all but was really more popular then Vidal or Mailer? They have adjusted better to the new reading public at least.
6 days ago
Anonymous
I'm old. He was more famous as a journalist/essay writer than as a strict novelist. If that interests you, look up New Journalism on wiki. It's still very influential to journalists today.
6 days ago
Anonymous
>More popular than Vidal or Mailer?
Yes. Sales will attest to that. Meanwhile their names have endured longer, such as Melville being s recognizable figure today despite being a complete nobody during his own era. Will DFW/Franzen/McCarthy/Pynchon be talked about 100 years from now? Maybe. Will Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson? Probably not, even if they are way more recognizable to the general public.
Literally everything about American culture from the 60's to the 80's was created by the CIA. There's a reason those books turned "into number one best sellers immediately" and there's a reason he was given so much air time by TV networks, radio stations, and other journalists.
5 days ago
Anonymous
um actually sweatie its because Tom Wolfe started the new journalism movement and got famous in the 1960's by insulting the New Yorker magazine for being pretentious and middlebrow
Not that you're entirely wrong, the Paris Review took CIA money, for example
You won't get an argument from me about who is the better novelist, but Wolfe's status is almost unthinkable today.
I'm oldfag enough to remember the movie of Bonfire of The Vanities. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith at the peak of their careers.
Griffiths was where Jennifer Lawrence is now.
And yet it was as much a Tom Wolfe movie as it was theirs. The only comparable thing I can think of is Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick was top billing along with Cruise and Kidman.
You ever see that interview where the interviewer asks Trump if he reads and Trump says he read “Tom Wolfe’s new novel” but can’t recall anything about it? It’s funny not only because he obviously is lying but because it speaks to that celebrity you’re talking about.
McCarthy, quite easily. I would say he had a bigger impact than Wolfe whenever he was to release a book.
It's not even close the other way.
>As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labelled the "best unknown novelist in America".
>Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; A Man in Full was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on The New York Times' bestseller list for ten weeks.
You won't get an argument from me about who is the better novelist, but Wolfe's status is almost unthinkable today.
I'm oldfag enough to remember the movie of Bonfire of The Vanities. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith at the peak of their careers.
Griffiths was where Jennifer Lawrence is now.
And yet it was as much a Tom Wolfe movie as it was theirs. The only comparable thing I can think of is Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick was top billing along with Cruise and Kidman.
Kek, this whole time I thought you were talking about my man Gene.
I read it in my late teens and I simply loved it. There were some different story arcs but the one with the "Masters of the Universe" definitely made an impression on me. I could barely wrap my teenage mind around these aliens (Ivy League yuppies) living in a parallel universe (NYC, Wall Street). I distinctly remember a passage that if you were stupid enough not to be a multi millionaire by the age of 30, you were an abject failure. A masterpiece.
Bonfire pushed to boundaries of how openly anti-semitic a high society Wasp in the 80s could be. As a New York City Wasp who remembers the 80s, the book perfectly captures the esprit du temps.
Tom wolfe was a genius. The Pump House Gang in particular is one of the best books ever written about American society. The pieces on Hugh Hefner and Marshall McLuhan in particular were WAY ahead of their time.
archive.org has a free copy if I remember correctly
zesty
his novels are shit; grand theft auto-tier writing
his nonfiction is great (Bauhaus to Our House, Painted Word, Hooking Up, Kingdom of Speech)
How is The Right Stuff?
Great
Right Stuff is alright, pretty forgettable. I like Electric Kool-Aid Test more. However both are complete fiction; American mythology. Astronauts and the Hippie culture are both psy-ops. Wolf makes up a lot of bullshit for Right Stuff. Like, how the astronauts would all drive around drunk at top speeds. It's just stuff to give boomers a false perception of who their heroes were. You might as well watch First Man by Damien Chazelle, a film that portrays the astronauts as being nagged by their cunt wives. Astronaut media = boomer ball busting.
?t=63
>astronauts drunk driving
the point of this is to tempt gullible people into injuring themselves. They are making fun of anyone who buys their phony astronaut mythology
What the fuck are you talking about
Back to Blood was the most enjoyable novel I've read in the past couple of years.
Saul Bellow
50 years is 1973, all the good Bellow novels are older
fair point I counted from his death
Herzog is a steaming pile of crap.
/fa/, please.
Gore Vidal took it up the ass. he was gay. Why would you take anything he says seriously?
Every man worth reading was.
>I have imagined him doing anal sex. Therefore I cannot trust anything he says!
You are a strange little degenerate.
Vidal was a notorious top and basically bisexual.
Vidal hated transgenders and woman like gays. Myra Breckinridge is a satire of them.
He was a top exclusively, tho
They all fags, son
That's fucking CRAZY the amount of pro-gay people on this site God damn. Anyone who participates in gay butt sex is so utterly lost mentally that their opinions should be outright discarded. Moments like this really solidify the fact that all the "based" talk on here is sarcastic. You do understand that all that gay shit you do in secret societies isn't to "enlighten" it's to make you a functional eunuch so you serve no threat to anyone.
Anon, you are already a functional eunuch that poses no threat to anyone. Is it because of the gay sex (which explains your insight), or due to other reasons?
Why do you think gay sex is ok?
The amount of literate homosexuals far exceeds the amount of literate chuds, like yourself.
And I’ll let you in on a little not-really-secret. Most homosexuals don’t do anal sex as often as you fantasize about it. Some none at all. Vidal especially. He and his partner apparently didn’t have sex. Author’s sexlives have little to nothing to do with their work. Stop laser focusing in on people’s anus. You come off as a bit of a homosexual.
You are clearly a fucking fag in self-denial lmao
>CAPTCHA: SKKKJ
>thinks anonymous’ sex life absolves him of his professing to excessive homosexual fantasies
Even the way you type is faggier than Sam Smith.
Who's Sam Smith? One of your gay authors? You know what ass's he's pounding, do you?
Yea, you're definitely a self-hating homo lol
>self hating homo who likes Gore Vidal
Your guesses are pretty amusing. Do you believe them? Do you think they bother me?
Hah
literally who cares about someone sexuality when his works were top notch
He never bottomed, so no, he was not gay.
oh look it's the same guy who always comments "take meds" I was almost missing you for a second there
listen you queer
Was Wolfe the last American whose literally novel publications were cultural events? Maybe Pynchon, Franzen, DFW or BEE, but they didn’t have nearly the same impact/penetration.
Was going to say Roth, now realise they died within days of each other
Rushdie is the only celebrity novelist left, like a Mailer or a Wolfe. And it's not really because of his books
McCarthy, quite easily. I would say he had a bigger impact than Wolfe whenever he was to release a book.
It's not even close the other way.
>As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labelled the "best unknown novelist in America".
>Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; A Man in Full was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on The New York Times' bestseller list for ten weeks.
History didn't stop in 1991. He has done equal or better numbers since and I would easily bet that he has more cultural recognition today than Tom Wolfe ever had.
you probably were too young or not alive in the 60's through 90's to understand how famous Tom Wolfe was.
He was probably the most famous journalist in America along with Hunter Thompson and had his books turn into number one sellers almost immediately, along with constantly being interviewed on television and radio. Cormac is certainly the most American famous author nowadays, and has been since the mid 2000's, but they both certainly had about the same level of fame at their peaks.
Did you live through the 60s? Yeah I wasn't alive back then, but seems really unbelievable that he went from such a cultural force to being sporadically mentioned in public consciousness. Happens to all but was really more popular then Vidal or Mailer? They have adjusted better to the new reading public at least.
I'm old. He was more famous as a journalist/essay writer than as a strict novelist. If that interests you, look up New Journalism on wiki. It's still very influential to journalists today.
>More popular than Vidal or Mailer?
Yes. Sales will attest to that. Meanwhile their names have endured longer, such as Melville being s recognizable figure today despite being a complete nobody during his own era. Will DFW/Franzen/McCarthy/Pynchon be talked about 100 years from now? Maybe. Will Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson? Probably not, even if they are way more recognizable to the general public.
Literally everything about American culture from the 60's to the 80's was created by the CIA. There's a reason those books turned "into number one best sellers immediately" and there's a reason he was given so much air time by TV networks, radio stations, and other journalists.
um actually sweatie its because Tom Wolfe started the new journalism movement and got famous in the 1960's by insulting the New Yorker magazine for being pretentious and middlebrow
Not that you're entirely wrong, the Paris Review took CIA money, for example
You won't get an argument from me about who is the better novelist, but Wolfe's status is almost unthinkable today.
I'm oldfag enough to remember the movie of Bonfire of The Vanities. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith at the peak of their careers.
Griffiths was where Jennifer Lawrence is now.
And yet it was as much a Tom Wolfe movie as it was theirs. The only comparable thing I can think of is Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick was top billing along with Cruise and Kidman.
Movie could be better
You ever see that interview where the interviewer asks Trump if he reads and Trump says he read “Tom Wolfe’s new novel” but can’t recall anything about it? It’s funny not only because he obviously is lying but because it speaks to that celebrity you’re talking about.
Kek, this whole time I thought you were talking about my man Gene.
bump
Murakami in Asia. Cormac McCarthy everywhere else.
Publicity wise, McCarthy never held a candle to Wolfe.
Why do people on this board this McCarthy is a big deal? He’s less substantial than Pynchon even
McCarthy and Pynchon are pretty much the main two American writers. People here also like Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow and Lot get meme'd a lot
>McCarthy and Pynchon are pretty much the main two American writers.
Alive. This is very condemning of American literature. The absolute state.
I mean, writing is a dying form. There's not many true artistes left in any language. Houllebecq sure, Murakami, Marías... then who? Zadie Smith? LOL
Vincent Gallo
>Marías
I think he's dead
Nobody has given a fuck about pynchons since atleast the 80s. Franzen is much better recognized than him today.
Are you retarded, newfag? Literally the most popular literary writer in the anglosphere.
Not remotely
Stop living in your fantasy world.
Cope
Stfu. You are the one coping.
Yikes
Yikes to you, butthurt tranny.
He has sold as well and seems in a better position for posterity.
Journalists don’t write great fiction.
>Bonfire of The Vanities
A masterpiece
Typical israelite York Times artificial hype. Same as that gay novel Tom Hanks adapted about all those fags. Really makes you think.
I read it in my late teens and I simply loved it. There were some different story arcs but the one with the "Masters of the Universe" definitely made an impression on me. I could barely wrap my teenage mind around these aliens (Ivy League yuppies) living in a parallel universe (NYC, Wall Street). I distinctly remember a passage that if you were stupid enough not to be a multi millionaire by the age of 30, you were an abject failure. A masterpiece.
Bonfire pushed to boundaries of how openly anti-semitic a high society Wasp in the 80s could be. As a New York City Wasp who remembers the 80s, the book perfectly captures the esprit du temps.
Tom wolfe was a genius. The Pump House Gang in particular is one of the best books ever written about American society. The pieces on Hugh Hefner and Marshall McLuhan in particular were WAY ahead of their time.
archive.org has a free copy if I remember correctly
Damn, need to read that
I am Charlotte Simons is absolute dogshit, that nigga ain't even in the top 10
"Greatest American novelist" that's not a thing lmao
I only read the painted word.
Also great.
downright peculiar
not even the writer with that name
He wasn’t alive fifty years ago, and the writer in OP goes by Tom — not Thomas
What are the Tom Wolfe power rankings?
>man in full
>bonfire of vanities
>back in blood
>Charlotte Simmons
I think back in Blood is underrated
1. Bonfire of the Vanities
2. Pump House Gang
3.The Right Stuff
4. Charlotte Simmons
5. Hooking Up
every book of his is good though