Wolfe, Tom (Vol. 2) - Wolfe, Tom 1931–
Wolfe, Tom 1931–
American New Journalist, author of such Pop-Mod essays as those found in Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 15-16.)
For Wolfe, as for any satirist, manner is matter. To reduce his scenes to message is to miss both his point and his quality. Still, given the high-voltage polarity of the age, Wolfe is already being unfairly abstracted for message and misread something like this: the black movement is a put-on; the poverty program is a feckless giveaway; white liberals are pure patsies. As a result, he will endure not merely the embarrassing approval of the Neanderthals ("You see! you see!") but the threat of stoning at the hands of enraged reformers and black extremists alike. When a Time reporter recently asked a minister of the Panther Party's shadow government about the truthfulness of Wolfe's Radical Chic account, the reply was ominous: "You mean that...
[The entire page is 1590 words long]
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