The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 16, 1979, Page Page 9, Image 9
lom v
By Lehman Stiles
Assistant Entsrlalnmsnt Editor
"The students come in surging like hor
mones. You've heard of rosy cheeks? The:
HAVE them! Here they come, rosy
cheeked, laughing, with Shasta and 7-U]
pumping through their veins, talkinj
chipsy, flashing weaterproof smiles, bur
sting out of their down-filled Squaw Valle;
jackets and their blue jeans ? O immorta
denim mons veneris! ? looking, all of them
boys and girls, Jocks & Buds & Freaks, as i
they spent the day hang-gliding and thei
made a Miller commercial at dusk and ar
now going to taper off with a little Cultur
before returning to the coed dorm . .
Tom Wolfe must have been smiling in
wardly Tuesday night at the Business Ad
ministration Auditorium as he saw th
creatures of his writing pass before hi
ueinusea eyes, ine aown jacxeis wer
missing ? it was warm outside ? but all th
other details were there. Students gathere
disciple-like at Wolfe's feet, crowding th
aisles and the front of the stage, to b
amazed by their own image in the kand>
kolored, wonderfully accurate mirror c
Tom Wolfe.
"You're only going to hear gospel truth,
Wolfe assured as he began his speech afte
an amusing but disjointed introduction b
Columbia Mayor Kirkman Finlay. An
inaeea, ine iaiK ai limes seemed to Decom
an old-time revival meeting. When he talke
of the Third Great Awakening, one wor
dered if Tom Wolfe is not a part of it himsell
If anyone is capable of awakening America
it is this merciless exposer of the preter
sions, this word jockey ensconced in
shining armor of fiery, exclamatior
infested style.
The great temptation is to try to write thi
review in the style of Tom Wolfe: just thro
in an occasional "Golly!" or a long string c
onomatopoeic words like "chikka chikk
chik chik kaCHUNK!" (that's a typewriter
or a breathless stinging wildly accurat
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of incisive humorous familiar universe
HIHHHniHnHflnHHBHiHHi
Volfe pas
ie
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Tom Wolfi
y modifiers. And perhaps that would be ap
d propriate; perhaps Tom Wolfe is as mucl
e an indication of the culture he critiques ai
d disco or Las Vegas or anything else,
i- After all, Wolfe's lecture was on a typica
f. subject for a modern writer: a defense o
l, one of his ideas that had been misin
l- terpreted. Wolfe tagged the 1970s the "M<
a Decade" in his latest book Mauve Glove
l- and Madmen, Clutter and Vine, and hi
complained that the phrase has been takei
s as a synonym for narcissism.
n His evidence was a recent book b;
Christopher Lasch called The Culture c
a Narcissism. Wolfe disagreed with the vie\
) that narcissism has created the culture c
e the '70s ; he called Lasch s book a "moder
n diatribe," which is "taking one's prejudice
tl and biases through the back door of th
By S
Qam?c
Many years ago, I cai
Skelton Show every Tuesd;
In the eight years since
often wondered just what i
Wednesday, I had the oppc
The versatile comedi
tnni-inn f
IVMi lll^ lllv UUUUll J OIIU OV
years and apparently en
Skelton thoroughly sincer
his antics and routines wi
non-stop dynamo of hilaric
Skelton is not just a r
announced as "one of Ame
is the important word to c
not just stand at the mike;
and laugh around the mikt
was enjoying the perform*
He opened the show with
liners inai sei me pace lor
made some opening jokes
packed house to no end.
here," he remarked. "It
finished." Pleased with tl
ded, "I hear the Congarc
week now."
Skelton made a big nairn
by doing the standi
routine. This is a type of hi
rnr*?v? I e\(
11 Will lilt tUlllCU^ UI IUIJ
^ " ~ H brought back memories
H comedy of the Bob Hope-B
am Hick* ? GAMECOCK
'e/je snJ
(
9 and admirers
- university and bringing them out the front in
i the white lab coat of scientific method."
s Wolfe's writing seems to have its own
crazy rhythm, and as he described the kind i
1 of author who criticizes narcissism ? a man <
f with "a thin wife starved to near- <
i- perfection" ? he swayed back and forth at
e the podium in a subtle, cyclical dance to the
s music of his own words. The unabashed
e sincerity ot nis voice polished on the image i
n ? here was a man not only familiar but
totally enthralled with his ideas. It wasn't
y the typical literary conceit, it was . . . well, i
if it was someone who has seen the Light. ,
v Wolfe described the Me Decade as em>f
bodying a "new kind of alchemy ? the
n alchemical idea has become changing your
? personality." The most common way to do
ie this has become through ecstatic religion, a
ikelton: UHE
iwn king
kot Garrick
:ock Staff Writer j- . T
i remember watching The Red
ay night.
the demise of that show, I have
ever became of the comedian. On
rtunity to find out. f
an-pantomime-clown has been
ilected campuses in the past few
i ?... ?f u D?<l
juyiug every iiimuie ui n. ucu 5^2
e about his work. He goes about
th vehemence and ardor; he is a
>us com edy.
outine stand-up comic. He was I - J .
Tica's favorite clowns." "Clown" |:;
lescribe the entertainer. He does S ,
and roll off jokes. He would caper H ; vtf fE
b; he gave the impression that he
nice as mucn as me auuiunce.
i a barrage of short jokes and onethe
remainder of the evening. He
about Columbia that pleased the
"It's a really nice town you got
will be even better when it's iii|i|SpliSW
le response he got to this, he ad- H
ie is running up to three days a
e for himself during World War II I v ^
ip-before-the-troops-pro-America f
imr?r that hac virtiinllv V5ini?h(>H I *4
lay. Watching the performance
of the inane but exhilerating I '
ing Crosby style.
S?9 Skelton, page 11 I - / 'V-".
zid test
phenomenon bom out of the acid years of
:he 1960s. The strength in this ecstasy is the
moral certainty it harbors. "To be con
fronted," Wolfe said, "by someone who says
that he knows what is evil ? it's an overpowering
experience."
In fact, one of Jimmy Carter's biggest
mistakes, Wolfe feels, was his backing away
from the religious surety that swept him
into office. He suggested how Carter should
have responded to Playboy in his interview.
'Your magazine is not journalism ? it is a
household aid."
Although he suggests that there are ways
to lessen religious fervor ? "One way the
West can deal with Ayatollah Khomeini is to
put him on a talk show" ? Wolfe quoted the
ie Toqueville dictum that American
democracy can exist only if held together by
the cement of religious belief.
The evening was almost a born-again
experience. From the jumble of Iran and
Jonestown and disco and the entire scope of
this confused, tom-asunder decade, Wolfe
molds an explanation that, thankfully,
makes sense. He does not so much criticize
as delineate; his insight is so keen that one
can hardly disagree with his conclusions.
This style of comment-through-description
is the highly touted New Journalism, and
Wolfe is the master.
In Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Wolfe
describes a student questioning a panel of
experts who declare the world a terminal
case: " 'Well,' said the boy, 'I'm a senior,
and for four years we've been told by people
like yourself and the other gentlemen that
everything's in terrible shape, and it's all
going to hell, and I'm willing to take your
word for it, because you're all experts in
your fields. But around here, at this school,
?un *u? u: 4 ?ui
iui uic (Mai ivui jrcciia, uic ui^?i pi uuicill,
as far as I can see, has been finding a
parking place near the campus.'"
One wonders: Tuesday night, at the Tom
Wolfe lecture, who was the watcher ? and
who were the watched?
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