Know Your Enemy

Tom Wolfe (w/ Osita Nwanevu) [TEASER]

Jan 1, 2024

Osita Nwanevu, writer, discusses Tom Wolfe's work, exploring wealth, consumerism, and subcultures in America post-World War II.

03:06

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Osita Nwanevu

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Quick takeaways

Tom Wolfe's prose style reflected a lively yet often lazy conservative mind that made sense of America's garish and dismal present.

The host admires the cultural shifts in America after World War II, exploring subcultures and recognizing the complexity of post-war transformation.

Deep dives

The Fascination with Cultural Changes

The podcast episode delves into the perspective of wealth and consumerism, highlighting the negative aspects associated with them, such as narcissism. However, the host of the podcast also expresses genuine admiration for the cultural shifts occurring, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. The hot rod culture and rock and roll, for instance, are praised for their innovation. Las Vegas is described as a spiritually vacant place, yet the host marvels at the aesthetic developments it brings forth, labeling it as something new and unique to America. Overall, the episode explores how these changes reflect a shift in American life after World War II, with the host not being easily classified as a conservative.

Exploring Wealth, Consumerism, and Subcultures in America

3min

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Writer Osita Nwanevu joins for a rip-roaring conversation about legendary prose stylist, "new journalist," and novelist Tom Wolfe. Reviewing a new documentary about Wolfe ("Radical Wolfe" on Netflix), Osita writes, "Behind the ellipses and exclamation points and between the lines of his prose, a lively though often lazy conservative mind was at work, making sense of the half-century that birthed our garish and dismal present, Trump and all."

Answered herein: is Tom Wolfe a good writer? What kind of conservative is he? How does his approach compare to other "new journalists" like Joan Didion and Garry Wills? And what's the deal with the white suit?

Further Reading:

Osita Nwanevu, "The Electric Kool-Aid Conservative," The New Republic, Jan 5, 2023

Tom Wolfe, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby," Esquire, Nov 1963.

— "The Birth of ‘The New Journalism’; Eyewitness Report," New York Magazine, Feb 1972.

— "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s," New York Magazine, June 1972

— The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)

— A Man in Full (1998)

— The Kingdom of Speech (2016)

Peter Augustine Lawler, "What is Southern Stoicism? An Interview with Professor Peter Lawler," Daily Stoic, March 2017