美国国家公共电台 NPR Tom Wolfe, Best-Selling Author And Genre-Breaking Journalist, Dies At 88

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Tom Wolfe created a new type of journalism¹ over the course of his half-century career. Wolfe coined phrases that became part of the American lexicon² in such nonfiction bestsellers as "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," his account of fellow author Ken³ Kesey's psychedelic adventures, also "The Right Stuff" about the early years of the space program. Wolfe also wrote the best-selling novel "The Bonfire Of The Vanities." Wolfe died yesterday in a Manhattan hospital of undisclosed causes. He was 88 years old. Tom Vitale has this appreciation⁵.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE⁶: Tom Wolfe was an original. He was a star baseball player in his hometown of Richmond, Va., who had a tryout with the New York Giants. He was a novelist who didn't start with a character or a plot but an idea. In 1987, wearing his signature white suit, Wolfe told me how he began his first novel, a panoramic⁷ story of New York society.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

TOM WOLFE: I looked at the whole city first. And I wanted to do New York high and low. And I figured Wall Street could stand for the high end, and at the low end there would be what you find caught up in the criminal mechanism⁸ in the Bronx. And that once I zeroed in on these areas, I would then find the characters.

VITALE: The novel that grew out of Wolfe's research was the tale of Sherman McCoy, a wealthy bond trader who loses everything after a wrong turn in the South Bronx with his mistress in the passenger seat.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WOLFE: (Reading) Two figures, two young men, black, on the ramp⁹ coming up behind him. Boston Celtics - the one nearest him had a silvery basketball warm-up jacket with Celtics written across the chest. He was no more than five or six steps away, powerfully built. His jacket was open, a white T-shirt, tremendous chest muscles, square face, wide jaws¹⁰, a wide mouth. What was that look? Hunter. Predator¹¹.

VITALE: "The Bonfire Of The Vanities" was a huge critical and commercial success. Tom Wolfe had written the novel from the same you-are-there, stream of consciousness, first-person perspective that he pioneered in his nonfiction 20 years earlier.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WOLFE: I've always contended, honestly, on a theoretical level that the techniques for fiction and nonfiction were interchangeable, and that the things that work in nonfiction would work in fiction and vice¹² versa.

VITALE: Tom Wolfe began working as a newspaper reporter first for The Washington Post, then the New York Herald¹³ Tribune. He developed a unique style, incorporating literary techniques, interior monologues¹⁴, amped-up prose, eccentric punctuation¹⁵. It was called the New Journalism.

LEV GROSSMAN: It was a time when a lot of writers and a lot of artists in general I think were turning inward. And Wolfe didn't do that. Wolfe turned outwards¹⁶.

VITALE: Lev Grossman is the former book critic for Time magazine.

GROSSMAN: He was a guy who was interested in other people - how they thought and how they did things and how the things they did affected¹⁷ the world around them.

VITALE: Grossman says Wolfe not only wrote about other people...

GROSSMAN: He showed us how to walk into a cocktail¹⁸ party, a NASA training center, how to walk down the street and see in the world around us this incredible drama. And "The Right Stuff" was the book for me. It reminded me, in case I'd forgotten, that the world is an incredible place.

VITALE: In 1979, Wolfe published "The Right Stuff," an account of the military test pilots who became America's first astronauts. Four years later, the book was adapted as a feature film.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE RIGHT STUFF")

DAVID CLENNON: (As Liaison¹⁹ Man) Pretty soon every fighter jock, ever rocket ace⁴, every rat-racer in the country will be headed this way, each one of them wanting to push the outside of the envelope and get to the top of the pyramid.

VITALE: In "The Right Stuff," Wolfe popularized the phrase pushing the envelope. The title of Wolfe's nonfiction book about Leonard Bernstein's fundraiser for the Black Panthers, "Radical²⁰ Chic," became a catchphrase for leftist liberals. In a New York magazine article, Wolfe dubbed²¹ the 1970s the Me Decade. Critic Lev Grossman says these phrases became part of the American language because they were dead-on.

GROSSMAN: It was because he was an enormously forceful observer. And he was not afraid of making strong claims about what was happening in reality. And people heard him, and they repeated what he said 'cause he was right.

VITALE: To get it right, Tom Wolfe said, first he did extensive research. Then he made an exhaustive outline.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WOLFE: Then you can - I think you can start having fun. I like to use the technique of what I think of as a controlled trance. I'll actually sit in front of the typewriter, close my eyes, and then try to imagine myself into the particular scene. I give myself a quota²² each day of 10 triple-spaced pages on a typewriter. And that comes out to - for me anywhere from 1,600 to 1,800 words. That's not all that hard to do.

VITALE: All those words started a revolution in nonfiction that's still going on, says critic Lev Grossman.

GROSSMAN: Everything that bloggers have done for journalism - and I personally believe they've done a lot - Wolfe did it first. He did it 30 years earlier. And he did it better. And I think we're still catching²³ up to him.

VITALE: Author Tom Wolfe died yesterday. For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF BILL CONTI'S "THE RIGHT STUFF (SINGLE VERSION)")

1 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

2 lexicon   

n.字典，专门词汇

参考例句：

• Chocolate equals sin in most people's lexicon.巧克力在大多数人的字典里等同于罪恶。
• Silent earthquakes are only just beginning to enter the public lexicon.无声地震才刚开始要成为众所周知的语汇。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 ace   

n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的

参考例句：

• A good negotiator always has more than one ace in the hole.谈判高手总有数张王牌在手。
• He is an ace mechanic.He can repair any cars.他是一流的机械师,什么车都会修。

5 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 panoramic   

adj. 全景的

参考例句：

• Most rooms enjoy panoramic views of the sea. 大多数房间都能看到海的全景。
• In a panoramic survey of nature, speed is interesting because it has a ceiling. 概观自然全景，速率是有趣的，因为它有一个上限。

8 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

9 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

10 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

11 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

14 monologues   

n.（戏剧）长篇独白( monologue的名词复数 )；滔滔不绝的讲话；独角戏

参考例句：

• That film combines real testimonials with monologues read by actors. 电影中既有真人讲的真事，也有演员的独白。 来自互联网
• Her monologues may help her make sense of her day. 她的独白可以帮助她让她一天的感觉。 来自互联网

15 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

16 outwards   

adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形

参考例句：

• Does this door open inwards or outwards?这门朝里开还是朝外开？
• In lapping up a fur,they always put the inner side outwards.卷毛皮时，他们总是让内层朝外。

17 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

18 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

19 liaison   

n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通

参考例句：

• She acts as a liaison between patients and staff.她在病人与医护人员间充当沟通的桥梁。
• She is responsible for liaison with researchers at other universities.她负责与其他大学的研究人员联系。

20 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

21 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 quota   

n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额

参考例句：

• A restricted import quota was set for meat products.肉类产品设定了进口配额。
• He overfulfilled his production quota for two months running.他一连两个月超额完成生产指标。

23 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。