[lbo-talk] Re: oscars

info at pulpculture.org info at pulpculture.org
Tue Mar 7 08:49:15 PST 2006


At 10:33 AM 3/7/2006, Chuck wrote:


>The other example of this "white suburban fear" genre that I can think of
>is Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities." I remember abandoning that book
>after some scene about a stockbroker whose car breaks down in the wrong
>part of town.

Well, the book's a little more nuanced in so far as it exposes the racism of the character. IIRC, it is never clear that anything bad is going to happen to him, but that his racism and fear, as well as that of his mistress, lead them to run over the kid in their attempt to flee thus setting in motion the guy's arrest and trial.

I remember what struck me about Wolfe was how he set up good capitalism, represented by the main character's father in law, and bad capitalism represented by the main character. Old, good capitalism has values, son. Old, good capitalism makes things. This, even though the guy's an attorney. New, bad capitalism doesn't make anything useful at all and, without that solid ground, it produces people with no values whatsoever, narcissistic individuals who morph themselves to whatever context in which they find themselves, aping Others or what they perceive as others' expecations of them to suit the sitution.

I also recall arguing with a friend that Wolfe was mocking his own role and that of journalism in general via the character of the journalist in the film.

But, like I said, years since I've seen the film.

also, you should just say white fear, since BotF takes place in an urban setting. :)

Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org



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