Wednesday, December 6, 2023

RADICAL CHIC & MAU-MAUING THE FLAK CATCHERS by Tom Wolfe

 Tu 12/4/23 

I watched the Netflix biopic on Tom Wolfe and I noticed that I had a copy of one of his non-fiction books in the stacks.

In two days I skimmed to the end of 'RADICAL CHIC' and glanced through 'MAU-MAUING'.

'RADICAL CHIC' is about a party that Leonrd Bernstein ('Stein'! not 'Steen') hosted for the Black Panther Party at his sumptuous townhouse in 1970. Wolfe is explaining the irony of armed radicals linking with some of the richess members of Manhattan's High Society. I thought that he was fair to both parties. 

He draws comparison to Marie Anntoinette's 'love' of the poor. She built a poor farm at her estate so that she could pretend that she was 'one of the people'. 

Wolfe would say that he was 'for the opposition' when asked if he was 'Left' or 'Right' politically. I like that. 

'MAU-MAUING' deals with the corruption in The Office of Economic Opportunities in San Francisco. 

I liked Tom Wolfe's fiction much better, but his non-fiction is well worth a look.   

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