To me, Tom Wolfe is the archetypal writer - hedonistic, creative, dashing, wry and cutting. The man may be gone, but his genius won't be forgotten.
An incredible and influential writer of Bonfire of The Vanities and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test passed away yesterday. However, Tom Wolfe's linguistic legacy and public persona will live on, inspiring writers for generations.
He understood people, society and the ways things work. Turning them into a wonderful kaleidoscope of prose, described by Joseph Epstein in the The New Republic as:
“His prose style is normally shotgun baroque, sometimes edging over into machine-gun rococo, as in his article on Las Vegas which begins by repeating the word ‘hernia’ 57 times.”
Tom Wolfe is the writer I want to be. I cross between Jack Kerouac, Jean-Paul Sartre and Hunter S Thompson.
He teaches us about ourselves will entertaining. His ideas delight while making us think.
“Sometimes we don't even realize what we really care about, because we get so distracted by the symbols.” The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
