Article: The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Two Cheers For Tom Wolfe

In his memorable introduction to The New Journalism, a 1973 collection of classic magazine pieces, Tom Wolfe declared that modern American fiction was dead. The novel had lost touch with its roots, he wrote, with the "joys of detailed realism and its strange powers." Wolfe thought the new king of letters was journalism, which could provide the texture and in sight of Dickens or Dostoevsky with the added benefit of being true.

For young journalists, this was intoxicating stuff. Why feel guilty about that abandoned novel in the desk drawer? The future was in reporting. And reporting was suddenly more than just relevant or fun. ...

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