The New York Times > Books (original) (raw)

AUDIO

A TimesTalks Event: Tom Wolfe

Elaine Criscione

On March 8, Tom Wolfe talked with John Darnton, the associate editor for special projects at The Times, about his career, his politics and his critique of American literature.

Audio excerpts from the evening's discussion are available below. Requires Real Player.

'The Right Stuff' and the Columbia Disaster (3:04)
"I'll tell you, right through the Apollo program, it was a cowboy program. Anyone who brought up something as insignificant — on the face of it — as foam would be laughed at. It was astonishing, the chances they took."Researching a New Campus Novel (3:04)
"Students, I've found, are eager to talk about their lives. I went to a lot of fraternity parties. Most people had no idea who I was. It was this old guy with a neck tie. But I was too old to be drug enforcement."

Politics and Literature (2:18)
"I think that ... the desire to get it right and the desire to show real characters overcomes everything else."The Responsibility of a Journalist (3:00)
"You have to believe that what you're doing in bringing the news to people ... is more important than anything else. And if you don't, then you really should be in public relations. If journalists are going to flinch at what they see, and try to cover up for people, you're playing false with the people who are reading it."

The State of American Literature (3:42)
"I think any novelist who does not write realistic novels just doesn't understand the age we're in. ... The huge success of [Jonathan Franzen's] 'The Corrections' is an instance in which a writer decided to write on a bigger canvas and to bring more of America into it. That is probably a major reason it was so popular. I think what Franzen did is a good sign."