Often called the father of New Journalism, award-winning author and journalist Tom Wolfe will give this year's final President's Lecture at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in Room 101 of the Salomon Center for Teaching. Wolfe is the author of 11 books, including "The Right Stuff," "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," "From Bauhaus to Our House" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities." His newest novel, which he is completing, was tentatively titled "The Mayflies," but Wolfe says "those flies kept making me itch," so he's working on a new title.
In his speech, titled "The End of the Century and the Spirit of the Age," Wolfe will examine the social and moral climate of the last decade and the legacy it has left for the 1990s. Wolfe proposes that if the 1980s were the decade of "money fever," then the '90s are the decade of "moral fever," with debate over moral codes and cultural values taking center stage in national politics.
GSJ writer Linda J.P. Mahdesian interviewed Wolfe via telephone recently and asked him about his upcoming novel, his speech and the current spirit of the age.
Let's talk about this idea of "spirit of the age." Where did it come from?
Spirit of the age or "Zeitgeist" was coined by the German philosopher Hegel. It used to be taken very seriously in the 19th century. The basic idea is that each era has a moral tone that influences the life of every person living in that period, whether the person wants to be influenced or not. It was a hot topic at the end of the 19th century, the idea of the end of the century had a much deeper meaning. There was a spiritual uneasiness spreading across Europe that something fundamental had changed in contemporary life.
Many great thinkers and writers tried to figure out what the spirit of the age was. Nietzsche's proclamation of "God is dead" came out of this period. It strikes me that we're going through a very similar period now at the end of this century.
The term "spirit of the age" is not used much anymore because it strikes most scholars as too vague, yet I think it's a crucial thing to think about right now. There have been a lot of changes on the moral terrain, particularly in the last 30 years. Just think of something like co-ed dorms, which is today just like I-95 - it's there, nobody thinks about it. Just 25 years ago, co-ed dorms was a startling idea, it raised peoples' eyebrows. Now it's taken for granted. That's a huge change in a country such as this.
What makes the 1990s a decade of moral fever?
Partly it's a hangover from the '80s, the decade of money fever. The incredible boon that lasted for 50 years ended in 1991, as we went into this trough. It's not a Depression, but more than a recession. So many standards began to be swept away in the '60s, then it became a tremendous wave in the '80s. It's not just sexual mores; just look at the attitudes toward debt. Twenty-five years ago, many people thought the idea of getting into serious debt was immoral, that you couldn't control your appetite. In the 1980s, those standards were swept away.
Now I think there's a lot of uneasiness about that - you can see it as people search for new religions. But a general fever doesn't mean that anything is going to change; it just means the emphasis is there, that something could change. I don't see any huge change yet.
In terms of your writing, what motivates you?
Some years ago at a conference a student in the audience asked me why I write. I never asked myself that question in my life. I started free associating. I thought of the Presbyterian catechism for some reason. The first question is who created heaven and earth? The answer is God. The second question is why did he do it? It's interesting, the answer is "for his own glory." So I used that as my answer. It was probably a more honest answer than most.
To me the great joy of writing is discovering. I started out as a journalist. I still love the adventure of going out and reporting on things I don't know about. When I wrote "The Bonfire of the Vanities" I headed out as a reporter into areas I knew nothing about - the South Bronx, Wall Street and the court system. That was exciting. Most writers are told to write about what they know. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's rather limiting to put that kind of boundary around one's writing.
With the novel I'm finishing now it's the same thing. I knew nothing about real estate development or banking, nothing about contemporary working-class life. It was fascinating to go out and do reporting.
How would you describe the age we're living in now?
This is such a wild time. We're living in the Rome of the 21st century. I think the 21st century started in 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down. This country is at its zenith. This has been the American century; there's no reason why the 21st century can't be as well. This is a country where practically everyone in the world wants to get in - it's free, wealthy and exciting.
How did you become this Zeitgeist czar?
Thanks for the compliment, could you spread it around? My real interest is in the subject of status, which has to do with how people group themselves, rank themselves. And it's not all about trying to rise to the next level. Many people spend their lives trying to maintain a certain status. Many don't have the slightest desire to move up in the world, just to hang on to what they have. When I wrote "The Right Stuff," I was looking at the status system of pilots, the psychology, how they rank one another in the world they've created - to fly. It's more my love of that subject, not an overarching concern about the Zeitgeist. But if you get into that you can't avoid dealing with the Zeitgeist.
What's going to be the spirit of the next century? Any predictions?
If Nietzsche is right, there's going to be greater and greater despair. He has not been a bad prophet. In 1888 he made his statement about God is dead, and he predicted the 20th century would be one of wars and catastrophes - not a bad prediction. Toward the end of his sanity - he went mad in 1890 and died a few years later - he predicted science, which in the West people had begun to depend on, would in the 20th century begin to self-destruct. That's already begun, there are lots of signs. For instance, there are a lot of serious and seriously regarded European biologists who doubt the theory of evolution. Any American scientist who doubts it is considered a nut. That's not true in Europe. It's amazing when you think of the superstructure of contemporary science that would be undone if that theory were discredited.