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Reading an article on the novelist Tom Wolfe, a book review of his new "Kingdom of Speech" (in which he takes on Darwin and Chomsky), I came across an article about Wolfe's literary feud against Updike, Mailer and John Irving, and I want to keep a taste of that one.
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The Wolfe-Mailer feud is by far the oldest and cattiest of the three. As far back as 1989, Mailer remarked: "In my mind, there is something silly about a man who wears a white suit all the time, especially in New York."
Wolfe brushed off the sartorial attack, simply pointing out that "the lead dog is the one they always try to bite in the ass". To which Mailer quickly responded: "It doesn't mean you're the top dog just because your ass is bleeding."
[...]
It is bitter dispute, spattered with the bile of old men with one eye on their rivals and the other on posterity. With the exception of Irving, all of them are in the late evening of their lives and can see the end coming. They are clearly in a rush, anxious to land a few last blows before the question of greatness is taken out of their hands for good.
-- Julian Borger at The Guardian (2000)
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Since this was written, of course, Mailer and Updike have left the field of battle. In the end, I imagine they have left their mark, perhaps not to be ranked among the greatest geniuses of the Ages, but to be remembered and read nonetheless. It's just interesting that Wolfe is now feeling so cocky that he has moved on to challenge the leaders of science. But, then, Wolfe is quoted at the top of the book review as saying, “If you are not having a fight with somebody, then you are not sure whether you are alive when you wake up in the morning.” At 85, it is amazing how much life he does seem to have in him.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The Wolfe-Mailer feud is by far the oldest and cattiest of the three. As far back as 1989, Mailer remarked: "In my mind, there is something silly about a man who wears a white suit all the time, especially in New York."
Wolfe brushed off the sartorial attack, simply pointing out that "the lead dog is the one they always try to bite in the ass". To which Mailer quickly responded: "It doesn't mean you're the top dog just because your ass is bleeding."
[...]
It is bitter dispute, spattered with the bile of old men with one eye on their rivals and the other on posterity. With the exception of Irving, all of them are in the late evening of their lives and can see the end coming. They are clearly in a rush, anxious to land a few last blows before the question of greatness is taken out of their hands for good.
-- Julian Borger at The Guardian (2000)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Since this was written, of course, Mailer and Updike have left the field of battle. In the end, I imagine they have left their mark, perhaps not to be ranked among the greatest geniuses of the Ages, but to be remembered and read nonetheless. It's just interesting that Wolfe is now feeling so cocky that he has moved on to challenge the leaders of science. But, then, Wolfe is quoted at the top of the book review as saying, “If you are not having a fight with somebody, then you are not sure whether you are alive when you wake up in the morning.” At 85, it is amazing how much life he does seem to have in him.
