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January 16, 2004

Book Review: Radical Chic & Mou Mouing the Flak Catchers

Coming off the heals of the Dharma Bums, which I still must write about, I decided to read some lighter fare. I didn't know what to expect when I started into Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic & Mou Mouing the Flak Catchers. What CAN one expect when cracking the pages of a book with a title like Radical Chic & Mou Mouing the Flak Catchers.

The only other Wolfe book I've read was The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which catalogs the rise and fall of the Merry Pranksters, a 60s communal style group started and lead by Ken Keasy, author of One Flew Over the Cookoos Next. In the few years since i've read that book I've thought a lot about what it has to say about movements, how they start, what makes them successful, and why most of them fail miserably. Specifically, liberal, anti-system type movements. I appreciated it for giving an impassioned, emotionally attached look at this history, while not being so biased as to downplay the reality based, dirty underside of the movement. Wolfe was able to give objective honesty to a topic he clearly had subjective and emotional feelings about. That said, Radical Chic is a very different type of book. While the book is purely historical in nature, it does not pretend to be objective.

When most straight (in the classical sense) people see Tom Wolfes titles, they probably assume they are made up on the spot as some vague 'in' reference to something in the book. How can a title like that have truly relevant meaning? This is simply not true. What is so great about Wolfe's titles is that you need to read the book to understand them. Once complete, the titles are as clear as day. They are not symbolic or culturally ambiguous such that only someone 'in the know' could understand. They are only vague to those who haven't read the book.

Radical Chic is a reference to a style prevalent among the culturati of the 60s. This group, represented classically as New Money, is determined to show that they 'get it' and to that end spend gobs of money to show the world they are down with the people. Nostalgie de le boue or Nostalgia for the mud is explained to have always been chic for New Money going back hundreds of years. The first half of the book is dedicated to a party given by Leonard Bernstein in the late 60s as a fundraiser for the Black Panthers, attended by The Black Panthers and other members of the new aristocracy. White servants are in, as are fund-raisers for romantic, exotic, yet far-away causes. It is important that these causes be far-off so as not to feel their impact 'underfoot' as it were. At this same time, during the late 60s, the wealthy begin to get lambasted for their, clearly stylistically selfish, sudden interest in helping the helpless. Clear to editorial writers anyway. Clear that this sudden philanthropic interest by the rich is merely a fad just like bell bottoms and zoot suits.

The second half of the book is about Mou Mouing the Flak Catchers. Minority groups around the country began to rise up in direct conflict throughout the 60s. The Power (the government) was completely unprepared to handle this. The most they could do was try and reason with the 'leaders' of these movements. Trouble was, few of these movements HAD real leaders. This idea was unacceptable to The Power at the time. There HAD to be leaders. So they subconsciously, collectively decided to wait for these leaders to approach them through current inter-city government programs of the time. How would they know if you were a leader? You were a leader if you scared them personally enough. It wasn't long before the black, ghetto inhabitants began to realize what was going on, and figured out how to play the game to their benefit. They would march down to city hall, dressed as 'ghetto' or as 'militant' as they could and SCARE the officials in these organizations. This process of playing to the ignorant beliefs the whites had of the blacks to scare them into believing you were a leader, in order to get grants was what was called Mau-Mauing in the streets. If you pulled a crazy enough stunt and scared them enough, they would assume you had street credit and give you money and/or power. Overnight hundreds of groups with names like, The Youth Coalition, The Mission Rebels, The New Thang, Young Men for Action, New Society, and many more had suddenly formed to try and get their piece of the pie. To work the system that had worked them over all this time. The Flak Catchers were the underlings of the people with power who were sent out on behalf of The Power to stall and, in general, catch flak.

The story itself awarded a fascinating glimpse into The System of the 60s. It is both historically interesting (while biased) and educationally useful when trying to get a handle on how The System thinks. Besides the educational value of the book, Tom Wolfe is a literary genius. His use of meter and his command of the language make his books more like poetry than prose. If Wolfe wrote volumes about nothing, he would still be worth reading. Some authors have a way of inflicting sudden euphoria on its readers when they unexpectedly 'get' the FULL meaning of a phase that reveals volumes of hidden cultural and historic meaning in just a few beautifully worded, carefully written words.

Posted by wonko at January 16, 2004 10:00 PM

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