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The Right Stuff

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In addition, the British Film Institute published a book on The Right Stuff by Tom Charity in October 1997 that offered a detailed analysis and behind-the-scenes anecdotes. Wolfe decided, he says rather disingenuously, “on the simplest approach possible. I would ask a few astronauts and find out. So I asked a few in December of 1972 when they gathered at Cape Canaveral to watch the last mission to the moon, Apollo 17.” His narrator is part anthropologist, part satirist, part historian, and nothing escapes his eye. Even if you've seen the terrific Philip Kaufman film, I highly recommend reading this ridiculously entertaining and informative book that tells you a lot about the space program, the Cold War, the rise of mass media, gender roles and even (near the end) the race issue. The storyline also involves the political reasons for putting people into space, asserting that the Mercury astronauts were actually a burden to the program and were only sent up for promotional reasons. Reasons for including living beings in spacecraft are barely touched upon, but the first option considered was to use a chimpanzee (and, indeed, chimpanzees were sent up first).

And because, in addition to “courage”, “test pilots” etc, The Right Stuff is all about Wolfe, it exhibits its author’s lifelong – and, let’s face it, southern – quarrel with the New York literary establishment. The Thomas Wolfe Jr, born in 1931, who had grown up in Richmond, Virginia, during the second world war, revered those “adventurous young men who sought glory in war” and who had become fighter pilots. As a young reporter in 60s Manhattan, he found himself an outsider. Towards the record of these pilots’ self-sacrifice and heroism, “the drama and psychology of flying high-performance aircraft in battle”, Wolfe observes, with some dismay, “the literary world remained oblivious”. It reads too novelized, and it’s not a good thing. Somehow these very real people started feeling like characters as Wolfe’s omniscient narration in this persistently slightly frantic anxious style was emphasizing drama and petty rivalries, adding tension where a calm narration would do, unquestioningly putting the reader into each of the astronaut’s heads (chimps included), assuming what went in there, and doing its best to tie most things to that titular “right stuff”. Author Tom Wolfe participates in the White House Salute to American Authors hosted by Laura Bush in the East Room Monday, March 22, 2004. Credit: White House ArchivesThe Right Stuff was published in 1979 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and became Wolfe's best selling book yet. [ citation needed] It was praised by most critics, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. [7] [8] My own husband—how could this be what they were talking about? Jane had heard the young men, Pete among them, talk about other young men who had "bought it" or "augered in" or "crunched," but it had never been anyone they knew, no one in the squadron. And in any event, the way they talked about it, with such breezy, slangy terminology, was the same way they talked about sports. It was as if they were saying, "He was thrown out stealing second base." And that was all! Not one word, not in print, not in conversation—not in this amputated language! —about an incinerated corpse from which a young man's spirit has vanished in an instant, from which all smiles, gestures, moods, worries, laughter, wiles, shrugs, tenderness, and loving looks— you, my love!—have disappeared like a sigh, while the terror consumes a cottage in the woods, and a young woman, sizzling with the fever, awaits her confirmation as the new widow of the day. The following appeared as themselves in archive footage: Ed Sullivan with Bill Dana (in character as José Jiménez); Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khrushchev embracing at a review, joined by Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, Kliment Voroshilov, and Anastas Mikoyan; Lyndon B. Johnson; John F. Kennedy; Alan Shepard (in Kennedy footage); and James E. Webb, director of NASA during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Absolutely first class . . . Improbable as some of Wolfe's tales seem, I know he's telling it like it was.” — The Washington Post Book World In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen wrote: "When The Right Stuff takes to the skies, it can't be compared with any other movie, old or new: it's simply the most thrilling flight footage ever put on film". [4] Gary Arnold in his review for the Washington Post, wrote: "The movie is obviously so solid and appealing that it's bound to go through the roof commercially and keep on soaring for the next year or so". [35] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby praised Shepard's performance: "Both as the character he plays and as an iconic screen presence, Mr. Shepard gives the film much well-needed heft. He is the center of gravity". [43] Pauline Kael wrote: "The movie has the happy, excited spirit of a fanfare, and it's astonishingly entertaining, considering what a screw-up it is". [44] The last part of the book slows down some again, but does have it's definite highlights, such as the "astronaut charm school" teaching such indispensable knowledge as what way your thumbs should be pointed, should you ever put your hands on your hips. (Which, as we all know, probably should be avoided altogether). Another great part is the failed Yeager attempt to set a new altitude record for the souped-up version of the F-104 fighter plane.The Right Stuff is a manly book about manly men, an unapologetic ode to the “single combat warriors” that made America’s first forays into space. There are times the mythmaking is so intense it almost feels tongue-in-cheek. Nevertheless, it is clear that Wolfe is enamored of his subjects, and desperate to understand what allows them to function at such high levels right at the edge of the envelope, where a single muscle twitch can mean death. Explorations of masculinity might feel out of step with the times, but Wolfe's fervent, unapologetic embrace of his themes somehow – by dint of its own manic energy – achieves timelessness. Another test pilot highlighted in the book is Scott Crossfield. Crossfield and Yeager were fierce but friendly rivals for speed and altitude records. Programs Learning resources Plan a field trip Educator professional development Education monthly theme

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