Tom Wolfe and his early critics

Tom Wolfe, one of the first so-called "new journalists," published his first book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, in 1965. Consisting chiefly of material previously published in Esquire and The New York Herald-Tribune, Kandy saw Wolfe explore topics ranging from stock car driving to New York nannies in prose that defied all journalistic conventions with its whimsy and its excess. In the Introduction, Wolfe presented a theory which explained the reasons behind both his choice of topics and his explosive style. (The author believed that the Post World War II economic boom had created unprecedented wealth in every level of society, thus eliminating traditional class barriers For the first time in history, significant portions of a nation's culture were emanating from its lower income levels. In order to adequately report on these exotic new phenomena, 'Wolfe chose exotic new modes of expression.

Kandy polarized the critics. But as controversial as Wolfe's writing style seemed to be, the critics were far more concerned with his sociology. Reviews of Kandy were gathered and analyzed for content. It was discovered that critical acceptance of the book was strongly correlated to acceptance of its premise. Those reviewers who agreed with Wolfe's theory also tended to be more adept at untangling the complexities of his style. Those who disagreed or expressed ambivalence seemed unable to understand the context of many of his statements.

The critical debate over Kandy proved to be a paradigm for a larger cultural and economic debate. Kandy was essentially a chronicle of the cultural effects of capitalism, as well as a declaration by the author of its triumph over socialism. Dwight Macdonald, who led Wolfe's detractors, was a liberal and expressed misgivings about this free market place of ideas. C.H. Simonds, the most perceptive of Kandy's supporters, wrote for the conservative National Review and was clearly in favor of cultural choice as manifested in American society.